Played the open beta for Pirates of the Burning Sea recently.

 

Melee combat is slow, and ship to ship battles are slow. It's a little bit below the level of pace I enjoy.

Therefore I'm going to have to pass on this one.

 

It's not a "good idea, poorly executed" or anything. Actually, I'd go so far as to say that the game is pretty well made. Lots of customization for your character (clothes, colors, and etc.).

What'd I make? Oh, I made a pirate called Vigge Fabuloso. He is entirely clad in pink clothing.

Even his hair.

 

Every time I enter the game, I go to nation chat and say, "Hello, boys! :D".

Yesterday, they got all weirded out on me. But today, they were too busy arguing about how other MMOGs are better.

Take that as you will.

 

You know, from the first moment I heard about this game, I was kinda looking forward to it.

But after trying out the beta, I guess what little interest I had was destroyed.

 

 

 

I do not enjoy this game, but you might. Give it a try if you're thinking about it.

But I will never play it again.

 

 

This one is turning out quite well.

There's a problem though -- after sitting here in this chair for so many hours at a time, even with all these one-day breaks in between each study session, I have unfortunately hurt the whole right side of my back.

It's this goddamned chair. I remember when I got it and thought it was so comfortable.

"Yay, leather chair! Totally worth 200 bucks!"

 

But no, it just doesn't work with the shape of my desk or the position of my monitor and tablet.

I'm often reclining to the extreme in this thing, putting my feet all the way up onto the window sill. I guess I just wish I could draw while laying down.

Someday I'll have a very large flatscreen monitor. Or perhaps a Cintiq.

But for now, I develop back pain from the way I sit. Glory to me!

 

Bleh.

 

 

Whatever though. I'll continue study three when my back stops being a whiny pussy.

Alright, so I've got another.

Would have had it done yesterday, but I lost my internet connection for several hours; didn't even think I'd be able to post it.

Still, I could have done it anyway. I guess I didn't feel like doing it.

When you're as slow and inefficient as I am with artwork related things, it takes a lot more effort to get it done. Hell, even small parts take me forever.

 

 

Well, enough about that.

Let's see what we got today.

 

I did a bikini model, something about Victoria's Secret. The source page I got it from was Russian or sometink.

Anyways, here you have it.

 

 

Now your eyes might be drawn to some problem areas. Perhaps that flat and dull looking gut, or.. I don't know.. the FACE.

For your information, I did not do the face because that would take me forever. I'd have to do the mouth and eyes and all that.

Also, the head is a bit too big and I didn't care to fix it.

Not this time, gents.

 

As for the gut, I had several problems there. It's funny what I notice now that I'm doing this --

Like a single misplaced stroke on the stomach makes it look like something's about to burst out from it.

So after very lightly shading it (flat), I kind of just moved on.

 

 

Yeah, yeah. I know there are many problems. No doubt I can note them all.

But you know, even with all the uncorrected mistakes, I still take a lot from this exercise. I even used a few ( small) things I learned from the previous study intuitively.

 

... I think...

 

And again, keep in mind that these are just exercises. I'm not aiming for complete accuracy.

I'm not doing this so I can paint still life or whatever -- so just never you mind.

 

 

Let' see. I started by attempting the shading under the left arm there.

Just couldn't get it at first. It looked horrid.

So I erased it and moved to the right arm. It took me a while, but eventually I figured out how to get it to look at least partly right.

I then went over to the left arm. Please note the difference in color between the arms; at this point I decided to add just a pinch more red.

It really shows, to me anyway.

Did the legs, then the stomach, the chest, returned to the underarm area, and half-assed the face.

There you have it.

 

Oh, right. I didn't want to do the bikini either. Minor details I'm not really wanting to do just yet.

 

 

I had fun with this one.

Now it's time to scour the net for my next study.

 

 

Now please leave before you have an 'accident'.

 

Following some advice given by several different tutorials now, I've begun to do "studies" wherein I take a photo of something or someone on the internet and digitally paint or sketch it.

The point is to help the student come to an understanding of how lighting and shapes work.

And looking at my comics there and the crap I've drawn in the past (not posted here or anywhere), I definitely need this particular kind of training.

 

I already feel as though I've learned a little.

I guess.

 

In any case, I've decided that every time I complete a study (that is, call it quits because the goddamned things take like six hours plus) I will post it here.

Regardless of whether or not it is complete, embarassingly bad (or good...), or whatever.

 

Note that for the purpose of gaining any skill at all, I will not trace or sample colors from the source image. This forces me to eyeball it and fine tune my sense of shape and color.

 

 

I will post the source image and then my completed study.

Enjoy these first few weeks of utter failure until I "get it". :D

 

 

..Christ, I hope it doesn't take years like it does for some people...

 

 

 

I still don't quite understand a few things, but I'll get them someday.

 

Didn't wanna do the shirt. Even if I were to ignore all the stripes, the folds are really kinda hard to see.

And yes, CocaCo is all I could fit on the damn bottle. I tried to fix it about five times before giving up and moving on to something important.

Next time, I won't waste time on small crap like that.

Eh, but this one was mostly for fun anyway.

Tomorrow, I'll probably do one of some chick in a bikini or some crap.

 

Or maybe I'll find out who this guy is and get him to wear one.

I BET YOU GUYS WOULD JUST LOVE THAT, HEY??

 

 

If you'll excuse me (but even if you won't, eat my ass), I'm gonna go have a nice tall glass of CocaCo.

Kindly escort yourselves out of my blog.

 

 

 

Helpful goddamn site, run by a professional  --  http://itchstudios.com/psg/

I imagine this will come in handy too --  http://www.portrait-artist.org/