Armored Creations -- Image heavy thread

[Armory]

Hey guys, I'm new to these forums and hoping it provides a better atmosphere than the GW2Guru forums which are getting destroyed the mods these days.. Anyways, first post here, so let me start things off with a little background before I get into my art.

I use to draw a lot back in school, but after classes where I had to draw things I didn't care to draw, like belts, sheets and other boring things I've strayed away from the artistic aspects of life. Recently purchased a WACOM Bamboo tablet, and getting accustomed to it wasn't easy.. Was rather painful really, haha.

This thread is going to be a collection of my art that I work on from now until the launch, updated every so often. My first piece is a heavy plate armored Guardian, very basic things as I am really new to the tablet. I've already finished the piece, but in the GW2guru thread I had saved in intervals of progression, so i'll be showing those off as well.

Let me know what you think, and mind you I'm not that good, just trying to get better and have a little fun.

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First, started out with just scribbling down a general idea. I kind of just build up around the shoulders, then after I got the basic helmet and chest layed out, I went through and put in the 'stick figure' type stuff to flesh out where things are proportionally. It's an odd way of doing it, seeing as how most people just start by drawing a skeletal pose of a stick figure, and then build around it.. I kind of get a general feeling and style of the armor, then check proportions after to see if the shoulders match up haha. /failIknow



After I've that completed, and am happy enough with the style of the armor and overall pose, I quickly go over the lineart and put a little bit of details onto shapes. Then, I just start slabbing on color and then go to town on shading it as fast as possible to get just a general idea of how the armor would fit together with a light source. It's not accurate as far as the lighting goes, but the general idea was to get things down since I've had a horrible time getting use to the Wacom Tablet. WTB Cintiq!!!!



So now I have a design, and some colors to work with. IT'S TIME TO START OVER WITH COLORING!!! Seriously though, that was just a quick mess job with really 1 color and then highlighting/burning the hell outta it to get shapes down. Now comes the 'painting'. This takes me forever, as I'm pretty much just lost in experimentation until something works. I've gotten the lineart over top still in this one, to keep me guided as I go. Shoulder and Um.. Neck.. Mantle.. thing.. Finished.




Ideally, when I'm finished i'll have the actual colors separating the pieces of armor rather than keeping to a lineart overlay, and here's a sample without the lineart so you can kind of begin to see how the edges are defined by light/dark contrasts rather than actual lineart.




That's enough for tonight, spent about 3 hours shading the upper lip..
I'm actually fairly pleased with how it's turning out. The metal isn't flat.. That's good.

Did a little work on the chestplate and cleaned up the shoulderguard + Added some wear n tear to it.



OCD kicked in HARDCORE, I'm talking TAKE NO PRISONERS -- PUT THE SOAP ON THE LEFT -- WHERE THE HELL IS MY STAPLER1?!one!11!!! OCD.
7.20am, been up all night, and of course I finished for tonight, what.. 3 times now? LOL

Re-worked the shoulder to something with more shape.



Completed the overlapping breastplate and outside covering of the shoulder mantle. Kept lineart to give reference to final concept.



Finished up the mantle, pauldron and gauntlet. Hoping to get the helmet done tonight to wrap this piece up. Pretty satisfied with it overall given it's my first real project using the WACOM.



Finished Product:



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Had a little fun, and know I'm not the only one who thinks Asura look a lot like Stewie from Family Guy!




- Armory

[Armory]

Got the thumbnails working, reserved for future artwork.

[Centaur]

Welcome to these forums, Armory. We do try to be pretty easy-going, and as you can see in our Forum Guidelines, we don't have a lot of rules (though please do stick to the few that we do have!).

That guardian is pretty cool! Unfortunately, I'm not very creative myself, and I definitely admire people who have the skill and the patience to go through this whole process and come up with something like that!
And it looks like a lot of work went into that one... how long did you need from the first draft upto the final product?

And is that cute little Asura one of your creations as well?

[Nem]

LOL @ Stewiesura

[Armory]

I'm pretty slow when it comes to drawing, always have been lol The whole thing took probably 20hours to complete, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing when I started, and each progression was me trying to recreate the techniques I used/stumbled upon, which often was hit or miss. Probably redid the helmet 3-4 times before I got it where it needed to be.

I've got another piece I'm thinking about, but not really sure if i'll get to it anytime soon.

[Centaur]

Well, as I said, I definitely admire those who have the patience to go through that whole process... and I definitely hope we'll see more of your art here!

[JohnnyV]

Looking pretty good so far. If I played a guardian, I could definitely see myself wearing some armor like that, especially like the helmet.

And I might have to steal your Stewiesura for my avatar. Which is saying a lot, cause I haven't found anything beyond my Pimp Asura that was good enough.

[actionjack]

Look good.

Would still like to see more details on the armor thought. Like carving, engraving, and patterns.

[Ruse]

I don't have the patience for that kind of trial and error either, lol. Nice job. I thought I'd commented on this thread a couple of days ago, but apparently that's all I did...think about it. :B