Charlotte's Works

Yeah I did look at hoatzin to figure out the pose of the male... (The one with the blue breast) and also some smaller birds with similar colours to the image (same colours, different feathers and patterns) but I just can't decide where I want the light to be coming from and I think that's where I got stuck with the birds. That and those awful leaves. I just don't like them, but I don't want to paint everything with the same detail either...

Charlotte Ahlgren wrote: I'm back to the issue of the colours greying out the more I paint. Darn you ArtRage.

What tools do you use in ArtRage?

The "natural" colour blending can often seem a little erratic. With me the oil brush can end up producing very odd vibrant greens and yellows and the chalk tool can lead to muddiness. For that reason 95% of the work in my ArtRage pictures is done with just the airbrush. The hard edged option (introduced in version 3.5) is great for detailing, the soft option is good for smooth gradients and transitions, the drip function adds texture but best of all the colour just sits on top of all the other paint without any odd mixing.
I consciously made the switch to ArtRage from Photoshop a couple of months ago after seeing the caricatures of Yoann Lori (check them out on YouTube, he's just done a great one of Emilia Clarke) and the airbrush is the tool that made that transition more comfortable for me.

We seem to use it in completely opposite ways then...

The oil brush is the one that greys things out for me. I mostly use chalk (wax does very odd things with colour) or ink. Ink always produces hard edges but can be fairly smoothly blended if used at low opacity. Watercolour works sometimes and sometimes only seem to make everything black (something like a multiply effect gone wrong).

I've never been able to control the air brush - the pointer on the screen just keeps flipping around like crazy so I can't see what I'm doing and the paint always becomes unevenely transparent so I get blobs all over the place...
Actually I have to take that all back - just tried it and it seems it's been changed in the last version (patch) to something more controllable. (But it was like that with 4.5 for me... now have 4.5.2)

Charlotte Ahlgren wrote: I've never been able to control the air brush - the pointer on the screen just keeps flipping around like crazy

Hmm, is that something to do with the stylus tilt?
I never have to bother with that cos I use one of those old Wacom Bamboo tablets that don't have tilt sensors. With that it just makes the airbrush like Photoshop's Hard Round/Soft Round brushes. I guess that's why it made the switch easier for me.

I think so. There's a tilt angle setting that turns it from a circle to an ellipse that changes orientation based on pen direction (and which you don't see while actually drawing) but it wasn't like that before. It was always an ellipse and it was always spinning wildly lol maybe a bug. Glad it's fixed, though.

Tried to get somewhere with my christmas card. Decided to increase the size too... Pretty much not happy with anything at this point But it's not feeling all together hopeless either...

Looking good! I think the image could use more overall contrast or stronger highlights to make it pop. Maybe add another light source? The picture has a desaturated flat feel. The composition is very pleasing through.

Thanks Crank. Desaturated images is a joint fault of me and ArtRage I think In this case I don't really want too much pop, but the spruce in the background is particularly drab... A problem with the ArtRage oil paints which seem to always become more and more desaturated the longer you paint. I've tried adjusting layers colours but that just makes it look like some wierd psychedelic Idunnowhat. I'll probably end up having to repaint it - again (I've lost count).

Today I've repainted the candle holder and the moss, and added in the ivy. Happier than I expected with the ivy, but I bet I'll find fault with it tomorrow Just now it's my focal point, which is hopefully only due to it being new in the image. The pine cones need to be repainted and I have a feeling I'll end up having to repaint the whole hyacinth... I felt it worked the way I'd painted it, when the image was smaller but now - at full size - it's too obviously sloppy.

Enough talk.

Not sure why you're not liking it that much, but I think it's looking good. The ivy looks great, as well as the candle holder and plants. I can kind of see your point on the BG spruce, but it still doesn't look that bad. Maybe adding some light snow on it? Might give it a little pop to help out? Just a thought.

I think this is absolutely beautiful!

So many different textures and objects of interest. Outstanding stuff!

The one thing that I think might add something (and it's just an idea) is maybe some sort of patterned background. Perhaps if it was on a low opacity?