End of Class - Spider-Girl

It's the end of the six-week Comic Experience: Intro to Digital Painting Course.

And I gotta say, it's a lot different from the Intro to Comic Colouring Course.

It seems similar - and it is similar, colour theory, highlights and shadows - but when you get down to work, it's a different beast altogether. As was discussed in class, when colouring an inked piece, the shadows and blackest parts are already in place. But for painting, you go as dark as you want / can, because there is no 'darkest point' laid out for you.

Once again, a Comic Experience course that doesn't disappoint and is worth the money.
I know what you're saying / thining - that's a lot of money for a once-a-week, 6-week course.
Yeah, they're pricey, but they're also small class sizes, so you get more time to go over your work and see where you can improve - and what you've been doing well. The homework is often as enjoyable as it is challenging, and it's also stuff that you may recognize if you've been cognizant of media over the last 5 or 6 years.  Wait, Spider-Man [tobey macguire version]came out in 2002? Okay, so the last 10 years. 10 years? Ouch and wow, comic stuff has been in the mainstream media for a while now.

Anyhow, I did all this in RGB..and when it converts to CYMK, it looks like chalk art [light, not quite pastel-ish colour].  I learned a few things - important [for me] things and hopefully I'll remember them.

I need to re-tweak my tablet-monitor's colours/contrast/gamma, as what looked nice and dark came out not so much. But that's kind of the point of a class - learn things!! And in a Comic Experience course, you learn all sorts of good stuff.

Gold Iron-Man helmet

Working with lighting - absorption, refraction, reflection - on metals.
Gold is... interesting. It absorbs light, but reflects more than enough to be able to have a mirror-esque finish. Soft and malleable, easily dulled and dented, but capable of a fine shine.

These may look "okay" at a casual glance, and maybe I'm my own worst critique
[no internet, that is not a challenge], but there's something about these that doesn't feel right to me, and I'm not sure what. Going to try and get one more attempt done before class tomorrow, maybe finally nail it down.

This is shading with colours, instead of lightening or darkening an already coloured section.

And this is using the lighten / shadow brush in MS5.  The shadow brush takes a really light touch to us it without 'burning' the colour.

Update:

A 3rd attempt - about 50% done, ran out of time before class [and dinner].  I like this one much better, but it's still not where I want it to be [but I think I may have found some brushes that'll get me closer to it]

]EDIT[

Here's the 3rd attempt - finished.

Mjolnir Homework for ComicExperience

So, this is my homework for the Intro to Digital Painting course taught by the amazing Scott Johnson.

Not familiar with his work? Google-image "Palladium books" or "Rifts RPG" He painted up some of those covers, notably the shiny armour ones.

Anyhow.. homework was to pain Mjolnir.  I managed to squeeze this out in the 3 & 1/2 hours I was listening to Lar de Souza's ustream. Done in Manga Studio 5 with a variety of brushes.

It was supposed to just be the hammer - painting planes and angles without lineart, but I couldn't help but add some effects.

Here's Mjolnir without the effects.