The Magpies gratitude (HD/CSP file/Progress shots) + ART TUTORIAL

I'm gonna leave this post public as a taste of what people might expect from my Fanbox.

So this picture was conceived as a celebration pic for my twitter account reaching 3k followers, but it turned out into more of a generic thank you to all my followers in all platforms.

The Magpies can be a handful but they're subs at their core, and specially when handled by their Master they turn docile and quite sweet actually. ^^

HD Version:

Progress Shots:

And now, for some art hints and tips...

As I was working on the picture (I was streaming for some friends) one of those friends asked me for the color scheme I was using. Specifically they asked me about the lighting.

WARNING: English is, (in case you hadn't notice so far) not my main language. Hell, it's not even one I'm that fluent in. So take all the terms and names with a bag of salt. Take it as a 101 kind of thing but if you feel curious about the subject beyond this explanation, by all means investigate further in the matter. ^^

First things first, each and every aspect of any artwork should serve the purpose of it looking good. Being more or less realistic is a style decission, not a virtue. So lighting, as everything else, can be bent in anyway as long as it serves your picture.

That said, I send them this scheme I was, more or less, following.

Note they were particularly asking about the latex. Since some people seem to like the way I render such surfaces and I have spent a pretty minute reflecting (no pun intended) about it, lets have a little crack at how this works.

In this case there's the usual base color, a main light source that happens to be cold (worked for the whole aesthetics I was aiming for) and a shadow. Those are the main things you'll always find in most rendering styles. (Sometimes, in the more stylized takes, such as manga-like or cartoons, it's just a base color and a shadow.)

Since we're doing a reflective surface such as shiny latex, we want a little more... Oomph. So I added a Filling Light (this is a dim light source that serves the purpose of showing the volume of details that, otherwise would be too dark in the shadow to be perceived), a 2nd Light Source that works to add some color variety and allows me to showcase volumes in places where the main light wouldn't reach, and a backdrop, that helps the whole thing pop up as it separates the figures from the background.

And thus we get to:

I tend to be a tad random in the shape of shadows (this pic isn't the best example of this, but it's still there) as, being this a reflective surface, latex also reflects its surroundings. So I play a little to trick the brain into feeling the random shapes are the surroundings of the figures reflecting on the latex. Kindda like a dim funny mirror.

A good exercise anyone can do is checking how things reflect in stuff like cars and how the shape of the volume affects the shape of the reflections, but if you set to it, you can start to see the shadows that seemed so random at first are actually people, buildings, other cars... All reflecting on the paint of the car and being aberrated by the volume (as I said... like a funny mirror).

I try to kindda mimic that effect. You can also use stuff that's already in the picture (see the stocking of the boy on the left of the pic, and how it seems to reflect the throne, or the bits where skin reflects on nearby latex). Looking at it, I realize I was actually kindda shy with it on this pic. Something to fix the next time! ^^

You can check it all in detail here.

Original CSP File:

3k

Anyways. Hope you enjoy the gratitude message and the company of these three...

Wait... Three?