Topic: NintendoLife Artists Thread

Just done a trawl through some of my old Miiverse posts to find something, and though I'd post a few old, slightly bizarre pictures I dug up.

Sorry if that was a bit OTT. I don't want to have to wait for the page to keep loading itself again to get to the bottom.

@TomJ Shading is pretty good. What do you think of my drawing?

I'm currently ruminating on a the design of a "Fakémon" - because apparently I haven't grown out of that sort of thing. In fact, I think it's probably my first earnest attempt.

Anyway, here's the work so far:

Apart from the obvious tidying up that needs doing, I've ground to a bit of a half on a few areas. Mainly, the details of the face, but also quite how to give it arms. I'm thinking some sort of drapey things where the precursory lines are currently, but vines are another possibility. I feel something robe-like would make the whole thing look a bit more... operatic, but I'm not sure quite how to implement them.

Anyway, tips/advice/feedback of any kind very much appreciated.

EDIT: After a little more work:

And a little more:

And... I decided to scrap the idea of legs (or any connection to the ground whatsoever) so as to fit the 'floaty' aesthetic that I thought was present the rest of the design. Also, I gave it a smile, as I got a bit sick of it looking grumpy. Not entirely sure about the last step, but I think it simplifies a design that was potentially too 'busy' in terms of elements and colours. I think it felt disconcertingly tall and layered before - a bit like a totem pole - meaning its face (which is pretty small) got lost.

I was just saying to myself two days ago: "Gee, I sure miss @Latte" Well, there we go. I'd ask where you've been, but then I saw the second picture, and well...it's okay now. Everything will be alright. We're just glad to have you back.

Also, does that Bellsprout hammer double as a net?

I always forget those bugnets, too. I'm keeping the hammer-net idea in my back pocket, just in case...

And yeah, I came back in June during E3. Figured I'd talk about the games Nintendo showed off. All 3 of them!...

You reminded me, though, I haven't drawn since last July (like, 2015's July!), despite having a fancy drawing desk set up in my apartment's bedroom...well...it's Labor Day, I guess it can't hurt to change things up. I ain't posting anything online, though. I don't need any extra pressure clamming me up...

I haven't posted anything here for a while. I guess I'll fix that.

Here's almost all of my black and white pixel art I've made in the last couple of years. I've already shared some of it but it's easier to share all at once instead of picking ones I haven't shown yet. I decided to divide them so that Zero Escape gets its own picture. All of the ZE pixel art was created for "Thank You Zero Escape" project, except for one character I created today since the fan project happened before Zero Time Dilemma.

Nice! @Late
I made this yesterday

@16bitdave: Nice job! It's good to see other people who enjoy making black and white pixel art. I ran your picture through a solver out of curiosity if it could work as a nonogram but as I suspected, it doesn't. Of course, you didn't design it with nonograms in mind so there's even smaller chance. There are over 20000 different solutions (the program is still finding more). I just wanted to give people an idea how much I have to fine tune some pictures to make them have just one possible solution and even when a program finds just one solution it doesn't always mean that it's solvable by a human.

I've been on a roll recently and I've made over 80 different images since my previous post. That's about 5 images a day. I hope I can resist the urge to share them since I want to keep some of my puzzles as a secret so that there's at least something left for a surprise once I finish making my game.

@Late Damn ur a busy guy haha Yeah I sort of just started doing pixel designs for fun a year or so ago. Just use a cheesy site http://piq.codeus.net. I'm not sure what monogram is. I enjoy your work!

@16bitdave: I use Paint and Aseprite as my tools. Paint works fine for me unless I need transparency or animations. Nonograms are Japanese puzzles where you uncover the picture by filling a grid according to hint numbers which tell you how many blocks should be colored on each row and column. They're also known as picross, griddlers, etc. I'm obsessed with them.

EDIT: I just realized that we both have a bunny avatar since I just changed mine a day or two ago.

@Late Ahhh ok I know Picross! That's cool. How do you like that Aseprite site? I'm going to add you as a friend on my Wii U so if you get a request today it's probably me.

@16bitdave: Picross is obviously much more recognizable name here since Nintendo uses it but I've been trying to avoid using it since I can't name my game with the word Picross in it since I believe Nintendo owns the name.

Aseprite is a nice program. It has all the tools I need and an user friendly interface. I don't like Gimp so I searched for a better tool to create assets for my games and Aseprite popped up. It's strictly for pixel art purposes, you can't really make traditional art with it but I have other programs for that. It was a free download back when I got it two years ago but I decided to donate $10 anyway since I liked the program. Now it seems to be $15 but I think it's a fair price. It's not a necessary tool for me but I rather use it than many other programs.

@Late Nice I'll have to look into that. $15 Isn't too bad.

Hey, just thought I'd post this while I'm here: http://briskby.tumblr.com/

That tumblr has a lot of artistic tips, analyzations, references, and other good stuff for those looking interested in learning the finer points from people who make art. Granted, a lot of it is geared towards talking/anthropomorphic animals, but I was just browsing through the archive, and I'm seeing stuff that run the whole gambit of interests. There's still the main problem I have with Tumblr in general, that being how poorly organized it is - If you want something specific, you're probably better off looking elsewhere, unless you get lucky, or you're really dilligent.

But it's been doing a good job of sating my curiousity, and giving me some ideas I might use in the future. So I thought might be worth sharing with you guys.

I'm a musical artist (not very good at drawing or painting).

Show my video some love, ya'll!!! Peace

Not sure if there's an actual 'Art Academy' thread, but even if so I assume it's long dead.

Anyway, I got back into it the other day and continued my run through the game's tutorials. I say "run". "Crawl" might be more accurate, as I've yet to develop the confidence or technique to draw with much speed or assuredness, but I'm generally happy with what's come out the other end.

Lillies (Charcoal)

Strawberry (Pastel)

Egg (Paint)

I think the strawberry came out well. The egg definitely still needs some work; some of the reflections are off, and I think the egg white needs some 'grounding'. And I think the lillies are the most emo thing I've ever drawn. And I'm pretty sure I've drawn things that were deliberately meant to be emo.

Anyway, it's a cracking little programme (egg puns!), even if actually producing anything on it takes (me) forever and is weirdly exhausting. Some of the lessons have some really insightful stuff in them. Or at least it sounds insightful. And they're always really charmingly narrated. It makes you want to do the next lesson, just to hear what Vince has to say on it.

niceeeee!@Maxz

@Maxz I haven't progressed very far in Art Academy Atelier, but I have done and enjoyed the Lilies lesson - quite simple technique and easy to follow, but produces a great result.

Your strawberry looks fantastic - well done! I haven't tried that one yet.

I wish Atelier had off-screen play - as far as I can establish, to follow a lesson you have to have the TV displaying the subject, which is why I've not got very far with it. Split screen or an easy gamepad display toggle would be good, but I think you can only toggle the TV display, not the gamepad.

@16bitdave Thank you!

@gcunit I definitely recommend giving it another shot. I left it untouched for several months after completing the tomato and apple. I got inspired to get back into it after returning from Japan and wanting to use the SD card functionality to paint a particular Kyoto scene I'd taken on my camera. That project itself turned out awfully (rather than 'vibrant', Kyoto's foliage ended up disturbingly radioactive), but it gave me a chance to take a few more of the lessons, and then I got back into the swing of things.

My school was particularly renowned for its Art Department, but all that really meant was that it did more wacky contemporary nonsense than anywhere else in the area. As such, I didn't learn much classical art theory beyond complementary colours (although I got quite good at making giant floating wombs out of bed linen and tents), so this definitely feels like it's filling an educational hole.

It's particularly useful as I've never had much technique beyond, "try to make the thing on the page look exactly like the target-object at all times", whereas the techniques taught in the game generally start more... generally, and then hone in on the detail as the lesson progresses.

I've always envied cartoonists (and other artists) who seem to be able to push forward with their works so confidently and purposefully (rather than getting caught up in every detail), and I feel the included lessons are a good way of building a bedrock of technique and developing a universal approach to drawing that should help the whole process become more fluid. That's important to me because although I more-or-less feel that 'I can draw', it's a long way from effortless, and I still stare at most blank canvases with an uneasy sense that I don't really know what I'm doing; like some sort of art-specific 'imposter syndrome'.

With regards to the lack of off-screen play, my guess it that the game wants you to practice drawing with the target and canvas in two locations, so you're looking up and down at two images and trying to make one look like the other (just like real drawing innit). If you could alternate between them on the gamepad, it'd be pretty easy to rapidly switch between the two and essentially trace over the original image rather than do it by eye. Or if you had both images on the gamepad simultaneously, you'd reduce the real estate for drawing pretty sharply. I suppose it'd still be bigger than the 3DS screen (and there are several AA games for that), but I feel it'd be a bit of a heavy penalty. I like the luxury of having enough screen to draw on that it doesn't feel cramped or awkward, and being able to literally stay aware of 'the bigger picture' at all times.

It's a bit hard for Wii U games, as they're always sacrificing one of the console's USPs for the sake of the other; either you have a game which takes advantage of two-screen gaming (but inevitably loses off-screen play), or you have off-screen play, but probably also a pretty standard single-screen game that could be played on almost any other console. For an art game, I personally think it's fair enough to focus on dividing the target and the canvas between gamepad and TV, especially given that the 3DS games provide the software in a genuinely portable capacity.

But yeah, if you find yourself with some time and access to the TV, I recommend giving it another go. The lessons get more interesting as you progress, and I feel I've learnt some pretty subtle but important stuff I never would have done without the game. I found the egg lesson's spiel on 'colour temperature' particularly interesting.

@Maxz Oh don't worry - I've definitely not given up on it. I love the series, but as a complete rookie, I do need to (a) have plenty of free TV time to dedicate to doing a lesson and (b) not feel tired, cos if I feel tired (work & kids) then I just don't have the mental energy for a lesson and need to play a game instead.