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Tattered-Dreams — Without Wings
Published: 2012-08-01 00:18:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 564; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 0
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Description
Outlaw Trail
Faerie Promise ridden by Chess Knight
Number: 13
Team: Lawmen
Event: HARPG Outlaw Trail
Host:
This is a bonus stampede pic (unfinished) for Chapter 1: Day 2.
Horse: Lakewood's Faerie Promise "Mossy"
Horse Age: 7
Rider: Chess Knight
Rider Age: 21
Costume: [link]
This was so much fun! I had this mental image in my head, with a really dynamic feel, and though it's not perfect, it actually made the transition to canvas far better than I was expecting
The angle of Mossy's head may be a tad off, and her legs just a little long, but I'll defend that by saying they're galloping along here, so she's stretching forward. Yup.
Favourite bits of this have to be the reins, Mossy's tail and Chess' hair.
This is actually my contribution to a mass bonus image that ~GinasDream is organising for the Outlaw Trail. She's aiming to get as many people as possible to contribute their horse and rider for a stampede bonus image and I was inspired by watching the Olympics Cross Country yesterday to have a go at the high-flying pose
Still got my actual entry to go, though...
Here's the info about the mass collab if you're interested: [link]
A few hours start to finish.
No refs, other than Mossy's markings and Chess' costume
Art and characters copyright to *Tattered-Dreams
Do not take, copy, edit, redistribute or manipulate.
Only ~GinasDream may use this image as an addition to the collaboration.
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Comments: 24
I love the hair trailing behind..so wavy and flowy
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Thanks! And yes, I quite liked how Chess' hair and Mossy's tail came out, too
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You're welcome! And your shading looks very good. I haven't been pleased with my shading at all lately because it seems to lack depth
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Thanks; still, I can always improve shading ^^ Good luck with yours, though!
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I can always improve on everything..but do you have any tips on making the shading stand out? Because I like my horses shiny
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hmmm...
I'm not really sure I have specific tips - I either use dodge and burn to shade (usually in the midtones, but I do use the others just if I feel like they'll work better) or I randomly pluck shades of the colour I want and scribble in shadows and highlights where they make sense to me. There's no real process I follow to get my horses shiny or dull (something I do want to work on).
But, best I can say, is check out tutorials on lighting effects. Knowing when you get desaturated shadows, or backlighting etc, can really help with shading depth, because if you understand the physics, the horse will usually look like they belong in their environment better. After that, have reference photos on hand. Bay horses may often shine quite red in strong sunlight, but appear dull on a cloudy day. In the same weather conditions, a true black may have strong blue or even purple hues in the coat but appear smoky or dark bay in softer light. Reference photos of horses in the lighting you want, or of the same colour you want can really help you get hues right, not to mention where highlights and shadows are.
For me, all I can really say is I always start with shading, laying down the shadows before putting in the highlights and I tend to use five colours total - a base, two shadows and two highlights. I never use black or white to shade - the contrast is too much and I don't like the effect it leaves. As I don't exactly go for shiny horses on purpose, I'm not sure what to suggest, just that really strong highlights can be overdoing it and make the horse look like they're soaked, or worse - made out of plastic covered in saran wrap 
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Thanks! I lay down a base coat and put shadows and then highlights, but for some reason they turn out looking flat. I usually do greyscale or a mix of greyscale and dodge/burn for my shading. I do use references most of the time also. I never thought to check out tutorials. I'll try that. Do you smudge your shadows and highlights?
And I love shiny horses...even if it makes them look all wet
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No problem 
I am actually really fond of greyscale, but it doesn't always work the way I want it to. I find its easy to get high contrast, and I can't always fix it. I tend to rely on it if I have a horse with a lot of shades in their base coat, and they'd get ruined through smudging to blend. I almost always use the smudge tool to blend. the times when I don't, I don't blend at all. Like in this - [link] Sometimes that has the benefit of creating a slightly fuzzy look for longer winter coats, though I have yet to work it out properly
And that's just personal preference 
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This is true
I like greyscale because I have a bunch of horses that are like a genebomb with all sorts of white and different colors that I'm not too great at shading otherwise. I don't smudge most of my drawings, just a slight gaussian blur most of the time..
And I like fluffy winter coats, but I like super-shiny summer coats better
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I'm getting fond of digital over traditional sketches, too
Hope it works out for you, though ^^
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I don't like the way the smudge tool works very much in photoshop..and the blur one doesn't work very well for me either..and I have a lot of trouble with digital lines, so I like traditional ones better
and thanks!
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I always have trouble with digital lines - just practice and they do get better
As for the smudge tool, there are various settings for it that you can mess around with until it works how you want it to, but that's up to you if you want to have a go.
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I have trouble motivating myself to practice with digital lines because they never turn out how I want them to...
And I've been playing around with it a bit lately, trying to figure out something that I like.
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Keep at it; you'll settle into something ^^
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That's true. I'm trying a different way to shade right now, but I'm not sure if I like it...
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This is SO gorgeous! 
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Thank you! And that's amazing to hear ^^ I kinda love her too; it means a lot that I'm not the only one.
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I think she's definitely my favorite out of all your horses.
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She did come out on top by 2 votes on the poll I put out a while back XD. She's managed to get herself quite the fan club
But thank you 
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