Can someone tell me whether using square brushes in photoshop for painting is actually impossible cause tilt is the only setting I found that somewhat works at preserving the shape of the brush regardless of what way you move the pen and even that works really terribly. I hate using round brushes to shade. I don't understand why I feel so frustrated when doing digital work it didn't use to feel so weird before
[QUOTE=inebriaticxp;44701320]back again, with more on that story i've been working on
this right here is absolutely nothing concrete, i'm basically linking my running outline
i want to write this up as a threateningly big book, and i'm also talking to an artist buddy of mine, we're gonna try and get a comic going, start selling them to local comic shops if it turns out good
so yeah, if you want to read the book part, scroll to the bottom, past all the outliney bits
[url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/v24cxyfx90ko0u5/ANDROMEDA.docx[/url]
any criticism you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated![/QUOTE]
Another author-in-working here.
1: Try not to create 'mary sue'-esque races. Every race should have their own pros and cons. If there was one race that had superior traits above others, how come they haven't driven all other sentient races extinct? Their ancestors would have seen them as a threat before society emerged from chaos.
2: Try to use more 'normal' names. By normal, I mean that something that you won't need to explain how to pronounce. Sure, since it's a fantasy setting, you can use things that are a bit more out of the norms but still, try to avoid long names with rare consonant/vowel combinations ('tk', for example). It really creates bizarre things when you have Chiczhul conversing with Tomas. Perhaps I can let it go because of the cross-cultures, but just take note of it.
Do note that names go through a roughly 100-year cycle of popularity. Some names die out, some don't.
3: Plot.
Try to keep your plot straightforward and free of clutter.
The problem with plot is that the plot needs a great clause. IE: Eragon strives to overthrow Galbatorix. The people from 'Tower of God' strive to climb the tower. The nations of man strive to prevent Sauron's attempt to invade and rule over Middle Earth.
The problem with plot is that it's pretty much hit or miss. I started my own book with a carefree make-it-up-as-you-go plot which I soon realized was getting me nowhere. I've now been creating an overarcing plot, but even that, to me, seems a bit wobbly.
4: Magic.
Magic is... a rather complicated thing to work with.
The first thing you need to decide is why it exists. Do the Highborn use magic to do the mundane/work usually done by machines? If so, then it should be reflected in their society (no machines, everything is magic-powered, etc).
Generally, I've seen magic used in one of two ways:
1: Everyday work. Think of how it's used in Harry Potter to do normal housechores. Wizards find it normal to cast spells at school and at home, etc. Some light novels (mostly translated from japanese) tend to have spells like this, and casting magic is seen as normal and nothing extraordinary. People in these universes tend to all have at least a little bit of magical potential.
2: Something arcane, ie Lord of the Rings and typically more European books. They paint magic as a sort of venture into the unknown, and wizards are very rare to come by, generally powerful, and shrouded in mystery and superstition. The average person in these universes generally have no magical potential at all.
Eragon gets a special mention here. Imo, Paolini did a poor job creating the world of spellcasters. Du Vrangr Gata is composed of quite a large number of spellcasters even when the book says that human spellcasters are rather rare, and I felt like it made it a bit unrealistic. However, it might've been because Eragon didn't spend enough time around the normal folk. I guess I can excuse that, but I still get the feeling that magic isn't so shrouded in mystique as it should be (Eragon spends quite a bit of time in the first book just to learn the word for fire).
5: More stuff in general.
Be careful not to create a mary sue. [URL="http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm"]Here's a test.[/URL]
(Interestingly, Eragon is a mary sue. Once I thought about that, I realized that he was one.)
I'm interested in why you've decided to use a first-person perspective. Generally, for large books, a third-person or omniscient perspective is better. For ones with more than one very important main character, I'd say that the omniscient view is best as it lets your readers know exactly what they're thinking about.
Plot. The problem with this plot is that I just feel like it's weak. I can't really help you with anything here, unfortunately. Plots are something that the author needs to work out on his/her own time. You have to make sure that they're captivating and capture the interest of the reader. A rebellion just... doesn't cut it.
You're also using multiple subplots. Just be careful with them so you don't bore your reader. It's fine to separate the characters into three groups and such, but I'd say try to avoid doing so at the beginning to prevent confusion to the reader.
Creating characters and their personalities and everything is part of the fun of being an author. It's fine to use archetypes to help you, but remember to create characters that really stand out from each other and have distinct personalities.
Remember that actions have consequences, and sometimes these consequences impact even more than the actions themselves.
Coalition defeats the Vaneryan forces. You've got quite a bit of work to do to explain how that works. To create the most effect, you must paint it as if the coalition has a very slight possibility of winning the war. Not something so low that the reader loses interest and believes that there's no way the coalition can defeat the vaneryans, but something that separates the reader into two; one that believes they will win, and one that doesn't.
Languages are rather... complex. In general, the more often used a word is, the shorter it tends to be. Just keep this in mind when you are creating sentences in the language that the Huzzas speak. Also there are other, much more complicated linguistic things but I don't want to type that here.
Making your language and text stand out should be something that is left to later revisions. As a first draft, you just need to get down your general ideas and what goes on in each scene. Sure you need to write to enough detail that you remember each scene directly, but you don't need to spend hours on it perfecting the words and syntax and everything. Filling it up with more descriptions, I guess, is fine, as long as you go through it again.
I do realize that this is a first draft. You have lots of time to revise this and create something grand out of this. Do realize that if you're looking write one of those 500-page doorstoppers, here's a few things i've noticed:
They generally have quite a bit of description-filler. While not a bore to read, they do take up quite a bit of the page. You can just take a glance into the Eragon series (especially Eldest) to really get an example.
The Divergent series has a LOT of space between the lines of text and also large margins from the text to the edge of the page, which beefs it up to its door-stopper size.
A note on Divergent and Dystopias in general: Dystopias take quite a bit of work to create, especially since you need to create a large problem that people are willing to look over. I feel that Divergent's five-faction system is a bit... unrealistic and unbelievable, though for the sake of the plot, it 'works'.
There's quite a bit I haven't said, but try to take some time and think about the stuff i've said in this critique. There's also a few sites that i'd reccomend: TVTropes and springhole.net ([URL="http://springhole.net/writing/character-creation-and-development-theory.htm"]Here's a good page on character creation[/URL]. Tumblr's all over the map, and I wouldn't go there with 50% of the links broken.
There's a lot that I haven't covered in this post, but you can always PM me or something.
Lastly, remember that again, it's just the first draft. It's really meant to be bad. No one comes up with a good book in their first draft. But remember, I respect you for posting this out to the public to see. That takes courage.
I like this guy up here ^^^
Why does Christopher Paolini get any sort of mention in connection with authorship
I guess because for his age he was pretty good.
Objectively his books weren't that great - there were bits that I enjoyed but they were obviously lacking due to his inexperience - but I think he's given inspiration and indirect encouragement to a lot of young writers, including myself
I suppose in the sense of "this is horrendous but he managed to get it published anyway, I could do better if I tried"
[editline]3rd May 2014[/editline]
new page new page it's happened again
(Wasn't gonna post this here)
[img]http://i.gyazo.com/369ead37562ad36ec22f1c399f35ff53.png[/img]
She's got a bit of a thousand-yard stare going on there... Maybe bring her pupils closer together so it doesn't look like she's post-lobotomy?
Yep the eyes are a bit fucked :v:
Like I said I wasn't planning to post it here at all but the ghost of christmas new page caught up with me
We had an assignment this week on Pop art (basically do pop art of anything Egyptian, the more Egyptian, the better)
[img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/oRXYN8H.jpg[/img_thumb]
Made with gouache.
It's still due tomorrow, anything I should do/fix? (I realize there are a few white spots around the right eye, I'll get to it soon)
Last painting from this year
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Q1xROud.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE=red_pharoah;44714093]
[img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/oRXYN8H.jpg[/img_thumb]
(I realize there are a few white spots around the right eye, I'll get to it soon)[/QUOTE]
If anything you should have more white spots.
Pop art is a very manual labor style that is just riddled with poor alignment and hastily cut-out imagery. It's all about mocking mass-production and consumerism, whilst at the same time partaking in it.
Also where are the thick black cartoon outlines?
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/fdTcpeE.gif[/IMG]
Some depressed barfolk for a comic I'm thinking about
[QUOTE=dgg;44714699]If anything you should have more white spots.
Pop art is a very manual labor style that is just riddled with poor alignment and hastily cut-out imagery. It's all about mocking mass-production and consumerism, whilst at the same time partaking in it.
Also where are the thick black cartoon outlines?[/QUOTE]
Oh ok, as for the black outlines (let me get htis right, outlines only right? no details in black lines) I'll try to do it tomorrow before turning it in (probably won't have enough time but Ill try)
[editline]3rd May 2014[/editline]
Also I'm wondering how to do white spots on purpose
for the black outlines id try putting them on a transparent layer hovering above the main one so u can move them around same for the white spots
I don't think you can do transparent layers with gouache, on paper
You can, just water it down
If it's imitating pop art then you'd be imitating screen-printed ink, not goache I think
[QUOTE=Tovip;44718656]-snip-[/QUOTE]
I wish I could foreshorten >.>
I'm hopeless at drawing, lol
[QUOTE=Maloof?;44718358]If it's imitating pop art then you'd be imitating screen-printed ink, not goache I think[/QUOTE]
Well we HAD to do it with gouache (assignment requirement), otherwise I would have used something more akin to ink
[QUOTE=Tovip;44718656][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/HEhdkg2.png[/IMG]
[/QUOTE]
This is very distracting:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/rEgGa56.png[/img]
Making a book cover for my mom.
All I know is that the book is a historical romance novel about a french woman falling in love with a scottish dude.
This is a super quick mock-up of what I wanna do, just to get the layout in place.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/lMNoFsj.png[/t]
Maybe I'll put a thistle in the middle of the paper thing.
Thoughts?
i'd make the ends of the ribbon shorter so the words look centred on the section they're on, and centre the 'and the'
From last night, had reference for the pose.
[thumb]http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/125/3/b/linda_by_sokkhue-d78o8mx.jpg[/thumb]
[QUOTE=Katatonic717;44726931]Making a book cover for my mom.
All I know is that the book is a historical romance novel about a french woman falling in love with a scottish dude.
This is a super quick mock-up of what I wanna do, just to get the layout in place.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/lMNoFsj.png[/t]
Maybe I'll put a thistle in the middle of the paper thing.
Thoughts?[/QUOTE]
I'd try the patterning larger, more zoomed in, the french symbol in back doesn't look very appealing Maybe a paler colour or red.
Despite the symbols it looks more christmas than romance to me. The font is nice and easy to read but maybe try heaven and heather in a slightly more curly fancy font
The title doesn't really stand out enough at the moment either, maybe try it larger?
Just a host of stuff to fiddle around with, i've done a few proper design projects now and it tends to be a lot of "ok lets try this and then this, nah that looks shit how about this" haha
Maybe drop by the graphic design thread too if you haven't already.
[IMG]http://24.media.tumblr.com/0230387adf01fb383ece789e370b8642/tumblr_n54097OW8L1sqegtdo2_400.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://37.media.tumblr.com/693f458b19dc8fdeec73108ba79efbb5/tumblr_n54097OW8L1sqegtdo3_400.gif[/IMG] [IMG]https://31.media.tumblr.com/7b57642509dc15fc2bf7a557108ce126/tumblr_n54097OW8L1sqegtdo1_r1_400.gif[/IMG]
Here's some pixel art
Why the outlines?
I think the outlines look good. Why not the outlines?
The girl's arm appears as if it is constantly coming out and going into the hand-gizmo, which kind of bugs me.
Otherwise, great stuff! I hope to be as good at animating.
They're usually used as a crutch with some pixel artists to make it easier to animate figures cause they stand out easier against a background that way, but it also flattens them. I would say at least use sel-out if you're gonna do outlines, unless you want to only use them as a style.
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