Pro tips

[CR0M]

Elf you might wanna help out here too, tricks you've picked up over the years from experience that n00by beginners will find useful. Or not.

Use horizontal flip
When you've been working on a piccy for a while, flip it and suddenly you can see all the mistakes - scaling, perspective etc.
This is an old trick that has been used for decades by looking at paintings or drawings in a mirror. Repeat until it looks 'right'.

Accurate colours
Peripheral vision is more sensitive to colour. Look at any image and go cross-eyed enough to blur it, and the colours become more obvious. Useful for making a palette.

Accurate contrast
Same trick as the colour one, but look through almost closed eyes to see a greater contrast between light and dark areas. Helps shading.

Space shapes
As well as concentrating on outlines and the edges of things look at the shapes of the space in between stuff. Helps with sketching and composition.

Black = BAD
If you want realism in a full colour painting, don't use black for shadows - use a dark tint of a colour or a combination of colours. black doesn't exist in real life, only in artificial images like photos or prints. Shadows on sunny days aren't actually dark at all, they are lit by a reflection of the colours around them.

more when I get the time.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Study Perspective
Study it, learn it, know it backwards. Everything relies on perspective and it can mean the difference between a great image and a terrible image.

Dont run before you can walk
Dont try copy the greats out there five minutes after picking up a pencil, brush, airbrush, grip pen or chalk. They've been doing it most of their lives, but even they started from somewhere. Concentrate on simple things to begin with and work your way up as you improve.

Primary colors vs Shades
Primary colors have their place, but rarely in a proper image will you find pure red's or greens or as CROM says black. They might look like pure colors but they rarely are, use off whites, pinks for highlights on red objects. You'll rarely ever need pure colors unless doing popart

Lighting & Shadow
As important as perspective, a great image can be ruined by forgetting which direction the brightest light source is coming from and mixing things up. Even if there are a number of major light sources, getting the light and shadow wrong will ruin it. Use the below suggestion for help

3D standin geometry
Use a free 3D program or demo if you can't afford a professional application. Learn to build basic geometry of an image you plan on creating, believe it or not just understanding how to build something goes a long way to knowing how to paint it. Experiment with lighting and shadows, colors and perspectives and angles with this simplified geometry to go from a basic staged scene to one which has more life in it.

Scene setting
Plan ahead. Few artists jump straight into an image with no planning.. Many look like they do, a very few can. But the majority will plan ahead. Draw little sketches and doodles of sections of their image, work out where to place various objects in the scene. Also consider what the image will be used for. A book cover should be created differently from a CD sleeve or a poster. Think about what else might end up on the image. Perhaps a logo at some point, so think where that logo will be and don't put the most important part of your image where its going to end up hidden. Use very simple circles, triangles, squares to block out where the important parts of the image will be with regards the extra's that'll be placed onto it at a later stage.

Blocking
One method of painting/coloring is to place down the dominant colors in an image and move down to smaller and smaller details, cleaning up edges as you go.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Figures
Don't draw people side on or facing forward with arms and hands out as if they had a rod up their ass. Kids do that, not artists. Pose them correctly befitting the scene. Rarely if ever will your subject be posing for the "camera"

Character Action shots
So you've got a scene which calls for some guy blowing seven hells out of a bunch of robots.. First thought would be to do just that. But don't, its cliche and boring. Create the image during a break in combat, maybe he's catching his breath seconds before another wave attacks him. Maybe paint the guy from the back, looking over his shoulder as if your viewing him from the robots point of view, perhaps to show the impending doom, cast shadows (not black!) of the robots across the ground and him. Almost like a quick moment just as he turns to see them, spins around and fights. Or perhaps do the image with him resting and injured. But yeah, avoid the action itself, it always comes out bad, and isn't really much good for anything but comics. Not to mention a guy shooting some big weapon isn't that interesting.

Skin tones
People aren't pink. period. Look at your character, what are they wearing, does it show a lot of skin, if so would they normally wear clothes that show that part of the body. Take into account very few people have all over body tans. Think about your character and his/her environment. Are they always exposed in the sun, ok they might have mostly all over tan, but its not realistic, make it interesting, slight untanned area's. Has your character been taken out of his/her office environment to fight some beasties.. Its unlikely that character will be tanned, even if they might be, it wouldn't seem as realistic to people. Make the skin lighter pale shades.

Take into account what they are doing. They've just been in some big battle, chances are their faces will be flushed, and their chest. maybe sweaty looking. Or maybe they are in extreme colds, the skin will be redder where the blood vessels are closer to the skin. But not everywhere. Thats the trick, no human body has the same coloration all over, tanned or not. Depending on how far below the skin the blood vessels are, the skin has a slight red or blue tint to it, along with how the environment and their actions are effecting them.

Skin is also translucent, only by a very slight amount but it makes a big difference if you bare that in mind.

Lastly don't forget the envrionment itself. slight reflections of light from other surfaces, and the lighting in general will effect how your characters skin appears. So don't forget how light will play across the surface of skin. Including shadows.

 

[Sui]

Wow, those tips really are uber helpful. Most of them are obvios, but even if they are, you never really think about them... you might do one or two right, but actually following all these points would really help in a picture.

/me bows down to CROM and Dark elf, the kings of HL2.net art

 

[CR0M]

Try layers
Start with a background colour, keep this on the bottom of the layer stack. Then on a new layer make a line sketch. Keep this on top as a semi-transparent guide.
In between work up different parts of the image on new layers, example: layer1 - scenery, layer2 - warriors body, layer3 - warriors head, layer4 - foreground.
Each layer can then be worked on, moved around and mistakes are easier to undo. When you are happy with all the elements merge the layers down and finish off the whole piccy with some after effects.

Vectors v bitmaps
Vector software such as Flash and Freehand let you create small filesize images using sheets of flat colour that can be re-sized keeping sharp edges, whereas Bitmaps like jpegs, gifs etc. pixellate every time they are resized and get more and more blurred n fuzzy.
To avoid this, when u start a new image make the canvas the size and resolution you want the final artwork to be and don't resize it.

Other artists
These are a few fantasy artists I respect and learned from during my first few years as an illustrator:
Jim Burns
Boris Vallejo
Syd Mead
HR Giger
Chris Achilleos
Roger Dean

Jim Burns captures the most natural poses I've seen in paintings, almost as though they briefly glimpse you looking at them at that moment (see Elf's Figures above for what NOT to do), Boris uses colours like nobody else and Syd Mead (Bladerunner designer) is a futurist design genius, and a little weird looking.

 

[Nostradamus]

Know your anatomy
Study it and never stop!
Go to figure drawing classes(croquis), draw from life, draw from life, studi people...look at the length of their arms...NOTICE it... study bones and muscles...



Know your perspective
Single most important part in realistic art.
Look at "how much" of a person you can see when you look at them from behind...not much!
Keep that in mind when drawing... some poeple tend to want to have the ntire arm showing in you see a person from behind...odds are you will only see the back of the upper arm and not the hands...NOT THE HANDS!

 

[CR0M]

Talking of hands...
Use your own hand as a model
Hands are a pain in the butt to draw and get right, so draw your non-drawing hand in loads of different positions - you get used to it very quickly and it's always handy (hyuck hyuck hyuck). use your hand as the model for the hands of a figure. Draw and flip it horizontally for a right hand (if you're right handed, left if you're left handed)

Don't get absorbed with every line and crease, concentrate more on the proportions and bone structure of the fingers, the way the hand bends and it's limitations.

 

[CptStern]

computer related:

resolution sizes:

for print typically you use:

300 dpi for magazines (can be larger)
150 dpi for newspaper images

images for web pages/email/flash/multimedia:
always 72 dpi

image file formats:
JPEG for photos (TIFF or EPS if it's for print). GIF's for flat images (cartoons or 2-256 colours). TIFF or EPS for high resolution images. PNG for transparencies on web

colour formats:

RGB for web, CMYK for print (Pantone, process etc), Index Colour for GIF's

computer related tips:

never enlarge an image more than 130% if it's at high resolution

need to draw a shape? example: a trophy (a shape that is identical on both sides). Draw half of it in Illustrator, select and go to: Object > Transform> Reflect ..hit copy button, select both objects and go to Pathfinder tab and select Join paths

make use of photoshop layers. I personally use multiple layers when drawing any image ..that way when I have to make a minor change I can easily go to the layer that has that part on it (example ...part of a face), change it without affecting anything around it. Especially useful for animating

drawing related:

always create thumbnail sketches before working on the main composition. Work out all the problems in a small area before you start working on the final piece

always use references. Dont know how to draw a foot? ...use google, find images and use it as reference. Cant find the angle you need ?...take a photo of it, trace it in Illustrator if you cant do it manually. NEVER draw from memory a real world object

perspective: always use vanishing points

Drawing Faces: all faces are symetrical (unless you've had a disfiguring accident). Use guide lines for correct placement of eyes ears nose

 

[Sulkdodds]

Educational.

 

[Pro[pH]et]

Wow, very nice tips. Thanks a lot guys.

 

[Sparta]

Primary colors vs Shades
Primary colors have their place, but rarely in a proper image will you find pure red's or greens or as CROM says black. They might look like pure colors but they rarely are, use off whites, pinks for highlights on red objects. You'll rarely ever need pure colors unless doing popart

Also, don't be afraid to experiment with different shades of colours and what not. Depending on what you're doing, an "abnormal" (purple, green, red) shade can bring the scene to life, much more then a normal shade colour.

Lighting & Shadow
As important as perspective, a great image can be ruined by forgetting which direction the brightest light source is coming from and mixing things up. Even if there are a number of major light sources, getting the light and shadow wrong will ruin it. Use the below suggestion for help

Also, when using multiple light sources, remember that the colours of the light can mix. When used properly this can bring a whole ton of really snazzy lighting effects.

Also, i've discovered out that the best way to practice shading and anatomy is by drawing, either, someone near you, or drawing a part of yourself, such as your hands (as Crom said), feet, face, etc.

And when drawing perspective, remember that, depending on the view, there can be up to 3 points, X Y Z. However, most of the time you'll just be using X and Z.

 

[1chimera1]

Does anyone know where i can find tutorials on the net (free obviously) on drawing people, chracters, figures etc? I found a good one one proportions etc. But i need more than that one. Anyone have any more tips on it either? thanks

 

[CR0M]

best thing to do is practice from life. Get a friend to pose for you. Give them cheese, or shiny paper, and they might even pose nude.

Or just go out with a sketchpad, sit and draw strangers.
This is also a good way to pick up chicks. Tip: NEVER draw them fatter than they are unless you like pain.

Learning from 2D pictures means you'll only be able to draw flat looking 2D images, you need to look with your own eyes at stuff to really understand the volume and structure of something.

g'luck