Wapsi Square Forum

Bonus link:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Banner-fo ... k-61024647

Yep, I definitely see the resemblance...

TazManiac wrote:Here's an example of fan-coloring I came across on Deviant-Art...

http://solbet.deviantart.com/art/Wapsi- ... -211215512

http://orig13.deviantart.net/a7a7/f/201 ... 3hr2xk.png

The coloring is good but the shading is WAYYY too harsh. They look like walking skeletons.

lake_wrangler wrote:Apart from the wrong colors being used for Nudge (I forget her fur color, but I'm pretty sure the face markings/tattoos/whatever they're called are blue...), that is some impressive coloring and shading.

At the time that was posted in the comments section, Nudge hadn't been given a canonical color scheme. Somewhere in my archives I have a coupla-three color studies on her where two of them were a grey stripe tabby and an orange tabby...

Jabberwonky wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:Apart from the wrong colors being used for Nudge (I forget her fur color, but I'm pretty sure the face markings/tattoos/whatever they're called are blue...), that is some impressive coloring and shading.

At the time that was posted in the comments section, Nudge hadn't been given a canonical color scheme. Somewhere in my archives I have a coupla-three color studies on her where two of them were a grey stripe tabby and an orange tabby...

Care to share? Or were they already in the fanart thread, somewhere? (If so, linky linky, please?)

I miss onionhead. She's a sweetie.

TazManiac wrote:Here's an example of fan-coloring I came across on Deviant-Art...

http://solbet.deviantart.com/art/Wapsi- ... -211215512

http://orig13.deviantart.net/a7a7/f/201 ... 3hr2xk.png

lake_wrangler wrote:Apart from the wrong colors being used for Nudge (I forget her fur color, but I'm pretty sure the face markings/tattoos/whatever they're called are blue...), that is some impressive coloring and shading.

shadowinthelight wrote: The coloring is good but the shading is WAYYY too harsh. They look like walking skeletons.

I guess I should have qualified my earlier statement: I find the shading to be done well, except for the faces... Too much emphasis on the cheek bones, which does indeed make them either look weird (Bud and Shelly), or downright gaunt (Connie and Monica. Especially, Monica...) But the rest of the shading is impeccable, as far as I'm concerned.

lake_wrangler wrote:

Jabberwonky wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:Apart from the wrong colors being used for Nudge (I forget her fur color, but I'm pretty sure the face markings/tattoos/whatever they're called are blue...), that is some impressive coloring and shading.

At the time that was posted in the comments section, Nudge hadn't been given a canonical color scheme. Somewhere in my archives I have a coupla-three color studies on her where two of them were a grey stripe tabby and an orange tabby...

Care to share? Or were they already in the fanart thread, somewhere? (If so, linky linky, please?)

I'll have to go deep into my archives, if I still have them somewhere. Might be a project to recreate them...
*rubs chin thoughtfully*

Jabberwonky wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:

Jabberwonky wrote:At the time that was posted in the comments section, Nudge hadn't been given a canonical color scheme. Somewhere in my archives I have a coupla-three color studies on her where two of them were a grey stripe tabby and an orange tabby...

Care to share? Or were they already in the fanart thread, somewhere? (If so, linky linky, please?)

I'll have to go deep into my archives, if I still have them somewhere. Might be a project to recreate them...
*rubs chin thoughtfully*

Why am I suddenly feeling the need to have Nudge called "Kitty?"

DinkyInky wrote:Why am I suddenly feeling the need to have Nudge called "Kitty?"

An OC I play with calls her 'The Nooge,...

lake_wrangler wrote:I guess I should have qualified my earlier statement: I find the shading to be done well, except for the faces... Too much emphasis on the cheek bones, which does indeed make them either look weird (Bud and Shelly), or downright gaunt (Connie and Monica. Especially, Monica...) But the rest of the shading is impeccable, as far as I'm concerned.

Re-looking I find, for myself, that the colorist has illuminated everything from the bottom up, as if they are standing on florescent linoleum...

TazManiac wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:I guess I should have qualified my earlier statement: I find the shading to be done well, except for the faces... Too much emphasis on the cheek bones, which does indeed make them either look weird (Bud and Shelly), or downright gaunt (Connie and Monica. Especially, Monica...) But the rest of the shading is impeccable, as far as I'm concerned.

Re-looking I find, for myself, that the colorist has illuminated everything from the bottom up, as if they are standing on florescent linoleum...

Well, not quite everything. In fact, I wouldn't say from the bottom, in most cases, but definitely not consistent on the light source:

Monica is definitely lit from the top down.
Shelly and Connie are lit from... the front??? Slightly up, but mostly from the front.
Bud, well, she can't seem to decide... The highlighting seems to indicate light sources from several directions... Part of her dress are lit from above (folds near her left hand). The top of her dress is lit from the fluorescent linoleum, as are her chin and cheek bones. And the way the arms, the legs, torso and even the face are hightlighted from both sides, with the darker portion in front, would seem to indicate light sources from both sides, slightly behind her.

Nudge can't seem to decide, either: her right horn (on our left) is lit from above and slightly behind
Her left horn (our right) is lit from above and slightly in front.
Her face is lit from the front.
The rest of her body is lit mostly from the top, slightly in front of her. Except for her shoulder spines: her right spines are lit from below, and her left ones are lit from ... behind?



I guess I can revise my statement once more: the method used for shading produces some interesting/pleasing results (except for Monica's face), in that the gradients are smooth, and such, but the overall picture lacks consistency in its light sources, in a manner that is not merely a matter of where each one is standing (i.e. the light source for Shelly and Connie, for instance, would give a mirror result on Monica, except that it doesn't, and the light sources on Bud should affect all others, but doesn't.) So I'm still impressed with the mechanical application of shading and highlighting, but less so with the overall consistency.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the evolution of the artistic critique.

GlytchMeister wrote:Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the evolution of the artistic critique.

Yep. Looking it over once just isn't enough, nor is only one pair of eyes!

I am in no way ashamed of my previous statements. I merely "clarified" them. I did think Monica's face looked weird, from the start, but didn't bother mentioning it. From the start, I was always impressed with the technique used for shading and highlighting, but had not considered the overall lack of consistency in light sources until it was mentioned and I looked more closely.

(In other words: I was wrong. I was right, but I was wrong... )

Solbet always does that irritating thing with the light sources. Sometimes witin a single figure there are six or seven light sources without the fore and backgrounds showing it.

It's the only reason I don't like their work.

When teaching my son about ambient light source, I break out the manikins and my son holds a flashlight while we snapshot it, or I get out Poser pro and set up several dummies, then fix the lights and screenshot it. It makes colouring neater when you have a physical reference point.

Daz Studios is freeware for the base program, and they give you a free starter pack for registering it, if you want to try what I'm discussing without paying big bux.