Mythicarium Chat

[Midnight Mare]

Ok, I'll look into, your work on Mythicarium is great, I'll defiantly be looking forward to more species.

[Ciriun]

There definitely won't be any until I get my usual laptop back and all set up. The latest status update says it's in the middle of repairs which hopefully won't take long. Then probably another few days in shipping before it's home.

I'm really not sure I'll ever get the quetzalcoatls or centaurs to a state I'm happy with. I've been toying with the idea of very stylized unicorns or kirin of some sort, but at this point it's still only an idea. I'd really like to do something snakey or lizardy if I can think of anything of that sort. Or maybe dinosaurs, there aren't a lot of those around.

[Midnight Mare]

Unicorns would be very nice, I would enjoy those a lot! and I'm sure the Centaurs will be amazing, could you send me a pic of what you've got so far?

[Ciriun]

All my W.I.P.s for Mythicarium are in this thread.

The quetzalcoatls still look too flat, the face seems a bit off, and I don't know how to draw the back of a wing. As for the centaurs I can't decide what to do for their faces and I don't know what pose to use for the male's arms.

[Midnight Mare]

Oh, ok, thanks! I saw stuff there that I didn't know about before, it's so amazing, you're an amazing artist!

[Ciriun]

Wow, thank you. But it's really mostly knowing my own strengths. I work well in vector and pixel mediums, but I can't draw with a pencil or tablet to save my life, so Photoshop and Oekaki are pretty much a no-go for me. I'm also no good at anatomy unless I'm mimicking a specific style, like with the centaurs. I think I used at least half a dozen screenshots from Fantasia for those, so I'd reference a leg from one, the hair from another, etc.

I am getting better at anime style faces. I made the Teamaid eyes without any reference, but I think I used Dragoart for the noses and tails. Also the teacups.

[Midnight Mare]

I don't know what I'm good at, I don't think art is really my thing anyways, so I stick to working with horses, graphics and singing, but your drawings are amazing, I can't draw from a ref to save my life.

[Ciriun]

Having Adobe Illustrator helps a lot. If a line is slightly off, instead of erasing and redrawing it I can bend it to make it the right shape. It also guarantees clean lines so I don't have to worry about a steady hand or anything. It does take some getting used to since it's so different from other art programs. I was fortunate enough to have a good teacher who was learning it as part of her major.

My other secret is that I started with tracing. Sometimes things I now realize I shouldn't have traced, but as much as possible I would digitally ink and color artwork made by friends. It helps to give a sense of where lines need to be and what basic shapes make up more complex parts.

[Midnight Mare]

Wow, Adobe illustrator sounds very usefull, but without that help I'd be able to do almost nothing with it, I can't even figure out oekaki! (I've been looking for help and all people tell me to do is read the manual, I've read it, still confused) tracing can be a great way to figure out how to draw cirtain things, if you do it right, as long as you don't claim it as your own, it's fine and harmless.

[Ciriun]

I'm not very clear on how Oekaki works either. I've managed to do some simple color-ins, but it is very hard to make anything decent with only a mouse. I'm sure all or most of the really great artists on there use tablets, though I've given to understand touch screens are becoming a viable alternative now.

Pretty much all of my work in Illustrator is done with the pen tool. I'm not even sure what half the other tools do because I've never used them. The trick to using the pen is that you start with a crude, basic shape that looks nothing like what you want, then you use the anchors on the outline to bend and stretch it how you want. There are tons of tutorials out there if you're ever interested in learning, but it is an expensive program and I cannot advocate program piracy.