Thread: MW's . . . art?

So, uh . . . here we are. I'm a writer first and foremost, and not much of an artist. I do like drawing, though - when I find the time, that is. So, I figured, why not show off a couple of my pieces? Can't hurt. As well as that, I like messing around with GIMP to make signature banners and the like, so I'll share a few of them as well. I'm more comfortable with those than with my traditional drawing, anyway.

So, just to get us started, here's May, who I drew completely on a whim several months ago. I think this is the only time I've been even mildly successful with drawing somebody in any position other than 'ironing board' (spoiler'd for size, obv):

So first I was like 'WOW BW LOOKS AMAZING LET'S DRAW TOUKO':

And then I was like 'dammit how do i hats'

Aye, messed up the hips big time on this one. Shh. It's from when I was learning how to do rumpled clothing. I still haven't worked it out. And yes, it kind of does look like she only has one boob. There are parts of this picture I like, which is why I'm sharing it. Someday I'll show you some of my really terrible drawings, but for now, have this one:

Now, let's see if I can find some of my less embarrassing banners to share. *digs through photobucket*

This spoiler contains about 17 banner-sized images. For the most part, these go from newest at the top to oldest at the bottom, so the quality may will decrease as you go down. Some lack text, this is just because I am lazy ofc. Some are only minimally edited but I like how they look, others took absolutely ages.

Any comments? Questions? Want to lambast my terrible drawing skills? (Join the club, we have badges. There's a line for the signup sheet, though.)

So posting this thread actually did make me get off my butt and start making some graphics, which I am happy about. So I'll just throw in the ones I've made in the last 24 hours.

Not 100% happy with this first one; it's a little boring, since I forgot about my collection of C4Ds until after I finished making it. I might fix it later, though:

Again, I forgot my C4Ds. Remembered vectors, though, which kinda helped. Maybe? I don't know the character, but I think she's from Air TV:

I made this next one as a header for my new banner shop, which you should totally all go check out by the way:

Aaaaaaand then I found the C4Ds and a render of my favourite Bleach character. Quite happy with this one, though the text was difficult as usual:

Just a little more fiddling around with C4Ds and making the render blend in a bit more:

And the random one I just finished with a render that really didn't fit all too well:

EDIT: One more before I go to bed. Liked the render, never played Star Ocean:

So I've got another banner dump for you guys, but first I'd like to show you a little experiment I did. I've never done any spriting before, but on a whim I took a BW Lass sprite and a Lilligant sprite, did some recolouring and spliced them together.



Feedback on this is greatly appreciated, because like I said, I haven't done any of this before. Now, onto the banners, sorted oldest to newest.

Made as a request in the shop for Dragoneye.


Probably my favourite one I've made recently.


I was following a tutorial for this one, and it turned out okay . . . but not fantastic.


Some practice on techniques I started using the Misuzu one two banners up.


I found that quote and just had to put it in a banner. It's from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, hence the Alice banner. More practice with techniques.


Decided to do some Pokemon banners, so this is the first of a couple. I quite like it. Found some nice Touko renders, so there might be some more coming.


Made as a request for Invisible in the shop. Touhou has such beautiful character designs.


Made for The Shiny Gengar as a request in the shop. It was a bit of a challenge to try for the pixellated look while preserving the flow of the banner.


Here's another Pokemon one, and I think I'm going to use this one the next time I change my theme. Love it to bits (partially because Elesa is amazing)


Made for Kuraudo Sutoraifu as a request from the shop. Good fun, love Sephiroth and Advent: One-Winged Angel.

So yep, that's what I've made in the last couple of days. Thoughts?

Holy crap, I think you need to give me a lesson on GIMP someday, some of the effects you do are so flipping epic! :D

Oh crap, I thought I was getting good at GIMP!

These are amazing, love the link one! the Gengar one is create too!

Keep it up!

Hurr, let's have another banner dump. The signature shop has been busy, especially the Serebii branch. Ulp.

Ayumi <3


Experimenting with darker colours in this request.


The fixed version of a terrible banner I made.


Yeeeeeah Red.


Was a little bit confusing to make, this one, but I think it turned out alright considering the LQ stock.


Quite liked this one.


Fun request.


A quick one, but I like how it turned out.


I was happy with this one, too.


Probably my favourite recent banner. This is how they're all supposed to look, but it's hard with some of the stocks I get in requests . . .


Finished this one just a few minutes ago, actually.


One of a few Facebook timeline covers I made recently, but I can't show you the rest because they have my friends' names on them. If you want to use this by any chance, just go ahead. :p

I'm jealous. It'd take me 24 hours straight to just make one of those... Tell me, what does 'GIMP' stand for?

GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, if I'm not mistaken - which I probably am, to be honest.

Great, an acronym within an acronym. It should be GNUIMP.

How does it work?

It gets even more awkward when you consider that GNU is itself a backronym for 'GNU is Not Unix'. @_@

Uh, it works pretty much like Photoshop, I guess? I suppose you could also call it a far more complex version of Paint. It's free to download (open source software ftw) so if you want to try it out, it's easy.

Well, that'll make things easier for me. Thanks a ton!

Back to topic, this stuff is amazing.

Well shucks, I appreciate it. I've been making these things for a couple of years, but it's only recently that they've started to become decent enough to put anywhere other than y signature. u_u

I assume that you use the gradient whatever-it-is to do the colors/shading on at least some things.

I've seen too many good artists give into low self-esteem. As long as you believe in your art, it'll never be bad.

I do tend to use the gradient tool on the very bottom layer, yes. It's a simple way to create a texture and build off it, and it sets the mood for the rest of the piece depending on what colours you use, and how you position them in relation to the render. I find that without the gradient there, a banner can become very bland very quickly as the colours are constant the whole way through. That effect on the Moltres one, for example, was created with a simple bi-linear gradient (as in, colour A to colour B and then back to A) horizontally placed behind the render. I then placed certain effects on top of it to give it the splinter/burning effect it has now. Quite proud of that tbqh. :p

And how did you do the shading in general? I'm still trying to get a hang of GIMP.