Workshops

Strike a pose - Warren Louw - Issue 49

bezfaery — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:18:56 GMT

I jumped up and down for joy (literally) when I saw this workshop this month. I am currently working on a commission that involved drawing a pose that kept coming off as stiff and I could not get my head round it at all. Warrens advice could not have been better timed. I have never been able to sketch poses confidently and now thanks to this easy to understand wisdom I can - YAY!

Anyhow now for the problem. Unfortunately said pose is really awkward with her both bending AND twisting mid torso and me then adding complicated underwear.... The photo attached is the girl who the commission is for so that you can see her proportions but I felt she looked quite squashed and awkward so I have tried to get her to be stretched out a bit more and arching her back a bit plus moved her hand round to the hip to make it sexier. The line art is where I am up to now. I know the hair is horrible but it was just as a guide because I will only be using this as a guide when I draw/paint it traditionally

I am really struggling with her torso and breasts mostly. She just seems too broad (?) and where on earth does her right/top thigh end and her torso start. Please any help or comments would be very welcome

Thanks in advance

Faye xxxxxxxxxx

Bao Pham workshop in 42

stewed_art — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:30:52 GMT

Im following the Bao's workshop to make a simlair image any advise or crits welcome :)

Marta's Gothic art guide

Onatopp — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:06:03 GMT

Marta I wonder what brushes and settings you used for the early sketches of this image. Do you do your sketches with low opacity also? They seem very crisp and opaque (more so then what I get with the ragged hard round on it's default settings).

I recently attempted to make a painting from start to finish with only transparent brushes, the blending and defining of features was easy and real fun to do but my values ended up very bad. It completely lacked contrast, something I didn't notice until it was too late. Any tips on how to avoid ending up with low contrast using this technique would be very appreciated. The workflow with transparent brushes feels very natural to me as my background is in oils and I always layer my color very carefully in my oil paintings. Perhaps in digital it's different and I need an opaque sketch prior to layering color (at least that is what I suspect). Please correct me If I'm wrong. :)

The Perspective brush from Sacha's workshop

jimsvanberg — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:07:44 GMT

I watched the video of Sacha Diener from issue 46 when he uses a brush that makes up the perspective lines. And I have tried several times to duplicate that brush so I make perspective lines just as quick. But I just don't get it :(

It would be cool if Sacha could share this brush ith us But actualy I can't beleive that there is not a tool for this in Photoshop yet :(

question about brushes for Justin Gerard's worshop issue 45

nothingta2 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:34:57 GMT

I just had a quick question about the file provided on the DVD of issue 45 for the water colour to digital workshop from Justin Gerard.

I am using a mac and when I try to open the file it just opens the stickies application and shows nothing, when I try to open it in photoshop or painter it says its not a readable file. I got the issue from the book store I always pick it up at, but all the issues were slightly damaged but I got it anyway. I noticed a little bit of damage on the disc so I was wondering if that could be why I can not open it or if I am doing something wrong, All the other files on the disc so far have worked without any problems.

the name of the file on the dvd is JGMonsterBrushes_IFX.tpl

but it only shows a blank page as an icon, preview also shows nothing,

Thank you.

Where are the brushes?

jacobi-1-kenobi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:37:28 GMT

To Fionas workshop?

Just me that missed where it is?

Marta Dahlig's skin tutorial (issue 24)

Onatopp — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:40:35 GMT

I've been hunting this magazine for some time now and Dahlig's workshop is the reason why. Sadly I missed a chance to get it from E-bay a while back and now I can't find it anywhere. I regularly check the workshop section of the website but it hasn't been updated in some time. I wonder if anyone knows of a way for me to get the magazine or the workshop?

Marta's Guide to Painting faces

neeko — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:23:28 GMT

Holy crap..I can't stop drooling over this workshop in Issue 41. I've see Marta's workshops since the beginning of time and have always been a fan, but this one was so astounding from the tips on color choices to the "always hard for me black socket for eyes start" tip. And the fact it spanned 6 pages without being trimmed to less left me wanting more.

Then I saw it said "Part One"

*faints

Lets make a bee superhero!

BlackWolfMan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:42:47 GMT

I want to make a super hero suit, but i have difficulties making a pattern. I want to make a pattern on the suit shaped as pentagon formas. I can do it by hand, but i'm thinking that there's got to be an easier way of doing it digitaly? I did see how people make the spider man suit on the youtube, but i want a pattern that is less visible then the spider man suit, but it is still there if you look closely. Is there a collection of patterns i can download from somewhere or do you guys have a tutorial for that?

Any ideas for me guys?

Marta Dahlig - Tutorial from Issue 2

seanysean — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:22:03 GMT

Although I've been getting ImagineFX since issue 1 I've only just started properly 'having a go'. This tutorial seemed like a good first one to try for a beginner like me.

I messsed up towards the end and flattened the image before i painted the background, so I decided to leave it without a proper background. Apart from that I was quite pleased with my effort (although there is quite a bit I don't like about it.)

Any comments or tips are welcome, Thanks.

Magic manga heroine

silentbobuk — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:08:28 GMT

Love this tutorial and I just about managed to muddle my way through it with one of my own images but I thought the stage in which 'colour flats' layer was created was a little vague and skipped over.

Can anyone break this down for me a bit? are those flat browns on seperate layers? how were those tones chosen etc?

Thanks!

Marta!!! help me!!!

smritiaeon — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:07:01 GMT

I had made a portrait but it has turned out to be quite flat... How can I bring some realism to my paintings?

I made the character first and then the background... I find it really difficult to compose a painting too Please give me some feedback on this picture...

Dahlig's second face-painting tutorial

Haversack — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:02:53 GMT

Howdy!

Thanks to Marta for this. Though i do admire this style of painting, i never really bother myself with(i'm too lazy to go into the fine detail that you do, a mere scribblescruff i am), this was really enjoyable, made the techniques accessible, and i'm sure it will be useful in future. Maybe i will clean up my act a bit.

Also, can i say, Marta, i think you are a little harsh on your subject. I think she's really attractive! Is that just me, or what? So much more interesting to look at than the usual airbrushed doll-face. More irregular faces please!

Issue 39 - Mathew Savage 'cyberman' workshop

comixnut — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:49:03 GMT

Hey guys a bit of a lurker here but i have been a regular buyer of the mag (have a 'poor man's subscription' :D) and i was wondering something about this particular workshop.

I have never been much for the pen tool but since we started doing illustrator at school i have been enjoying it. So i noticed that when Mr Savage makes use of the pen tool in photoshop he does it in the paths palette. Is there a particular reason for doing it this way rather than in the regular layers? It makes a shape layer for itself anyway right? Any pros and cons?

Cheers,

Now there's a chalenge for you all ImagineFX lovers!

BlackWolfMan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:14:48 GMT

I have never seen a tutorial that hade lookt unique. That's why i want to put a chalenge out there to anyone who dares to step away from their usual style of painting beautiful looking wemen with flowers around them everywhere to guys who paint robots and dangerous looking plane with gatling guns stapt to them.

The chalenge is:-

Paint an organic robot. Or paint a robot that is half machine and half organic. For example. Make him or her be dangerous in the front with all the weapons you usualy paint with all the armour. And the back of that thing is half insect and half jelly fish in the buble or some enlarged organism.

And put him or her in a situation and not just posing around. Like for example. this robot looking thing just came out of the sea and he's looking down to the litle girl who stands in front of him and giving him a candy or something.

I know that Andrew Jones, Francis Tsai, Jonny Duddle could probably do it with their cool twist but why cant you girls try this one. Put flowers on the robot if you cant resist, but try this chalenge.

Now this is a bloody chalenge for you!

Well?................................no body is piking upp the chalenge? Ow well, that's too bad profecionals.

Dahlig's Light Tutorial

vonolckers — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:58:10 GMT

This is late, as I've been playing around with it.. a bunch...

I think I grasp the entire tutorial really well except for one part - she uses blending modes to mix paint.

I've been able to figure out almost exactly what she does for 2 of them, but a rundown of what blending modes were used where would be super helpful. (Maybe even Opacity and Flow, too >_>)

Sorry if this has been touched on somewhere else, I've not picked apart this forum in a while...

Raymond Swanland Workshop

Haversack — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:38:32 GMT

Howdy,

At one point in this workshop, a kind of translucent 'Halo' is laid over the image with overlay and hard light layers, but nothing is said about how to go about actually creating these sorts of shapes. Is it some sort of vector graphic? Does anyone have an idea?

Daryl Mandryk Tutorial from ages ago - June 2006

Haversack — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:41:30 GMT

In this workshop, Mr. Mandryk seperates his sketch into mid, back and foreground layers using quickmasks. But when i try this, i can only get one mask on the image at any one time. Does anyone know how you can seperate Quickmasked elements into layers, whilst still keeping the selections?

Ice Cubes

tickledpink — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:10:26 GMT

I was just wondering if anyone has ran across a tutorial on painting ice cubes. I tried applying Henning's tutorial in the last issue on how to paint icicles and it didn't work the same. I don't have a background to work with so if anyone knows of a way to get that same effect without refraction I would be most appreciative.

If there isn't a tutorial on it I would have to request that Henning go a little further into his icicle workshop :o)

Thanks, in advance.

~Jessie

how long has arttrek been going for in IFX?

spikey88 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:04:11 GMT

Ive been reading since issue 20 and have every mag up to the most recent. Just curious if arttrek has appeared on the DVD before issue 20 and if so, from which issue?

your workshop versions

Marcuss — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:46:24 GMT

Looking at Issue 21's workshop "DRAWN OF THE DEAD" by Aly fell ( which i bow down to and say im not worthy to) i was wondering if people were intrsted in posting there versions of the workshops

Marek Okon files

JohnMalcolm1970 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:40:01 GMT

When can we expect to see the missing files from Marek Okon's recent tutorial in the download section? There was IIRC no layered PSD file on the disk as mentioned in the tutorial either. Shame we didn't get any video with this one... it was an awesome image and tutorial.

How do I stop drawing dead people

geldslaw — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:28:47 GMT

I'm new to art and obviously lots of good advice has been said about studying anatomy. I'm at a point now where as a copy artist I can get really good comments but I am not creating any of my own ideas. I have also noticed that a lot of artist technically are competent they draw all the right bits in the right places but how come it seems that when it comes to giving life to the character they draw a zombie?

How do I go about as I develop my characters avoid drawing mannequin faced characters?

How can I paint realistic hair?

savvykazi — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:48:34 GMT

I'm not sure if real looking hair has been covered in an Imagine FX issue, except for issue 029 did have the workshop that I did for my display picture, but I still feel like I'm missing a step to reality. I feel like the hair I come up with, using a custom brush, comes out looking like I took a copper wire scrub brush to some paint.This problem with real looking hair keeps arising and I need to know a routine way to make good looking hair. Please, I need help.

Thanks

Jason Chang "Long String Rice" Paper: where can I find this kind of paper?

TheKing78 — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:37:04 GMT

I really like Jason Chan's Art and I noticed that he often uses a very intersting kind of paper in Painter in order to achive textured background using brushes like Chalks.

In the video he did for Massive Black I learned that he has this paper under the name of "Long String Rice" but unfortunately I didn't find this special paper on the web or also in the ImagineFx DVDs so I wonder if someone here knows how to find it or to create one similar to this.

A picture where you can see this brush used in the background is in the entering page of Jason CHan's Website http://www.jasonchanart.com/

You can see all that straight lines that are the kind of paper I'm looking for.

I appreciate if anyone can help me finding it!

Thank you

Pierluigi Abbondanza