hi!! I have no idea if this was already asked (if so, sorry! you can ignore :) ) but your art is DELICIOUS?? LIKE WOW THE RENDERING?? DEAR LORD HOW DO YOU DO IT. GENUINELY. how??? did you follow specific tutorials to shade metal (everything actually, but especially metal) that way? I've been struggling to render metal for such a long time and no tutorial has ever helped :p tysm for the amazing food you provide to the tf community 🙏
Sorry for such a late reply! My march had a few stressful events that led me over to the east coast for a couple of weeks after TFconLA. Rest assured, however, that I did see your ask and wanted to answer! I do have a couple of different ways that I color/render so I'll do my most common one that I do!
SO here we go w out victim Getaway. Please bear with me as tutorials are not my strong suit!
After I have my lines I always start with a grey or neutral base, and determine where my light source is going to be coming from! I find that physically drawing it on canvas can be helpful when you're not used to determining it.
By having a set light source it makes it easier to place your shadows and highlights!
Then I do a very messy placement of my shadows and highlights, just enough to start determining value. I typically use a grey-blue for my shadows vs purple as I find it doesn't muddy the colors as much, though I also clip and lock a duplicate of my flats to my multiply/shadow layer. I then hide my highlight layer and begin to define my shadows.
During this time I spend a lot of time zoomed out and squinting at my canvas. Being too zoomed in can lead to over rendering/detailing when you dont need to! I try to be particularly mindful of hard vs soft lines with my shadows particularly in areas where my light is hitting head on.
I then put my highlight layer back to visible and begin to do the same to my light! I keep the same things in mind and try not to over render. Metal is hard so I kinda just bs some of the metal bits and how they reflect and interact....
But after I am happy with shading I add my flats.
Then I merge everything to one layer and begin to render on top of my drawing. I still keep in mind to not over render as even art needs room to breathe and cant all be details. Mostly my rendering is focused on the focal point and continuing to push my values to where it makes sense. I also add a bit more visual interest during this time and make small adjustments to my color via color gradients.
Its not perfect and I am still learning new stuff every time I render since prior to last year I just did not color things... I always recommend references and looking up to artists that you admire and doing studies of their work!
I hope this made some sense and I thank you for your paitence!!
