Line Art-Need Background Advice...

[Squinky]

I've got this picture I've been working on, and I can't think of a good background for it. Any ideas?

[esper]

You're insane.

For some reason, I picture onion domes in the back with big holes blown out of them.

[AlbinoPanther]

You could put a star(he look like he is from USSR) or some kind of flag.

BTW: good job

[Gilbert]

How about a nuclear explosion mushroom cloud?

[i k a r i]

O_O

He looks like a crazy war hero..

I would make a statue of him in the middle of a devastated place, a broken car and a lot of dust...and a chicken standing on his head...
It would be mostly a gray scale background, with the bronze statue in the middle..

and devastated but deserted, not full of trash..

[Helm]

no idea for a good background, really, just wanted to tell you that your rendering's gotten a lot stronger, and that this is awesome

[ManicMatt]

Neat. Perhaps a biplane military airport, with a bi-plane blowing up or something?

[Rincewind]

Looks really great, Squinky, and I don't just say that because I'm a sucker for stuff with lots of details...
I may be nit-picking, though, but aren't the legs/knees a bit oddly angled? It looks they're a bit too stiff, like he's about to fall flat, in a way... Maybe a more broad stance would look better?

And perhaps a sort of polar/atomic winter-bakground would work for it? Siberia-ish? Like an abandoned polar station? :)Ã, 

[Tuomas]

I think the only reason people see it as Russian is the hat, and because they look at him from top to bottom. I'd second i k a r i here, because an explosion or such violent, actionful happenings would turn out a bit too cliché. but I think i needs something grotesque.

[lo_res_man]

what in the SEVENTH hell IS that THING! :o (runs away in abject terror, runs 2000 km, then comments at while looking at it through telescope) I dont think it NEEDS a backround, its very busy, and a back round int the same style woud be killer for the eyes and take away from the impact of the pic. On a historical note, it reminds me of  a japanese propaganda peice from ww2. I am thinking of FDR green with fangs. anyone else know what I am talking about?

[Squinky]

Helm Thank you! That means a lot man, and I can't tell you how much you have helped me, and I know that I still haven't grasped all your "teachings" in that other thread, but I go back and read it all the time. Thanks again....

It's an Ork (I have a thing for Orks) Soldier with some cyber-ware (mechanical implants) that I drew up for concept art for an Online game thingy I am fooling around with. May not ever amount to anything, but I am hoping.

I like a lot the ideas, but am worried about making the picture to busy, like Lo res said....I'll see if I can get something going though....

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

What you might consider (since you're going for a rulebook look) is to make part of the image a bit sketchy and the background as well.  It definitely looks like something from a futuristic p&p rpg.  Bravo.

[Gilbert]

What I actually thought of, was that the character now contributed 90% of the picture's size, it would make any background unfunctionable, it's okay to have portraits to have that large, but most of the time they don't really need much from a background (like Mona Lisa for example, you don't really need many interesting features from the background.

If you can give more space for background (like widening the image's dimension, say for example), it can certaining be benefited from some background.

[Oz]

Nice! But one thing...

The character has got a slight forward tilt which is a little annoying (at least to me). Also, I would change his pose a little, making him stand more straddle-legged. The current pose looks a little unnatural and forced. Other than that, good work!

[Darth Mandarb]

Squinky - first let me say there's nothing I like more than to see somebody who's art I already admired [worshipped at the altar of], getting even better!  This image just rocks!  I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see an online RPG type thing with this "feel" ... excellent stuff!

When looking at this image in the thought of "what background" to put in ... the first thing that came to mind was blasted-out, razed, and demolish city-scape.  Then I said to myself, "but Darth ... it should be blurry to project a depth of field so as not to add too many more details to an image already flooded with detail!"

So I proceeded to do it ... to put a blasted-out, razed, and demolish city-scape in the background (and make it blurry).

Then I started to color:



I got a little carried away.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Yes you did, looks good though :>

[Nikolas]

Everything is perfect, except the green "vomit-like" colour of his skin... Especially the background (the topic) is just perfect. A great idea once again!

[PhoenixFire]

He's an Ork.... Orks are meant to be green......

[Squinky]

Holy crap Darth! That looks awesome, must have taken a while too. I like the background look, care to show how to do it? (lot to ask I know) It looks spanky!

I had planned it as a Black and White image, but the cool thing about you coloring it is that I can see where I need to improve more, makes a few little things stick out to me that I didn't notice yet. And yeah, in the setting of the Online game Orks and all the races are variants of humans and have the normal human range of skin tones, but I still love the pic and greatly appreciate the help and effort.

[Darth Mandarb]

The background is, I'm afraid to admit, just an image I pulled off of Google images and then worked on a little.Ã,  Converted it to black and white, upped the contrast a tad, stretched it to fit, and then added some blur filters to it.

To color the ork, I tweaked the contrast and brightness until there was only black and white values (giving me a coloring book basically).Ã,  The actual coloring really didn't take that long ... once I figured out the technique to use.

I may just color some more of your images ... I think they rock and I enjoyed it!Ã,  I'm glad it helped