grrr the switch to the new forums didn't bring over what I posted yesterday!! anyway I finished the painting and i took pics of it through the process.
start by drawing a sketch on the canvas. it took me about 5 days to sketch this, just because I wanted to make sure everything look right before I start painting. as you can tell I redid the legs many times :P
before you start to paint, make sure you erase all the stuff you don't want to paint, and make the sketch lines as light as possible. this way you don't get any grey shit in your paint when you're painting.
I got home from and started painting... for probably 4 or 5 hours. The sky took me a good part of that, and I started doing the wood, but I redid that later. anyway, if you want to paint a sky, just start off with blue(well, blue with a littttle bit of white in it) and paint on the top. go down about halfway, squirt some white on the canvas and blend that in. this will give you a nice painterly gradation. clean the brush. now, go down to the horizon and paint with some pink(tons of white with a touch of red in it) then go up to the blue. the most important part to getting a good sky blend is blending the colors when they're still wet! so make sure you do this quickly enough before it dries. for clouds, while it's still dry, dab some white on the canvas and blend that a little, not too much though. when it dries, you can add some white to accentuate the clouds.
also make sure you paint around your figures and objects completely!! don't be afraid to paint over a little on some stuff. the ring for example, I painted over it enough so that I could paint it without having to mix blue and blueish pink again.
the ocean! that was pink, light blue, and green. here's the thing about that combination of colors. it has all 3 primaries, blue, red, and yellow, which when mixed together will make a nasty looking grey or brown. for these kinds of gradations, be careful not to mix stuff too much.
I stopped for awhile because I got sick, and picked back up by redoing the wood and starting my figure. browns are difficult to get the hang of, but just keep in mind that usually nothing is just "brown" it's sometimes more blue, or green, or orange, etc... personally I love how a greenish brown looks for wood, but I already did that so I did a more yellowish brown. the skin tones i'm going to give you a little tip- you might read online a few ways to make skin tones. "Buy brown and use lots of white" or "Start with white and add a little yellow and red" but no. don't do either, my friend. buying mixed paint is like having somone think for you! and skin is never just red and yellow, there's always blue in it. white skin is mostly white, with a speck of blue, a speck of red, and a dab of yellow. darker skin is less white, but more red, blue and yellow(but the ratio of the primaries depends on the tone obviously)
and this is the finished product. the most difficult part of this is painting hands and feet that don't look like shiz! a little tip on hands: be fucking careful. s' dangerous business. and a tip on doing fish, let the brush strokes texture the scales.
the ring is a very very yellow greenish brown, with a dark brown used to shade it(well it's actually black with a little bit of red)
the eyes are green and brown. green aroun the edges, brown on the inside, just kind of blended together. dabs of white to make them shiny. outlined in straight up black.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20855857/painting%20shit/20130111_103936.jpg*higher res of painting*
i wrote something more informative but my post of all this is lost! anyway, I also posted other stuff:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20855857/bp_epic%20battle.mp3*boss theme for the hypothetical boneprides rpg*
*wip animations for Cookie*
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