Painting Realistic Hair/Fur Sucks

[koager]

I hate trying to realistically paint hair
especially if I don't do it all in one sitting, the the hair looks different between each day.
but it's impossible to do it in one sitting since it takes me like 3hrs to do one piece of it = =

blaaaaah. what I'm working on currently
will have to work on the hair some more......
have to post a thumbnail or else it'll blow up the board xp


painting it in Photoshop CS3
love my Wacom Bambo~ (want a Cintiq, or at least an Intuos though)
I'm doing it in 300dpi
It's 108mb so far...
and I have to draw a second completely different dragon after this

someone save me~~~~

[a.L]

Looks pretty badass so far.

[Blaaaaaaaah]

H-H-H-HOLY CRAP!

I think it looks fantastic.

Wow wowowowowowow do you have a deviant art account o:

Is this a big project or something you do for leisure?

And omg I understand the file sizes T__T How big is the original image? And do you happen to lag when you draw? Because I lag a lot when I try to draw in big canvases..

I lovelovelove the scales. And the horn. AND OMG EVERYTHING.

Maybe giving the hair a bit more highlights here and there (light strands) can give it more "texture" (but it still look great like that, and will probably look just fine without highlights after you complete the picture. things always look better when you complete it!!)

Very niceeeeeeeeeeeee! I love your style.

Edit: On a side note, I love painting hair. Can't say I do great jobs at them myself but it's fun just swirling here and there carelessly!

[Lady-Loki]

Holy crap! That is awesome!

[Kenryuu]

The textures look realistic very niccce

[Leesa]

I want ur skillz T.T

[koager]

Wow wowowowowowow do you have a deviant art account o:

I "have" one
but I don't use it or have anything on it xp

Is this a big project or something you do for leisure?

doing this for a really good friend.
he wants 2 dragons. kinda like a yinyang thing T.T
am doing this whenever I have time. Which isn't often due to the load of my classes.

And omg I understand the file sizes T__T How big is the original image? And do you happen to lag when you draw? Because I lag a lot when I try to draw in big canvases..

yup T.T
on these huge projects it lags if I do too long of a stroke when painting or blurring or smudging
Right now it is 103mb at 300dpi with dimensions of 4040x3730
It takes about 1 or 2 mins for it to save, when I get close to finishing it, probably 5 to 10mins like my other projects....
and this is only half the final piece T.T

Maybe giving the hair a bit more highlights here and there (light strands) can give it more "texture" (but it still look great like that, and will probably look just fine without highlights after you complete the picture. things always look better when you complete it!!)

Thanks for the tips!
I love digital painting but every time I do it I go into so much detail that I'm like "someone kill me now~~~~ D:"
and I did 11+ish of these type of paintings for my AP Studio Art class in high school T.T

_________

thanks for all the encouragments everyone

my tablet has been flipping out though
It seems I can't have Fiesta and Photoshop open with my dragon at the same time
if I press the > button which I set to increase brush size then my computer starts to freak out and start spamming that key. It keeps on doing it even after I disconnect both my tablet and my keyboard
I've uninstalled my tablet and reinstalled with updated drivers and stuff but it still does it....

[Blaaaaaaaah]

I "have" one
but I don't use it or have anything on it xp

xD It would be cool to see your past works.

yup T.T
on these huge projects it lags if I do too long of a stroke when painting or blurring or smudging
Right now it is 103mb at 300dpi with dimensions of 4040x3730
It takes about 1 or 2 mins for it to save, when I get close to finishing it, probably 5 to 10mins like my other projects....
and this is only half the final piece T.T

YAY I am not the only one! My sister was telling me how her boyfriend doesn't have the same problem and he works on large files too so I thought it was something I was doing wrong. I have the exact same situation where saving would take 5 minutes + and stuff.

Side question: Would the printing quality difference for 150 dpi and 300 dpi be really obvious? I'm working on something myself but only at 150 dpi because I don't think my comp can cope with 300 dpi.

I love digital painting but every time I do it I go into so much detail that I'm like "someone kill me now~~~~ D:"

I love it too (though I rarely "feel like it"). But you inspired me to work on one, haha. xD

my tablet has been flipping out though
It seems I can't have Fiesta and Photoshop open with my dragon at the same time
if I press the > button which I set to increase brush size then my computer starts to freak out and start spamming that key. It keeps on doing it even after I disconnect both my tablet and my keyboard

You can run Fiesta and Photoshop (with a file that large) at the same time before?!!?! I think my computer will die of lag at that point, haha.

Sounds like your tablet is really flipping out. =[ Hopefully you can get it fixed soon, I don't know what I'd do without my tablet.

[koager]

xD It would be cool to see your past works.

-goes to see if I can find my portfolio-
My Portfolio
it doesn't have my most recent stuff such as the poster and logos I drew for the 2008 Greater St. Helen's Graphic Competition

YAY I am not the only one! My sister was telling me how her boyfriend doesn't have the same problem and he works on large files too so I thought it was something I was doing wrong. I have the exact same situation where saving would take 5 minutes + and stuff.

I've get 3gigs of RAM so I think next is I need to upgrade my graphics card...

Side question: Would the printing quality difference for 150 dpi and 300 dpi be really obvious? I'm working on something myself but only at 150 dpi because I don't think my comp can cope with 300 dpi.

I think it depends on how high the printer can print up to. Otherwise I'm not sure.
I only know that 72dpi is web and pretty much anything above 120dpi is good. 300 dpi is will kill my computer as I go on and 500dpi is godly. x.x
I seem to always start out with 300dpi but then am forced to downsize to 150dpi, 120dpi in order to not kill my computer x.x
I really want to be able to keep this one at 300dpi though

You can run Fiesta and Photoshop (with a file that large) at the same time before?!!?! I think my computer will die of lag at that point, haha.

I'm probably really prone to BSoD so I don't do it often
did it yesterday since I wanted to sell off my lanterns while I was working on my dragon.

Sounds like your tablet is really flipping out. =[ Hopefully you can get it fixed soon, I don't know what I'd do without my tablet.

I broke it~~~~~~~~~
This afternoon when I went to get up to open the door for my roommate I tripped over the cord.
So the cord got yanked out of the socket and when i went to put it back I discovered that the USB socket broke off into my cord and I can't get it out.
Now I can't use my tablet until I am somehow able to get a new cord, which hopefully is possible

[Belaslav]

Looks very kickass. It's so awesome, you even made Loki say a bad word lol.