AuthorTopic: Non-pillowing Practice  (Read 9474 times)

Offline official-neosoft

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Non-pillowing Practice

on: November 02, 2008, 02:12:31 pm
Hi,

almost all pieces of art I make are getting critique: PILLOWED

I didn't know what pillowed was. Later I figured it out ( a little ).



This is an aliën I made, I wanted to make it non-pillowed. Is this fine? ( It's not about a beautiful piece, it's about the shading )

Thank you,
Official-NeoSoft

Offline straypixels

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 31
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • SHAZAM!
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #1 on: November 02, 2008, 02:40:22 pm
Heh... unfortunately, its still pillowed.

Look at the shading on this guy

See how the light changes on the different planes on his face? Here's an example of what I mean by "planes of the face". See how the light plays off of the planes? The ones facing the light are bright, while the others are dark? This is a perfect way to add depth. Right now, everything in your piece is just sort of... round. The only thing that stands out as being not part of a gradient curve is the eyes.

Try giving your guy some definition, some jaw bones, some pecks. Take a look at the skeletal structure of the face and the musculature of the body. This guy may not be human, but a lot of the basic parts will still apply.

Hopefully this helped :)

stray...
Straying since 1999

Offline JJ Naas

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 409
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile
    • My Deviantart page

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #2 on: November 02, 2008, 02:45:28 pm
Too much dithering. Don't dither the whole piece, use dither savingly. IMO dithering should be used when:
 - Flat colour areas are just a bit TOO flat
 - You want to liven up the piece here and there
 - You want to convey slight changes in form, small bumps and curves and so on.

No hue shift. You're just using different values of the SAME green and red. Also, using shilghtly different shades can occasionally do the job that dithering would do but would most likely look much more interesting.

The light/dark areas just run from dark to light without actually bringing up any forms, so it looks very flat.

So, all in all, use the various techniques to sculpt out forms and stucture, don't use dithering, shading, hue shift etc. just for their own sake.

Offline skamocore

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 174
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/10442.htm
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #3 on: November 02, 2008, 02:54:20 pm
A big improvent over your older work, It isn't pillow shaded :D.

I know this was an experiment to see if you could create something without pillow shading, but there are a number of other things wrong with this.. Sorry for the *reallly* quick, sloppy/lazy edit:



*You have over-dithered this, quite a bit, remember dithering can also creates a rough, brittle texture. I don't think that was the type of texture you were going for.
*This is very saturated, try and lower the saturation on some of the colours. Right now most of your colours are at maximum saturation.
*Why have you cropped the image like this? Right now it looks as though you have chopped of part of his head.
*Try to work on a more neutral coloured background, it makes it much easier to select appropriate colours when your background isn't upstaging your foreground. Also, it's much easier to look at.
*Why have you chosen to outline only the front of the alien?
*This species seems to have some very weird anatomy, where are its joints? muscles? bones? Think about these things when creating any kind of creature. Even if it isn't human.
*Try and use hue shifting, right now you seem to be using pretty much the same hue for all shades.

Offline official-neosoft

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #4 on: November 02, 2008, 07:55:25 pm
I tried to improve it, is this any better?

Offline Fizz

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 84
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #5 on: November 02, 2008, 09:46:16 pm
The new one has TONS of it.  The problem lies in the way you layer many low-contrast shades over each other.  The shape of a shade should not run completely parallel to another one. Try making the alien with only 3 shades of green and 2 two of red, then I hope you'll see what I mean.

Offline Malor

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 527
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Masquerading as a black bear.
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #6 on: November 03, 2008, 01:10:23 am
Right now, you're shading as if there is no light source. Not every area has to go from dark to the lightest shade. Light hits an object in different intensities depending on the shape. So, I would suggest doing some studies of volumes, and the shapes in general.
Quote from: Adarias
I'm not going to pretend this is a small task either; certainly none of us here can claim to have accomplished it.  it's the realm of masters.  still, it's what we all have to try for.

Offline Bag Man

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 30
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #7 on: November 03, 2008, 01:10:42 am
The new one has TONS of it.  The problem lies in the way you layer many low-contrast shades over each other.  The shape of a shade should not run completely parallel to another one. Try making the alien with only 3 shades of green and 2 two of red, then I hope you'll see what I mean.

I agree with him. You pillow shade because of you don't know how to shade correctly. Try seeking a tutorial.
You should try to modify your lineart, aliens don't have a flat head, i modify it.


Quick Edit:



« Last Edit: November 03, 2008, 01:38:12 am by Bag Man »

Offline official-neosoft

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 59
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #8 on: November 03, 2008, 02:34:16 pm
The new one has TONS of it.

Tons of what?

Offline TrevoriuS

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 550
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Pixels... everywhere!!
    • View Profile

Re: Non-pillowing Practice

Reply #9 on: November 03, 2008, 02:52:57 pm
Pillow shading of course, what were you working on again? :P You see, the image you create is flat. And it remains flat. You need to draw out it's volume!
Apart from that: your lines aren't very solid. There seems to be no thought behind it. There's no convincing anatomy or posing.

Dirty edit:

Don't hit me if I've got errors
« Last Edit: November 03, 2008, 03:02:06 pm by TrevoriuS »