Well, I tried...

[KatieG]

Well, I've been working on carving deeper than I usually do.

So, this is a WIP, mostly carving, minus some details/fixes...and a cleaning.

As always, my love for the anime style prevails.

So!

A few things....

Well.. it started with 2 seperate pictures and me going "hmm" and slapping them together to look "pretty"...and I've added to it as I've gone, trying to make stuff work. Hey, it's just practice.

A beveled deeper than I cut to give it a softer, rounded look, since all of these are females....

I cut the folds to help with the "sheer" illusion, and to help bring them out more, as well. So!!! Piccies with more typing.

This one was were I had a little bit of fun with the illusion that the girl on the left's shawl and sleeves were sheer. I'm actually pretty happy with it.

I decided the original tooling wasnt deep enough on the first two, so I went back over my lines (I like it better now!!), and used an undercut beveler on the lotus-type flower. I used the hair tool and what I refer to as the "fluffy" backgrounder on the pages of the book the elf is holding, to make it look a little bit different. Still not done with the armor/dress details on the elves but, ah well.

These 3 I added to fill the blank space.. this angle, I think, with it slightly curved, shows the depth... it's under the jaw line of the girl on the right. I wa REALLY worried her ponytail would end up looking like a sausage so I actually beveled the entire outline of her head on that side deeply, and went back lightly for her hair and the ribbons. I used the same deep cuts for the folds as I did on the original 2 girls, as well as the fluffy backgrounder again (the tome, the headband, the shirt, and to represent "flowers") kind of as a tie-in. I need to touch up the left girl's shoulder a bit but I think she came out graceful, which was my goal...

And to see the whole thing together....

I'm curious as to what you guys think.. I'm not done yet..but.. hey some info is better than none.

Thank you for looking!!

~Katie

[CitizenKate]

I remember while viewing your earlier work thinking it could use more depth, so I definitely think that what you've done here has improved your work quite a bit. Here are a couple of things you can try to possibly obtain more of that "relief" effect in your carving.

- On the characters in the "front" of the picture, try to bevel deeper than for the characters farther back. This will help the eye to better distinguish the distance different subjects have from the background.

- Try compressing the background to make the subjects stand out more and give it more perception of distance from your subjects. More relief, more pop.

The sheer effect you created is interesting and you rendered it pretty convincingly. I think another example of that kind of effect (where you see something through something else) I've seen here is showing something through the window of an automobile. I'll see if I can find it and provide a link.

Look forward to seeing more...

Kate

[hidepounder]

Katie,

I think you are on the right track! The more definition you can create in the tooling the more it separates you from other talented artists/painters who use leather for a canvas. When I looked at your first photo my first thought was that there were many areas that lended themselves to undercut beveling, which you immediately picked up on. My next thought was that you need to use a smooth matter to eliminate the bevel lines that appear...this will create a greater illusion of depth as Kate mentioned. Some of the larger smooth figure carving bevelers will work....I prefer to use a smooth matter that Bob Beard sells. By deepening your beveling you create an opportunity to round the edge of the subject with a modeling spoon which is an effect you mentioned. You are an incredible artist and I think you are on the right track here......

Bobby

Edited September 29, 2009 by hidepounder

[KatieG]

CitizenKate:

Thank you! Yeah I've started backgrounding, trying to make them go ::pop!:: I've posted pics below. I hope you can find the link, I like playing with illusions, tho, and I am glad you think it is convincing!!

hidepounder:

Thank you very much!!! I really appreciate the tips.

And for current shots of progress....

[CitizenKate]

<nodding> That's what I had in mind, Katie. Good work!

Kate

[KatieG]

Thanks, Kate!! :-D

Well... more piccies...

All tooled and backgrounded - using the pebble one and the fluffy one. Kind of masks any mistakes, looks pretty, and kinda keeps a theme!

And color as I go! :-D

Lemme know whatcha think!

[ClayB]

Hi Katie,

I guess I missed this whole topic for awhile. I love everything you post on here. It's kind of weird cuz it's so not anything I would do, but you do it so well. You do so many neat things with texture and I can't help but spend a lot of time studying how you do it. I agree with Kate on the "sheer" look. You really made that work. There are a few places that I would try and do some more smoothing out with the modeling tool if you were going for a realistic look, but you aren't really so I don't know if it's all that important. I also really like the coloring that you do. The way you had tooled this, it's one of those pictures that would look great natural, but the color really does make parts of it pop.

Clay

(Bob, you're right on about Bob's smooth matters, they are GREAT tools!)

[KatieG]

Yeah I guess I snuck it in the list one day.

Thank you so much, Clay. I'm glad you and Kate like the sheer look, it was a headache for a while!!!

Where would you do smoothing with the modeling tool? And no, it's not really "realistic".. completely different art style. And thank you again! I love to color, especially since so much is done with color originally in this art style.. such fun! I want to leave this background natural, though, since I really like how it came out.

[ClayB]

Hi Katie,

On the figure farthest to the right, around the sash, on where her arm comes out of her sleeve, where the girl in front of her's hair meets her knee. Little places like that could be smoothed out a little more to make the transition less sharp. Usually this will help so that it doesn't look like something is indented into the form behind it. The necklace is another example of this. If you can really carefully model around the pearls, it can help to make it look like it is setting on her neck instead of pushing into her neck. Those are the kinds of details that I look at in trying to make things look as realistic as possible. But, like I said, your work isn't actually intended to look realistic. You have to decide how far you can go before doing certain things will start to distract from the anime. I think that there are parts of your carving that would look really cool if you embossed them, but that might be going way to far, or not

That all said, I still really like what you are doing. Keep it up!

[KatieG]

Hi Katie,

On the figure farthest to the right, around the sash, on where her arm comes out of her sleeve, where the girl in front of her's hair meets her knee. Little places like that could be smoothed out a little more to make the transition less sharp. Usually this will help so that it doesn't look like something is indented into the form behind it. The necklace is another example of this. If you can really carefully model around the pearls, it can help to make it look like it is setting on her neck instead of pushing into her neck. Those are the kinds of details that I look at in trying to make things look as realistic as possible. But, like I said, your work isn't actually intended to look realistic. You have to decide how far you can go before doing certain things will start to distract from the anime. I think that there are parts of your carving that would look really cool if you embossed them, but that might be going way to far, or not

That all said, I still really like what you are doing. Keep it up!

Thanks, Clay!

Hmm yeah I wasn't thinking about that as much...oh well, I can play with the color there, maybe it'll be shadow now. You're right, I did tool too deep on the necklaces...bah humbug! I completely missed that and couldn't figure out why it looked off.

Embossing would be awesome, I agree, but since I'm making this into a book cover, I'm resisting the urge...

And keep it up I shall.. I love doing it too much. <3