A cute triceratops

More Baldric

Just fussin some more with Baldric...

Sketching Baldric

I decided to change the sky color from tan to green, which I like a lot, it think its because the green sky is a complimentary color to Baldric's red skin.

I also added some color gradient layers set to "overlay" this adds some nice splashes of saturated color on Baldric.  I also put in some reflected green light coming from the sky color.  Still got a fair amount of work to do, and hopefully I won't mess it up along the way :)

Sketching Baldric

I'm almost done with the main character...  There is a lot of sky, need to figure out some cool clouds or something.

Sketching Baldric and finding "Flow"

I finally had a few minutes today to get back to Baldric, and, as you can see, made a BUNCH of changes.... for some reason I could just see where I needed to go with him better than before. 

I found today that I was enjoying some "Flow" which is an awesome state of mind to be in when you are creating.... I usually find myself in a state of "Flow" when I'm not anxious about the outcome of the picture... for more on "Flow" check out this link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

Sketching Baldric

I like to use gradients to normalize tones....  I think it enhances the way the illustration looks and its a very quick way to smooth out otherwise kinda blotchy areas of the painting.  Its also a real nice way to quickly lay in lighting and begin to figure out light sources.  Of course gradients are kind of blunt, so you have to make them conform to surfaces by either simply "erasing out" the areas you don't want or you use a layer mask.  Layer masks are nice because you can continue to manipulate that layer as needed.


I found a great article by the master Paul Felix who gives some great instruction about the use of tones.... I HIGHLY recommend his entire article:
http://unofficialpaulfelix.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-09-09T12:57:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false

Here is a progress shot....  trying to stay uh, un-constipated