This is very beautifully rendered, Nyo...I love the different textures you incorporate.

I like that you have the background at a lower contrast than the foreground, causing it to recede. Next time maybe you could do the same thing to Nyo's wing in the back, and maybe the top of the head as well. That would increase the illusion of roundness of the figure in addition to how it already pops out of the background.

What kind of pen are you using?

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Harlequin
~Esta arte me encanta, eu nao posso mais sair.~

Harli's DevArt Gallery

Thanks, Harli. Yes, I wanted to draw the wing lighter, but I came with values for the markings, and I guess I made them too dark (also, I've scanned the drawing a bit too dark). Thus, maybe the top of the head also. Beside, I'll have a style with less shadings for my comics, that'll help to fix such details.

This is only mechanical pencils: H, HB, 2B and 4B. No ink.

Pencils! They seem wonderfully dark for pencils. Is that the scanner settings or maybe contrast levels in Photoshop? (I finally just took graphic design and it has made me ask "how did they do that?" to everything I see now).

Alternately, you could increase the line weight of the outlines/shading in the foreground. But I think you would have a hard time making anything with more contrast than that wonderful eye.

I was thinking of your art this morning and thought it would be fun to try a style like yours in a metal engraving.

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Harlequin
~Esta arte me encanta, eu nao posso mais sair.~

Harli's DevArt Gallery

Not only I used 4B pencils, but yes, I scanned very dark. It's a technique I'm planning to use for my comics project, especially if I try to colorize it with Pain Shop Pro or Photoshop.

To have dark lines, you have to scan dark, not to darken with a program. That's faking ink, and pencil gives more supple lines than ink.

Re: line weight: that's actually the technique I use for my comics. Here, I could have added one or two leaves on the foreground, but I thought it was useless: it ain't a big piece.

Re: metal engraving: Yup, my technique is close to engraving finally. When I begun to draw this way, I got much inspired by the Belgian artist Jean-Claude Servais: [link] - [link] - [link] (NSFW)

I spent a lot of time this semester with Adobe Illustrator. I learned a lot about how computers affect line qualities. I made a vectorized font set by editing curves on the computer from some lettering that I did in ink and scanned.

It's strange to me that art sometimes loses credibility when it's known that someone edited it with a computer program. Not so much with ads or works created for the Internet (like webcomics), but "fine art" especially. It seems like the "fine artists" don't know how to use computers for art and so they dismiss them, but it also seems like computer artists are often lacking in basic drawing/design skills. For people like us to embrace both (that aren't part of the younger Disney/Pixar generation) is still so rare. Eh, I'm rambling.

I think you've shown me the work of Jean-Claude Servais once before. It's really difficult to make drawn lines look like engravings! I think that's what got me into printmaking. I saw many beautiful engraved pictures in children's books (I guess fairy tales and engravings go together or something) when I was growing up, and I always thought they were pen drawings. So I tried to develop a graphic style that looked like those pictures, and I went through about ten different kinds of ink pens before I learned about intaglio engraving, and I learned the real extent to which medium affects line quality (I think I was the last artist on earth to figure this out). Of course this goes for engraving, pen, pencil, and computer as well.

I await the day that "fine artists" recognize computers as just another tool to create art. Until then, I will use computers the same way as I use pens and pencils...and leave them all behind.

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Harlequin
~Esta arte me encanta, eu nao posso mais sair.~

Harli's DevArt Gallery

There's an artist in the nearest village close to where I live who creates all with computers, with effects and all. That's mostly symbolism, surrealism and whatnot, and it's really awesome. So yes, it begins. With very good printers, it's perfectly possible to make fine art only with computer.

BTW, I often correct certain details with the computer, but I always try it doesn't show. And there are other ones who do so, I don't see why it'd be a lost of credibility. I've seen a comics artist whose drawings were corrected with tipp-ex, so... Scanning and correcting a drawing with a computer to edit small details, I don't see what's degrading. I rather think it's perfectionism, cuz natural media are never perfect, and no human, thus no artist is perfect. It's easy to deviate a bit from a line! With the comp, it's easily corrected.

Re: Jean-Claude Servais: He's inspired by engraving, that's how he describes his artwork himself. But it's pen, and he knows there's a noticeable difference.

I like the darker eyebrows and how even the ears are covered in what are obviously feathers. That beard is cute, too.

Stunning detail, as always.

Thanks, and thanks for the fav!

That is awsome! I really like it

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I Nutella!

Juice it!

I'm known among those who know me and unknown to those who don't know me ^^