Echo Archives

[NO1SY]

Watching the Gifs it's amazing the level of depth that is added going from flat colour to fully shaded. It highlights how important shading is for perspective and overall shape. Moreover, you have expertly shaded and coloured using the fire as the light source in that first image, which is a detail that lazier artists often forget.

I suppose a question this raises would be how do you work out where to put shading when you are working on your pieces? Is it just something you know instinctively from experience, do you have to work it out by trial and error, or do you have references that you work from?

[KatDeMilo]

Ahhhhh now I've matched DA to name omg
I'm not a big commenter but I watch you on there and regularly check your work out. Nice nice. Lovely clean lines :>

[Echo_River]

Wow, these are fantastic! I only recently got into fantasy drawings and these stuff are inspirational; i'm really itching to start drawing after seeing these! More specifically, the different angles and details you put on the clothes in the study is something I'm seriously taking notes on! Super great stuff, looking forward to your next post!

Why thank you! ^^ I'm honoured. I hope they are helpful and I wish you the best in your art!

I do have to give you major props for your clothing work Echo! You have a knack for making it look both functional and cool, which is a line often wavered from in manga.

Thanks Coryn! I'm glad. Yeah, that's something that I've noticed in manga too lol. What's helped with that is thinking if the clothes can be bought from a store or not.

Wow, Echo. You've really come a long way since I've been out. This stuff is like, super pro level as far as I'm concerned. Your pencil work still has a lot of life in it that I've always loved, and your digital stuff is crisp and fresh. The variation in line weight goes a long way. You've really settled into your own. Wish I could say the same, haha, but you've been working hard, and you get the payoff on that, and my lazy butt gets exactly what I put in.

Thanks so much, Mahlua! Yo, it's taken a long time to get to my current style. I still remember the times I used to despair over it way back when. So s'long as you keep moving forward, you'll get somewhere too! c:

I suppose a question this raises would be how do you work out where to put shading when you are working on your pieces? Is it just something you know instinctively from experience, do you have to work it out by trial and error, or do you have references that you work from?

A little bit of all of those, I would say? Sometimes I'm pretty clueless as well and not always paying attention to light sources. For these two, since I was experimenting, it was definitely more reference, using the video, Pinterest, and even myself.

Cyan's jacket, for instance, I took of photo of myself XD We didn't have a coat with the material I had in mind, so I had to improvise T-T But in this way, I got a look that was way more natural than if I had tried to wing it through imagination.

Spoiler

I think that's the other side of shading as well. Sometimes, I find, trying to making it look realistic doesn't always make it look pretty. So there's a middle ground where you have to balance reality and aesthetic to get the look you want.

Ahhhhh now I've matched DA to name omg
I'm not a big commenter but I watch you on there and regularly check your work out. Nice nice. Lovely clean lines :>

Haha thank you! \o/ Yeah, I started watching you a while back too. I recognize your art right away ^^

[Coryn]

A wild Echo appeared! Lol. For real though, striking a pose and taking a photo of yourself is one of the best art hacks that a lot of people (newer artists at least) have convinced themselves is cheating. But it's definitely one of the tricks you eventually learn is super common and accepted.

[Echo_River]

@Coryn That'd be like saying that having people model for you is cheating O: But... how are you supposed to know anything you draw is accurate if you don't reference it...?  Lol. Yeah, I have a whooole folder of self-references now. I think I started doing it more after not being able to successfully search up the poses that I wanted X'D


Update --

Roun sketch:


Been experimenting with backgrounds lately.

In this one, I belatedly discovered how useful the select tool is for doing straight things, which seems obvious when you think about it, but I'm so used to traditional that even using the simple tools for backgrounds doesn't come to mind right away ^^;



This one started out as a warm-up sketch, but I got carried away and wanted to add more setting... which meant I had to pay a little more attention to perspective and lighting... but I liked how it turned out :)



Since it has been raining these past few days (following a brutal heat wave X_X) I got in the mood to draw this character, Demon, whom I tend to associate with rain because he carries an umbrella around.



And another painty practice drawing. Last time, I forgot to put the character names for the other two. This character, Relz, is their colleague. The three of them work together in Special Ops. These are their original designs that I drew in 2016 

Spoiler

Relz was a little difficult to draw  Originally I was going to have him in a sleeveless hoodie. Ended up switching to the older outfit design so I could avoid drawing arm muscles :') Also, because his hair is white, I had to figure out how to do the shading and highlighting... As for his ability, CLIP helped a lot for that. There might have been an easier way, but I basically traced a grid, blurred the lines, and set them to glow (I like glowwy things). Glad I finished this piece~

Process GIF

[KatDeMilo]

So very cool I think you're pretty good with fabric. Looks on point always.

[Coryn]

The glow is fun! It's very tron-esk in execution.

[Suuper-san]

those are some really nice pieces!

yup the select tool is super useful for straight lines, I tend to use the lasso tool, and using shift/ctrl combos click to create straight selections. As you probably discovered you can use the "add to selection" option to create more complex straight edge shapes with just a rectangle seelct.

The ambience in the cafe one is so nice, like he's chatting with an old friend, but its in the POV of the person, so I feel like I'm the old friend. Very connecting with the viewer piece, I love it.

tiny critique if you dont mind me mentioning - watch out for vanishing points, the bottom half has a perfect set of lines but the wall/window doesn't follow the same point. I did an overdraw if you don't mind.
Red is your lines extended, blue is what i think is correct.

Spoiler

the dark one is pretty cool, lovely the dark swirly effects.

and the techno hacker vibe one is really awesome.
great highlights on the hair, great shading on the face and clothes, and very cool effect.

There might have been an easier way, but I basically traced a grid, blurred the lines, and set them to glow

tbh that's the way I would have done it, in fact the moment I saw it I thought "hmmm, a blurred grid...that's cool"
You needn't have traced it manually though, you could either cut out the parts you didn't want, or use selection tools to select the squares of the grid you wanted and make a new layer with just those parts. But maybe that's what you did anyway.

lovely stuff.

[Echo_River]

@KaDeMilo  Fabric is something I enjoy trying to figure out XD Thank you~

@Coryn Haha, I haven't seen Tron actually but I know what you mean!

@Suuper Thanks for the critique! Ooph yeah I missed the lines there O: It looks like the vanishing point should have been much higher. I'll watch out for that next time 

You needn't have traced it manually though, you could either cut out the parts you didn't want, or use selection tools to select the squares of the grid you wanted and make a new layer with just those parts. But maybe that's what you did anyway.

O-ohhh OAO That was what I was intending to do but, I uh, couldn't figure out how to make the grid actual lines ahaha.... Gonna have to search that up to save myself the work lol


Art Update:

Hi everyone! I know I've been a bit MIA for the past couple of months. It's been a little busy with getting back into work and such. In September I actually did take part in a daily drawing challenge. I'll post the pictures at a later date.

In th meantime... INKTOBERRRRRRRR. Again going with completedly new characters.

Day 1


Day 2


Day 3


Day 4


Day 5


Day 6


Day 7


Day 8


Day 9

[Echo_River]

Next set of sketches for Inktober --
The black spirit is the same in each of the drawings. For the outside flames, I've used a lighter grey marker (which streaks) and a darker grey copic marker (which looks black when I scan it in) and I can't quite make up my mind which look I like better...

Day 10


Day 11


Day 12


Day 13


Day 14


Day 15


Day 16

[KatDeMilo]

As Ive been saying on DA these are super amazing :> 

[NO1SY]

Oh yeah another Echo Inktober! Cute slimes and spirits!

[Echo_River]

@ Kat Thank youuu

@Noisy Yesss! Thanks! ^^

I'm a little behind this week OTL. I could just skip some days, but having parts missing to a collection bothers me ^^; Here are the next 5.

Day 17


Day 18


Day 19


Day 20


Day 21

[Pavo]

Give us more of the black spirit. Also, does it have a name?

[Echo_River]

@Pavo Thanks for taking the time to look! I've drawn the spirit a couple more times after reading your post XD He doesn't have a name yet, but I'm open to suggestions!


Update - Unfortunately these are the last Inktober drawings from me. I ran out of steam a week ago. Had lots of ideas, but I wasn't feeling any of them. Also got a little stressed thinking about NaNoWriMo  Which I'm planning to participate in this year.

Also here are some random tallying for the inktober drawings because I was curious:

Number of character appearances (Only counting 1 per drawing if they are depicted more than once. Let me know if I miscounted.):

Juniper (Swordswoman) - 9
Raven (Bird boy) - 8
Slime - 14
Spirit - 10
Cube Lady/Girl - 2

Day 22


Day 23


Day 24


In terms of ideas and creativity, I feel like I did better last year. I also felt like the prompts this year were a little harder for me to draw to? It might have been easier if my subject matter was different, but I really wanted to stick to the same story/theme throughout.

Still glad I did something this year c: It was fun. Who knows, I might develop this slime and spirit idea into something more fleshed-out in the future.