I use Photoshop Elements from start to finish. It's comparatively cheap compared to the more serious art programs, but what influenced me to choose it was that it was sitting on a shelf in a store. It was just an impulse buy with no regard to thoughtfully selecting the program that would suit me best.
Ah, Kaori is my mule account if you're confused about it and I was already replying before I noticed the account I was on. sweatdrop
Critique of entire image. If only interested in my thoughts on coloring don't open the spoiler.
Hrm... overall your anatomy seems decent enough with no errors large enough to disrupt the piece and smaller things could be called a difference in style so I won't really go into it though the wings feel look like the biggest weakness and could have used some reference to be more accurate with the general shapes and fix the jagged edged feathers. Same with the clothes. I find myself more often than not trying things on that are at least close enough and posing in front of a mirror just to see where the pinch points and the flow of the fabric and its wrinkles.
The line art is a little sketch and wobbly and some lines overlap others where they shouldn't. Granted my line art is terrible. My general approach is to use a larger brush than I need to to get the shapes right and then erase the excess, but for more serious pieces I don't keep the line art anyway so it's not that important for mine to look great as long as the overall form is right, it's easier to spot and fix the anatomical errors in a full painting anyway.
For my personal recommendations as a colorist though; in my art 90% of the work light source. Lose track of the light source and everything falls apart pretty quick. The only real way to gain a sensitivity to the light source(s) you want in your art is to practice painting real objects and people and bringing what you learn back into your art. The colors themselves aren't important for this as the focus is more on breaking down an image into its shades so a lot of artists use only shades of white, grey and black (though personally I love using blue for this) so colors aren't a distraction when trying to paint an object with depth and think of it as occupying a three dimensional space. It also helps just painting basic shapes since everything can be broken down into these shapes. I did some spheres because that's the basic shape of an eye and is one of the more important features of the face then moved onto more and more complex shapes like apples and such.
Navate on DA has one of the best tutorials on painting skin that I've found, but I only follow her methods loosely as I value vibrancy of colors rather than a realistic color scheme.
For learning how to improve color choices and complimentary colors nothing beats practice paintings of landscapes. Doing this is where I finally figured out how color works and how to make subtle variances in the shades of colors more natural and that the crazier you get with colors the more an image is going to pop though I'm still learning how to push things more myself.
I forgot to post this to show where I came from before I started practicing my coloring. I'll use the hair as an example of using complimentary colors. Instead of going with lighter shades of green for highlights and darker shades for shadows, I varied up the color scheme by integrating more vibrant yellows and darker blues. My light source itself isn't white because that would be bland. I like to use a pale yellow lighting that gives everything a warm glow and my shadows are purple and that tends to make the overall image more interesting as it interacts and tints the various colors. Even white looks pretty amazing with purple shadows.
When I really go all out, some kind of colored back lighting is a must. It can add a whole other level of complexity to an already amazing image. I tend to prefer oranges for this purpose mostly because I like fire. xd
Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 6:36 pm
Started making bases to practice anatomy and once I get enough open up a gaia shop again. re upload for aesthetic changes and the legs were to bulky before.