[Michael Chiarcos]

Starkiller,

I like your work. I’ve always liked the idea of Golden Age heroes; reminds me of the Watchmen. Your lines are clean and meet up smoothly, your colour choices are good and consistent. The only critique I could possibly make are the feet. These beefy heroes look like they are standing on stilts. Either thicken them with the transform or give them some boots. Spiderman can’t wear boots because he has to maintain contact with his climbing surfaces. Unless these guys have impenetrable skin, their feet are going to get sore. : )

I’m currently reworking my characters because I forgot to save them as text files and lost them after uploading the finished images but here are some of mine to look at…

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

Michael

[Michael Chiarcos]

I like it. Try experimenting with transparency and duller, less bright colours. Also, mix up the colours a bit so that you don’t lose any detail in a single glow of red.

I used to play Marvel Ultimate Powers and this is the Anti-Hero I created, an Undead, Psi-vampire named Necros

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

The difference between Necros IX and Necros Torpor is that Torpor has just awakened after a 500 year imprisonment and he’s starving.

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Welcome

[Michael Chiarcos]

WOW! Very nice. I may have to get back into this if that is what can be achieved. I love the expression on her face. It’s like Henry Cavil’s when they wake him and the Flash is trying to circle around him. When his eye tracks the Flash’s movement and the look on his face says “WTF do you think you’re going to do Matchstick?”

Really good work!

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Thanks. I used him in a Marvel Ultimate Powers game. I actually got to play him as an Anti-Hero for a while until the GM decided it was too difficult to keep straight. Actually it was one of the other players whining that ended his career. The Amazon Princess was just a creation to test a number of different ideas and see how they would work together. I liked the result. Behemouth was a nod to the Suckers of the Horror RPG, Nightlife

[Michael Chiarcos]

Have you tried going into the transform and using the ‘Fade’ to add some transparency?

I used it on Necros and a little on my Amazon Princess.

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

check them out here…

[Michael Chiarcos]

Very Cool! I like the colour choices and the overall appearance. You might want to choose a lighter background. He get’s lost.

[Michael Chiarcos]

Very nice work! The only thing I would comment on is the tendency to lose details by using the same colours on portions that overlap. His claws don’t stand out as well with the bracers behind them in the same shade of red. Otherwise I like it a lot. Have a look at my Marvel Anti-Hero Necros the undead Psi Vampire….http://www.heromachine.com/forums/topic/a-few-old-ideas-a-few-new-ideas/

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Hello Val, nice to meet you. I’m Michael. I am an occasional user of Hero Machine for the same reasons. I have good ideas and no artistic talent to save my life. Here are a few of my ideas…

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

Going through some of the Galleries here I realized I’m totally lost as far as art is concerned so I focus on edges, layers and experiments with transformations

Michael

[Michael Chiarcos]

Nice work! Definitely original. What I would try to do is play around with the fading transform; make Klaexor’s hand slightly visible within that energy ball. Also, make sure all your seams line up or at least are covered by an overlapping layer. You could also change the angle on Plisma’s poleaxe and Enformion’s swords using the positional transform so that they line up better with the hand that is holding them. On the other hand (no pun intended), you could adjust the angle of the hand to match the weapon.

Here are some that I tried a while ago….

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Interesting. Sort of Shiva-isk. I have a few you might like. I’ll link them to you.

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Blast,

When I see a new artist asking for feedback I tend not to mince words, so please don’t take anything personally. I myself have very little artistic talent, which is why I focus mainly on execution and detail. If you are using these images just to flesh out your ideas for your story, then they are quite good. If you want to push the limit, there are a few technical issues you should address. I tend to prefer people to inform me of my mistakes rather than just pass them by because they don’t want to hurt my feelings.
Try experimenting with the transform page where you can adjust the size, shape and orientation of the items, the placement of his jeans allows his knees to show through from behind.
Are his fists supposed to be resting on his hips or his butt? Use layering to bring them forward.
Style is style, you can’t argue it, but for my tastes I find his chest armor and shoulders too cluttered.
The colour choice on the giant tattoo behind him that is enlarged to look like an aura gets lost in the planetary background as does his sword.
All in all a very good image.

You might be familiar with the phrase K.I.S.S. – Keep It Superbly Simple. In some cases when you want to draw attention to a feature, less is more.

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

These are some of mine. I think you will see how even simplistic as they are, the colours work to enhance, not hide and the layering is key. My amazon’s face is a generic face that I overlayed with other pieces to allow me to change what I wanted.

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Rick,

You are definitely more artistic than I am but I don’t think you have fully realized all the tools available to you in HM3. I think you should begin really experimenting with layers and notice the difference it can make. When I have a concept in mind I always begin with a nude and put in as much detail as possible. It doesn’t matter that it will be covered up by a shirt, an insignia, a tattoo, or an aura. Details that I never imagined would show through, peek through the final image adding realism I missed.

If you look at my Amazon Princess, get a close look at her face. I chose one of the generic faces because of the expression it had fit my view. I then took a closer look and decided I didn’t want the face to have all one colour. I wanted a different colour for the eyes and the lips and the eyebrows didn’t match the hair, etc…

So I carefully layered the eyes I wanted over the existing ones. Now I could change the colour. I did the same with the lips and the eyebrows. It’s a small enough change, but it makes a big difference. The tattoo on her lower belly is mostly hidden by her loincloth but what does show adds dimension to her appearance.

A few Old Ideas, a Few New Ideas

Necros IX is another example. His face is probably about 9 layers with bits and pieces that didn’t really belong on his face maneuvered in to make him look horrific even though he is an Anti-Hero, not a true villain.

Behemouth is nothing but layers on layers on layers, look how he turned out

Just some ideas to think about.

Malachi

[Michael Chiarcos]

Zack, the link to your creation appears to be broken.

[Michael Chiarcos]

Rick,

I just took another look at Death’s Lament. That is a serious improvement! I think the hood looks so much better now.

Michael

[Author]

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