Ooooh. Love the design/markings/colors.

Well I did try to make him exceptionally pretty :D

The purple goes with the gold tone really well. I wouldn't have guessed it. Very cool looking.
It actually reminds me a little of something from a really old PSX game I dumped a bunch of time into as a kid, in a strange way.

That game didn't involve Turians in human jeans, though. Hahaha


(EDIT: ...I hope I don't sound nitpicky, but is the head a little out of proportion? It seems a little big when I see the thumbnail again)

Hmmmm yes I just wanted him in jeans hahah. You probably don't want to know how it looks around his spurs. All torn up.

(And it might be. I fought a lot with his head in this one, it just wouldn't cooperate :|c He's pretty skinny for a turian too though.)

Oh, so they're Hulk pants, then! Hahaha
Well he wears them better.

(I think it is, just based on the collar/shoulder/arm length/hand size. They all seem to match each other well, so I went all loopy and decided to test. Just downsized the head by ~20% : http://sta.sh/026nghmtiil1 )

Maybe I'll try and draw it fullbody at some point xD"

(And I think it's too small there? I'll have to take a look when it's not oadt midnight though. Either way it's just a sketch and nowhere near a finished piece so *shrug* I prefer moving into the next thing and doing it better there. I think he'll be sticking around for a bit so uvu )

"!"
Well, I look forward to more unique Turian awesomeness!

And it might be a bit small there. I just compared to one of the game model refs I'd been messing with... and those are also kinda REALLY wide at the collar compared to most art. And their heads tend to look smaller the closer you get to looking at them head-on...

...yeah, I think I made it a bit too small. It's closer to what I'm used to, but still off.
I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm clearly too bored. Hahahaha

ANYWAY

As always, your art is awesome, and you Turian much better than I! I look forward to seeing more of all your stuff. WAAAAAAAAAAAAY worth the +Watch so far.

Thanks! c: ah man I actually already have a whole bunch of turian OCs. I didn't mean to add to the pile but I like this one so far.

And well most of the ingame models are also soldiers or former soldiers and wearing armour. I'm all for body-diversity :D and this guy is, well.. skinny.

And it's fine c: I appreciate constructive criticism! I'm not free of faults. I usually only get defensive over finished pieces, and this one took what.... ten, fifteen minutes? Nothing to get upset over when it's not perfect.

I have exactly two Turians myself. And I want more all the time, but I know I won't use them.
It's super hard to resist, though. I only imagine it must be especially tough when you can quick-sketch stuff like this. How could you NOT use them again? Hahaha

And yeah, I use clothing-model refs, just to avoid the armor issue there. But at the same time, it really feels like they vary in proportions. The upside of arting is that you get to stretch possibilities. So long as it's familiar/recognizable, it's cool to have fun with your own designing.


...crazy that you managed to put this together in that time with color. I throw out quick lines in 5-10 minutes fairly often, but NEVER with any color. JFoiuhafdlhgasdf

Counting this guy, I think I have seven. If I haven't forgotten anyone. I should draw them all together one day.

And yeah. Although with the way their clothing looks, it's definitely pretty stiff and possibly cushioned. I mostly look at the concept art to determine how they might look beneath it. I do play around with the plates but it gives a good idea for body shape and proportions.

And well, I'm in my 6th semester of art school.. after two years of live drawing you get pretty quick with your sketches. And what I do is I put my shadows in greyscales and then put the colours on top of it with an overlay layer c: it's a pretty neat trick.

Intrigue. 90% of what I draw is either quick lines and sketches, and left like that, or VERY quick pose outlining, and then entirely digitally painted above that, with shading usually mixed into the coloring there.

I definitely don't have it set up to be fast at all when I do color work most times. Hahaha


Seven of them?! I have four characters, and they don't get crap for attention between them... and that's all my non-Turians, too!
You could probably draw a roster photo up with those numbers. Hahaha

I'm actually not very good at lineart. It takes me AGES. This is really just a somewhat cleaned up sketch. I generally have the rough pose down within seconds thanks to my training so I draw very very fast. Then I set the background to 50% grey and add both shadow and lighting in greyscales before adding colours. (photoshop's replace colour function is great here for making things look coherent. You just have to paint in once and can then play around with the sliders to change the colour to whatever you want.)

And yeah once I really work on finishing a piece I'm not really fast anymore either. I don't remember how long exactly but I know that commission I have set as my featured work took more than ten hours.

Ah man. Lemme do a headcount here, just my turians.
I RP two canon characters, Desolas Arterius and Tarquin Victus.
Then come my OCs: Acario Preconus (dude in my icon), Adrien Tyrus and his two sisters Ilaria and Salina, Chthonia, and this new guy. So that's six turian OCs and two canons. Turians are the vast majority in my headspace though. One more krogan (Khel Vor), a quarian (unnamed as of yet), and an asari (Elyna) I barely use. Jeez it's cramped in here hahaha

I love linework. I can pump it out fairly quickly, I like to think. And it's fun. Clean. I approve.

Posing's fun, too. Very fast.


...and holy crap, that's a lot of characters. How often do you forget their names in a hurry? Hahaha

Lineart takes me HOURS gosh and often it doesn't even look good when I do it. Digitally at least. I like to think I can do good lineart traditionally though. The way I work differs greatly between a sheet of paper and my computer.

And never, actually! They've all happened over the course of several years so it's not that hard to remember them. Adrien Tyrus and his sisters happened before ME3. Acario I made almost two years ago (his anniversary is coming up in April yay), Chthonia is four months old, Elyna about one year and 3 months, and Vor and the quarian both started forming ~3 weeks ago. All in all it's not that hard. They're like a steadily growing group of friends. New people come, others leave.

Hours?!
I'm too impatient to do anything like that usually. It's a huge reason why I don't like coloring - THAT part takes me hours if I don't go super cartoony. Hahaha

Different styles for different people, I suppose!
And yeah, drawing by hand is a whole different game. I kinda love doing it... but it doesn't look as clean, and it's not as good for sharing with people. But it's nice to physically have something, too. And seeing exactly where the tip of your drawing tool is marking = unbelievably handy. Especially considering that the tablets to do that cost an absolute buttload of money.

ANYWAY! END OF VEERING. I really like your art style anyway, and your quick pics, considering that this was that fast. Crazy good.
And you still have tons of OCs. I feel like an underachiever now. Hahaha

Colouring I'm usually pretty quick with :D
And I have a Cintiq ;D It's a huge reason as to why I can work so fast. I used an Intuos for years but I don't think I could go back now. (The only reason I could tell myself spending that much money is okay is because I'm aiming to go professional hahah so much money orz)

And hey, who cares about the numbers. Just have fun man! c:

Ooooooooooooooooh lucky you, then! It's definitely the thing to have for digital art. Super cool.
I'm sure I'm going to keep hoping I'll end up with one someday, but I'm pretty sure I'll be broke eternally, so it'll likely stay a dream. But at least I have something to work with! And it didn't cost more than my car! Hahaha

I'LL NEVER HAVE FUN!

...okay fine. But only because you said so.
(HUGE REPLY CHAIN GO)

Well in exchange I don't have a car and still live with my parents ;D admittedly I don't mind either part.
And well there are affordable alternatives, I think. I've heard monoprice's tablets are pretty good.

(THE HUGEST REPLY CHAIN)

Cars are a constant expense in their own right. Hundreds on insurance and gas and stuff all the time... Ack ack ack. I think I'd rather have a badass tablet too. Hahaha

I've never heard of monoprice. But I'll get by with what I have, I'm sure. I'm honestly pretty happy just being able to make digital art at all. I used to have to take pictures of pictures on my terrible cell phone camera to share them with people. 640x480 resolution and everything. I am glad to not have to go back to that crap ever again - even if I don't have a high-end tablet, I can still make and share something of decent quality with people. Huge plus.

...and an even huger reply chain. Hahaha

Uh-huh. And I live in a big city with great bus and subway connections so... who needs a car, amiright?

Ah man I went through that time too. I'm glad it's over but I'm also glad my art from back then isn't on the internet in better quality *sweats*

Who needs a car? Anyone that ever leaves town. Hahaha

I live in a good city now for it, relatively, but I've also moved to and from another state multiple times in the last three years for work, so it's been pretty essential. Plus it's hard to get hired around here if you don't have a car, because a lot of places want you to be available for hours before and after the bus services are going... Ugh.

Hahaha... the old art bane!
You know, as much as I hate seeing my old art, I keep a bit of it around anyway, just because it's interesting to see how I've changed things. Good with bad, I guess!

Yeah I get you. I just borrow my parents' car if I need one lmao. And buses drive around all day and night here, phew. Even past midnight they usually drive every 30 minutes or so.

And true! That's the reason everything is still on my tumblr. I don't delete stuff there. But I have deleted accounts in the past (like my dA account) and I'm glad I left those sites behind. The oldest stuff on my tumblr is from May 2k12 though :D pretty funny to look at now.

(also replying to an older comment so the boxes will stop being so tiny jeez)

Well, at least you have a good alternative if you need it, then. And not dropping hundreds a month just so you can drive every now and then = super good, with how expensive the world is. Hahaha

Yeah, our bus service here goes from... I believe it's 6 AM to 8 PM. So it works for a lot of jobs... but there are still a lot more that it doesn't cover. My last job had me working past 1 AM regularly, so it was out of the question - car was essential. Hahaha

I keep a lot of my crap on DA... Hahaha
I actually still really like the site. There's a lot of good art in general, even if you have to dig a little more now... and once the adblocker's up, my only real complaint about the site is that people don't really reply to much. It feels kinda closed off- hard to feel like part of a community unless you make a huge effort. That's something I definitely like more here. People will chat. As evident with all the above replies. Hahahaha
(But I do wish I could catagorize my favorites and uploads, and pull up a quick watchlist without leaving my main page to see it, etc.)

(FINE I'll keep replying forever over here then!)

The world is veerrrryy expensive. I'm really thankful for all the help I'm getting and the money I can make with the things I'm passionate about.

Yeah I left during a time when the site was known for really really rampant art theft and the mods not paying attention to what and who they banned for disobeying site guidelines (like getting banned for uploading porn when they never uploaded porn just because someone reported them). And yeah, it was also during that time that the community got really quiet. It used to be just as chatty as it is here now, but it got really quiet all of a sudden. I remember the last messages I got before deleting were advertising bots. And I can still look at the art without an account so eh... I know what you mean about sorting faves though.

(reply into infiniTY AND BEYOND)

Yeah, that's a cool thing. The fact that you can make money at all doing something you like is a pretty awesome thing. I've never had a job that I didn't hate doing, so it's a dream of mine, too. Hahaha

Yeah, the site went through a dark phase... but now the art-theft part (which will never go away online ever) is toned down quite a bit. The biggest issue with the site now is that the mods AREN'T doing something about the NSFW uploads, I think. People are using programs like XNALara to make porn scenes and upload them, and they're CLEARLY pornographic, but are being allowed. Groups for artists and full creations are being filled with NSFW things people haphazardly throw together that's against the rules...

And it's not like I have a huge issue with NSFW stuff - I've drawn my own - but it's site rules. And when you make something in XNA with models you didn't make, backgrounds you didn't make, and then upload it into a gallery full of art that people created from blank canvases and spent hours on? It kinda feels like crap when those images get all kinds of faves, attention, and acceptance despite other efforts and site rules we all have to follow.

I'm picky about weird things sometimes... But I don't like when I join a group to see Mass Effect art, and 80% of the uploads I get from the group feed are just lesbian gangbangs with the exact same four character models.

Whatever. Can't fix everything, but I've adjusted to find the stuff I do like, and have a little bit of a circle around the site that I enjoy chatting and working with. Plus, it gives me somewhere to post my non-Mass Effect things! Woo!

RANT AND RAMBLE AND LOOSE THOUGHTS POUR OUT OF MY HEAD


I love the little Mass Effect community here on FA, though. Lots of cool characters, awesome art, and people will chat about it! We can ramble about characters, settings, ideas, and all of that gives me more ideas! I feel like I can ask someone a question and get a good answer! I'm pretty glad I've joined up here, too, even if I have no intention of leaving DA soon. Aaaaaaaaaaaaalll kinds of picture inspiration and tips/ideas for pictures have happened since then. Jester-Approved

Well, right now I only make my money with commissions through here. No time next to school for an actual job, but hopefully once I finish school I'll be good enough to get one...

Good to hear the site is doing better hahah. I have no intention of going back since I'm quite comfortable on tumblr, but I do like to look around on it. But I have a feeling I know exactly what you're talking about with the porn, oh dear.... at least on FA I expect it hahah. And it's not against the guidelines here.

And yes, I really love how open everyone seems around here. I don't spend a ton of time here but it's been getting more and so far everyone's been a lot more open than I'm used to from years on different art sites.

That's cool though! Hopefully you're drawing things you like to draw, too - that's the best way to make money, I imagine!

Yeah, it's definitely better.
Oh, and one more reason that IS worthwhile to have a DA account for is the sta.sh account. Every DA account has one for free, and you can store TONS of files privately through it. Without a URL that you have to give out, nobody can see anything in there. Fantastic storage, and a cool way to show off WIPs to people you choose. Very very very handy.

I love when people are willing to chat or answer questions or look at something around here... Super cool of people. And I love it. Random conversation gives me most of my favorite picture ideas. I'm drawing a Turian right now based on a really random sentence Nimtai left in a comment now. Just sparked something, and I had to draw it. Hahaha

That happens a lot less on DA and Tumblr, where there's not as much actual interaction in my experience.