Caution: more blood.

[bloodreaper]

--But not from as close up. Pity, as my test viewer expressed disappointment that you can't see the individual drops of congealing ichor. Some test groups, these days...

Anyways, I suspect that this is, in fact, the guy D was thinking of before.



I just realized I forgot to put in the smoke layer. Hooey! Without the smoke layer, conservation of matter is defied in a way that interferes with believability. More so than a guy with a clawed gauntlet made from his own purplish black, acidic blood, somehow.

I'm trying out a new shading technique again. Minimalist, but still there. Normally I use a layer like this, in conjunction with two others. I want to know what you think of it all by itself.

[Dragyn]

I dunno'. The shading looks a little flat, to me, but I'm biased towards multiple highly transparent layers, in stead of just the one. The highlights do help to round it out, but the clothing just seems...too smooth, especially the demon's clothes.

You should totally add the smoke layer, too. I wanna' see how you make that work, and if it's faster than my method...

[Faith]

*Laugh!!!*

You are quite a fan of violence.
But... yes, smoke would've been neat... ;D

I like how you made the blood sparkly. Though the term "sparkly" might contrast a little with the general intent of the image...

What exactly is the incapable wing-like bit on the creature's back for? I've always wondered... assumed that maybe they had wings and then something happened to 'em.


Now I think I might point out some suggestions...

Perhaps this might go with Dragyn's statement, almost...
But the front of the shirt forms to his body in a bit of an odd way... first it's kinda tight, then expands too much at the shreds.

In one spot it looks like you made a shadow for the blood, over his leg. I'd make it more subtle, personally... it almost looks like more blood and makes the stream of droplets appear too consistent.

The background is better... but I'm not sure if it goes with the image all that agreeably. Close, but a little too... cheery... ya' know?
May just be my opinion, that...

Usually I'd say that what the armored individual is doing is altogether highly unlikely to be possible, and the length of that sword would be very inconvenient to its holder, at their height. However, in many fictional situations, the bigger the better, and impossibilities are, of course, regularities.
*Shrugs* Your call, there.

I know that looks like a lot of text, but it really wasn't that much when I was just thinking it...
Really, it's only 3 suggestions and one side-note! >.<

[bloodreaper]

Violence is hard to draw. You have all kinds of tricky things, at once. Two characters interacting, in three dimensional space, motion, momentum, possibly fluid effects, and a need for dynamic camera angles and composition.

The impossible will occur with alarming frequency, however a cyborg knight in power assisted armor (It is; you just can't tell, because it's pretty lightweight for power armor.) could be expected to heft a sword that size, particularly if it is a lighter weight alloy, than what we would think of as normal for metal.

Note that our armored friend's grip is slipping loose, due to the added weight of her demonic opponent.

His "wings" aren't functional and never were. While many of his kin get actual wings, he just gets bony protrusions that serve to keep things from pouncing onto his back. They also serve as a measure of ablative armor.

I did spatter a few drops of blood on his leg, but you're right, the pattern is far too linear, without a larger drop at one end.

For the shading: yeah, large surfaces look too flat. Note that the knight's flank has an inconsistently large shadow, in attempt to compensate for this.

[Faith]

Hm... well, if they're sharp enough, I guess they could also pass as weapons, now that I get to thinking a bit more about it, in that sense...

What exaclty is his kin?

[bloodreaper]

Your kin, would be your family.

It could also mean an entire species or group of similar species, but mostly it just means your family.

[Faith]

Well, yeah... but what is he... or, what are his family?
I really don't know what his species is... >.<

[bloodreaper]

Demon-spawned abomination.

Every breath he takes is an atrocity.

[Fox]

Considering last post in your art..I'll go ahead and voice my oppinion.

As an obsessed lover of bladed weapons, I take a deep interest in drawings like these. However, it seems the handle on the sword doesn't quite line up with the blade.

Other than that..I got nothin'. Everything else was mentioned by Faith or Dragyn.

[bloodreaper]

I've got a bad habit of cheating there.

If one character's stance doesn't quite line up with the other the way it should, I just twist the hilt, where the handle meets the crossguard.

The trouble is, my fellow sword lovers will always catch me.

If you're not going to take the time to do it right, drawing swords is probably a bad move. People notice when your swords are off.

Anatomy errors and funny faces you can pass off as an art style quirk, but a crooked sword is just obvious.

Still, I'm not drawing this stuff 'cuz I'm good at it.

[Faith]

You're pretty good.
Thpugh not accustomed to using Paint. Net, maybe. But that's kinda part of what these experiments are for, like you pretty well said.

[bloodreaper]

While it's true that my speed shading and composition are much better with a pencil, I don't think my Layer Fu is really all that weak.

Certainly, there are a lot of people better than me, but I like to think I'm chipping it in for par, at least some of the time.

[Dragyn]

Better than par, considering...

[bloodreaper]

Yeah, but you aren't compensating for Sturgeon's Law.

[Dragyn]

Sounds familiar. What is it, again?