went to a museum & drew a few things i found cute. banded stilt, potato beetle, brazilian treehopper, skull of a guanaco, and model of a dodo. most of the ink was done once i went home and could find a surface to lay the book on though
a paper on bugs with cool helmets: Prud’homme, B., Minervino, C., Hocine, M. et al. Body plan innovation in treehoppers through the evolution of an extra wing-like appendage. Nature 473, 83–86 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09977
Absolutely in love with your use of colours in traditional art. Please, teach us!
glad you enjoyed! before i start yapping i'll put the usual preamble here: i am also learning, my knowledge is limited, but i'll try to sum up what's most important to me when it comes to colours
which is basically two words: hue and value. no colour exists in a vacuum, it's all about correlation, about the colours surrounding it. hue = is this colour warmer or colder, value = is this colour lighter or darker than the ones next to it? let's use my last posted doodle as an example (i do adore mr russell so). here's the photo i used as ref, and here's how i interpret what i see
value: it's important to know where the light sources are: where they "hits" the object directly and results in the lightest value, which will be the highlights in your drawing; then where strong, defined shadows are cast; and where soft, transitional values are
e.g.: since there's a strong neutral light shining directly above his head, the shadow cast by the head onto the neck (and the brows/eye sockets) is the strongest, while the cheeks and the forehead have much "softer", more gradual shift in value
hue: this is situational but some contextual (anatomy, biology) understanding would not hurt at all
e.g. what i mean by "situational": in real life or rather, in nature (as opposed to in studio with controlled light sources) there are often multiple light sources, and those lights reflect a lot, that's what light does. in this case you'd assume the neck would be entirely covered in shadow cast by the strong light from above, but the left side of his neck is lit in a bright warm red. do you see it yet? the backdrop is red, and light bounces around, and reflects onto his neck. it's a fun game "guess where the light comes from". sometimes what light sources present in a scene aren't that apparent, but they will influence how warm/cold certain parts of a subject would appear, and you should definitely watch out for them
what i mean by context, or understanding the subject you are drawing: the cheeks have thinner skin and show more blood vessels, hence the skin there are always a warmer hue compared to, say, the nasal bridge, where instead of blood vessels it's mostly bone. the ears have no bones but consist of cartilage and blood vessels, so when a strong light hits, it can even shine through etc.
now let's put that together, and pick the colours accordingly
"design" elements: with that being said, you can "design" a scene however you want, with this doodle (and markers) i am not trying to copy 1:1 from life, but try to find a balance between what my eyes perceive and what i think would be fun. e.g.: i think the pinkish, orange skin would contrast well with a bit of blue, so the glasses, the hair + beard is blue, it's not wrong value and hue-wise: black and grey is "colder" than orange and pink, but so is blue, yet blue has a bit more vibrancy, a bit more whimsy than black and grey. i like exaggerating his ears so yeah! emphasize the highlights there, as long as the values and hues next to each other form a coherent idea, it'll work
here's another example on how hue and value can carry you through even if you pick a zany, less realism colour scheme
for this one i worked with a more design-ish approach, i picked two palettes that have little to do with how the subject looks irl: different shades of blues for nick, oranges/yellows for the guitar and the background, because i want nick to play the blues, i want the brightly painted gretsch guitar, and i want that contrast, like nick is cut out from the rest of the scene. so i'm left with pretty limited options. but if you swatch those colours out and look at them, it's easy to make out which colour is lighter/darker/warmer/colder, and then you just apply the correlation between colours you see irl to the colours you want to put on paper, and as long as the correlation is correct, your eyes will accept it
this is, of course, just my own preference for picking colours, but i hope it is helpful for you. it's lengthier on the non-drawing action, but imho half of drawing/painting is observation. plus each medium has a bit of a different workflow so if you have a doodle you are specifically interested in/curious about, let me know, i'll try to explain more on how i mix/pick colours, i might do a small demo if i feel up for it.
I don't know anything about hades 2 but I am tempted to learn everything there is to know about it simply because of the art you made of who I'm deducing is Chronos ? where he says "Care to join me?" and he's looking at the observer with fuck me eyes oh my god, it's so hot. That and we already have Nick in common. I literally want to hear all of your thoughts on Chronos and I know nothing about him or the fandom he's from
my old man propaganda works!
anyway. Hades 1 & 2 are very good roguelike games. in Hades 1 you play as Zagreus, son of Hades, who tries to break out of the underworld, aided by "boons" (upgrades) sent by Olympian gods. what started out as a seemingly wayward young man defying his father turns into a very fun, at times moving story about family bonds. in Hades 2 you play as Melinoe, Zagreus' little sister, who tries to break into the underworld, also aided by boons sent by Olympians.
Chronos is the villain in this story. he's two Greek gods fused into one in this retelling of Greek mythology: Chronus, time personification and Cronus, leader of the titans, father of Zeus and Hades. he was overthrown by his own children and imprisoned at the deepist pit of hell, but managed to break free and waged war against all gods and mortals who opposed him. he stormed the house of Hades, imprisoned everybody: Hades, his family, his servants, save for Melinoe, who was secreted away and raised to defeat him once and for all by the witch Hecate.
that's the basics out of the way. i don't want to spoil the games or influence your experience too much in case you want to play them for yourself (which you should! the gameplay is very accessible to people who have never tried that genre before and the dialogue/story is so cleverly designed, it might be the first time in videogame history where the repetition mechanic of roguelike ties to the story so perfectly) but i'll try to give you a few ideas on why the nasty old man is so dear to me
his design goes hard as hell
you see the hourglass motif on his face shape? his torso? his shendyt? yes that's an Egyptian garment, because he's older than any Greek gods. he's holding a cane (shaped like a pendulum). he's just a harmless senile old man. until you get to fight him and the cane turns into a scythe thrice your height and can cut through time and space. he also uses it to cut wheat because he was also the patron deity of the harvest before all that. then the halo and a set of wings akin to the Christian image of saints/angels. the anachronism. but it'd make total sense if you take into account non-linear time. his skin is the shade of obsidian, those gold "veins"? those are the scars when his sons cut him into pieces and he has to mend himself back. they are inspired by kintsugi, the art of mending broken earthenware.
the writing and voice acting goes hard as fuck for him too. have a listen
i truly don't know where to start to talk about the game writing of him. he's a bitter old man who hates his entire family and his entire family hates him. he has a very soft spot for Melinoe even if they try to kill each other everyday. he calls her "little one" still. he likes gold a normal amount. he ordered to have statues of him made everywhere because if they want something to hate on he'll give them exactly that. he probably starved himself. his sense of humour is quite busted. he's terribly lonely and self-loathing and vain all at the same time. he never lies, he just tells the truth and his mind in the worst manner.
to go further than just tropes, i think he's the perfect foil to Melinoe's character, despite them being sworn enemies: he destroyed her life, and she's a weapon honed to destroy him, yet you cannot help seeing the utter similiarities, the rapport between them. and the fact that their fates are intertwined just make them that much more important to each other's narrative. you can have romance in this game but whatever going on between Chronos and Melinoe makes those romance storylines pale in comparison. the game also poses a very interesting conflict between Chronos and the Olympians, which i read as about ideology/social order. there are clues here and there (tbh i don't even call them clues, they are too in-your-face for me, one of the bosses you'll have to fight is Prometheus, who fights for mortals under Chronos' banner, yes that Prometheus, Marx' favourite analogy for humanity under capitalism, but i suppose the read will differ for different audiences. lenny face something). Chronos is of course smack dab in that conflict, and the personal feud between him and Melinoe. in short. he's nuanced and layered, and immensely interesting. something you have to experience for yourself to draw your own conclusions.
but yes he also serves like his life depends on it. he's insanely hot. i hope more old men enjoyers discover him. you can watch people play the games but i think it'd be really fun to try out for yourself too.
their outfits are based on Robb Waters' concept art for System Shock Remake. command officers' jackets would have a (i guess) trench coat-inspired storm flap that forms into a short cape. the UNN Rickenbacker was a military ship and its crew wore military green, Diego's 3D model also has a vest on. so this is what i came up with for these rat bastards
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