Artsy stuff at 2 AM Pacific Standard Time

[tickyhead]

Alright, the last time I posted in the art section of the forums was way back when the old forum was the only forum. I figure I'm due for another round.

So the past three nights I've stayed up late enough to send my dad off to work (he leaves at 4:30 AM) working on an updated layout for my website. I want to lengthen the ranting space and add a place where the newsbox and other things (those much talked about Project Wonderful ads mayhaps?) can have their own place without being squished into a tiny blurb. But this isn't about the layout, or else it'd be in the web design section.

So, first a little back story.

As none of you know, all of my previous layouts have been heavily art based, some to the point of making the site completely unusable. But it is an art site, after all. More recently it's also become the home of a specific pirate by the name of "Pirate B" who's become a sort of unoffical mascot, and who tagged along with the compass logo that I've used ever since she first showed up. What started as just another character for another layout became an entire other story in my head, where the pirate had a crew of quirky characters, and each character had a story, and they all sailed around in the good ol' ship called Mystik Skies. Eventually one of the crew members managed to show up alongside Pirate B in the latest MS layout, a glimpse at exactly how odd the rest of her crew is. The newest layout that I'm cooking up gives you more than just a glimpse, but has a nice little pin up of the whole crew (well, all the ones that matter anyway).

And so after all that, here's the art piece in question: the work in progress picture of the new layout. (it's fairly big, so 800x600ers, if you still exist, beware!) Note that I haven't finished her bandages, or her pants, or her sword, or even started on the other characters, though you can see the quick doodly-things of them in the back.

comparing it to the original pictures of Pirate B, and even the latest incarnation on the website, I really feel that I've improved at least a little bit art-wise. Sure her right arm is essentially a lump, and her left arm has some pretty wonky proportions, but at least I've gotten a little better at coloring.....right? I even used a different shading style than I usually do. 80% of the time I pick a dark color, paint it over everything on a new layer in photoshop, and mess with the opacities. This time I actually picked out the colors (as you can see by the crazy swatch collection I have). I even added detail to her eyepatch, which puts me somewhere between a perfectionist and completely anal... Also, no more anime halo-hair! Holy forks!

anyway, mostly I'm bored and a little stuck (I need to finish coloring her, but at the same time I want to start drawing the other characters, but at the same time I don't want to screw them up over and over and over....) so I'm just posting this to waste time and possibly get some feedback. I won't guarentee I'll listen to anything you say, but knowing it for the future would be nice

Also, quick tidbit: the sword she has is actually strongly based on a pair of cutlasses I bought on eBay a while back. Fun.

Also also, sorry if my rantings are a bit unreadable tonight. Lately I've been waking up early for a job, but now that that's over I'm slowly becoming a night owl again....and the transition isn't exactly smooth.

[Xepher]

Yeah, definitely improving, and you seem to also know where your own weak points are. Practice, as they say, makes-you-spend-a-lot-of-time-and-effort-to-become perfect. :-)