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Ever since I started doing art I have really struggled with body prep... in particular the smudging step. I find that I always seem to over smudge and loose detail and make things all muddy, then I try again after turning my brush settings down a tad and there is barely any effect. I usually manage to make something that looks okay using layers and opacity etc, but it still feels like the effect isn't uniform and there is almost always texture left over that really annoys me. I want a more realistic look to my pieces so I want to preserve a fair bit of detail and I'm not aiming to repaint the whole horse (I'm not good enough to paint all the detail back in lol). But I don't feel I can leave the stock untouched either... I want em smoothish! Does anyone have any tips that might help me strike a better balance? I use GIMP 2.10 so it would be extra awesome to hear from fellow gimp users but most other software has tools that translate over. Here are some recent examples, not sure how obvious it is in the final product but it still frustrates me lol (here is my gallery for more examples) Thank you in advance <33 
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No advice here but.. Your body prep was what I tried to replicate when doing my recent pieces :) Whatever you're doing, I think it looks great 🤷♀️ |
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Oh my that's such a compliment thank you!!! Maybe it's my perfectionism getting to me.... I just struggle to grapple with small details not being exactly how I want them... maybe what I need is some perspective xD
Florestä said:
No advice here but.. Your body prep was what I tried to replicate when doing my recent pieces :) Whatever you're doing, I think it looks great 🤷♀️
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So, to me, your smudging looks pretty good honestly. Personally, I would lower the opacity on the clipping layer more. Don't smudge the face (especially if you have good stock) or if you still feel like you need to, do it on another layer and lower opacity even more than the body. Sometimes I do this with legs too. Also avoid directly smudging shadow lines or really bright lines too. Unless your planning to repaint the lighting of the horse. You've got a good start, something that helps too, is going back in a repainting highlights and sometimes lowlights in shadows and things of muscle. I didn't think it was worth my time either, but it truly does make it pop. I think,... hmm. I can't quite remember the artists name, but she does like, those quick art manip videos on YouTube and one of them really helped explain how to do them well and in depth with a good example to follow. if anyone knows who im talking about please help lol. She was an amazing artists on HEE a bit ago too! . Anyways, with smudging, it takes very little to overdo it. I personally don't think it's very over done at all with your art. Smudge in circles. And carefully. Take your time. Use lower brush levels and opacitys. It will take longer but it will look just more professional. <3 . Use better horse stock. In general, they will be less grainy with will let you preserve more detail without repainting it all back in. |
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Oooh it was Wings. Wings of Glory. But I don't know what her youtube was called. Anyways, she had some GREAT videos that I highly recommend watching! |
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Tranquility said:
Oooh it was Wings. Wings of Glory. But I don't know what her youtube was called. Anyways, she had some GREAT videos that I highly recommend watching!
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Tranquility said:
So, to me, your smudging looks pretty good honestly. Personally, I would lower the opacity on the clipping layer more. Don't smudge the face (especially if you have good stock) or if you still feel like you need to, do it on another layer and lower opacity even more than the body. Sometimes I do this with legs too. Also avoid directly smudging shadow lines or really bright lines too. Unless your planning to repaint the lighting of the horse. You've got a good start, something that helps too, is going back in a repainting highlights and sometimes lowlights in shadows and things of muscle. I didn't think it was worth my time either, but it truly does make it pop. I think,... hmm. I can't quite remember the artists name, but she does like, those quick art manip videos on YouTube and one of them really helped explain how to do them well and in depth with a good example to follow. if anyone knows who im talking about please help lol. She was an amazing artists on HEE a bit ago too! . Anyways, with smudging, it takes very little to overdo it. I personally don't think it's very over done at all with your art. Smudge in circles. And carefully. Take your time. Use lower brush levels and opacitys. It will take longer but it will look just more professional. <3 . Use better horse stock. In general, they will be less grainy with will let you preserve more detail without repainting it all back in.
That is super helpful thank you so so much! I definitely need to be pickier on the stock front... I don't really have the option of using paid stock so I'll have to up my standards while trawling through DA lol
KPH Equestrian said:
Tranquility said:
Oooh it was Wings. Wings of Glory. But I don't know what her youtube was called. Anyways, she had some GREAT videos that I highly recommend watching!
You're amazing thank you!!! <3 I've never seen them before so a great resource to have |
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omg your art is gorgeousss ♥️♥️♥️ you can redefine details by making a new clipping layer, take a light or white color and define the highlights parts set the layer mode to soft light or overlay (you can play around and see which one looks best), then smudge it a bit, and then lower opacity and do the same for shadows, but with dark color or black and sometimes multiply layer mode works best for this heres basically the same thing but with pics lol and from rhiaan, super talented artist! golden hall stables also has a super cool tutorial in the forums somewhere give me a sec ill find it edit: found it! they also have some other great tutorials in this same thread! |
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This is willows how to do horses |
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SilverFern Stables said:
Tranquility said:
So, to me, your smudging looks pretty good honestly. Personally, I would lower the opacity on the clipping layer more. Don't smudge the face (especially if you have good stock) or if you still feel like you need to, do it on another layer and lower opacity even more than the body. Sometimes I do this with legs too. Also avoid directly smudging shadow lines or really bright lines too. Unless your planning to repaint the lighting of the horse. You've got a good start, something that helps too, is going back in a repainting highlights and sometimes lowlights in shadows and things of muscle. I didn't think it was worth my time either, but it truly does make it pop. I think,... hmm. I can't quite remember the artists name, but she does like, those quick art manip videos on YouTube and one of them really helped explain how to do them well and in depth with a good example to follow. if anyone knows who im talking about please help lol. She was an amazing artists on HEE a bit ago too! . Anyways, with smudging, it takes very little to overdo it. I personally don't think it's very over done at all with your art. Smudge in circles. And carefully. Take your time. Use lower brush levels and opacitys. It will take longer but it will look just more professional. <3 . Use better horse stock. In general, they will be less grainy with will let you preserve more detail without repainting it all back in.
That is super helpful thank you so so much! I definitely need to be pickier on the stock front... I don't really have the option of using paid stock so I'll have to up my standards while trawling through DA lol
KPH Equestrian said:
Tranquility said:
Oooh it was Wings. Wings of Glory. But I don't know what her youtube was called. Anyways, she had some GREAT videos that I highly recommend watching!
You're amazing thank you!!! <3 I've never seen them before so a great resource to have
Of course! And btw DancesWithPonies and Venomxbaby are(IMO) some of the best horse stock providers on DA. Venomxbaby has hers organized by coat color, and DancesWithPonies sorts theirs by breed :3 |
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Crisp, Clear, and Cool
