Okay, okay. So I kinda lied, I'm technically only doing 8 features for the 8 people that responded to the previous journal. It's probably for the best though, homework awaits and my ramblings took slightly longer than expected.

Et voila! Onwards to the features...

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=lilyhbp

Mulan: A digital painting with a beautiful colour scheme and a strong sense of drama. The detail in this piece is simply stunning, it's easy to see the time invested into it (50 hours!)
Deathly Hallows Courtyard: One of many wonderful pieces inspired by the Harry Potter series her gallery. I'm especially fond of her interpretation of Snape and the lighting in this one.
Metal Cross: =lilyhbp doesn't just paint, she also has a growing gallery devoted to her metal work. I'd love to own either of the pieces in this photo.

~Tsubasa-Mine

Hey My Sun-Eyed Girl: One of the first pieces that I ever saw by ~Tsubasa-Mine, and still a fave. The character design, the linework and the movement are fabulous. Plus the facial expression is a hoot.
Pooter Lurve: SO CUTE. Yet quirky. Heh, I am also digging the linework and the bright colours in this one.
Tsubasa JUMP: A very cool, nicely designed wallpaper featuring one of her characters. Excellent cell-shading, great detailing and an extremely cool pose.

*Bilious

Foxglove: The Pool's Closed: What would appear to be a betta-inspired mermaid. I am simply in love with the shimmering tail, the juicy colours and the wild hair.
Crux: Character Lineup A: A fabulously motley buncha characters, each one is a distinct individual with tons of personality to spare. I'm always in awe of artists with the patience to draw character lineups, especially with so much detail and consistency.
Crux: Problem Solving: Starring one of the above characters, the poses, the facial expressions and the punchline are still making me giggle on the tenth viewing.

~Kuro-Mizu

Beauty in the Breakdown: A very interesting interpretation of a great song, the bright, limited colour palate and the concept are working quite well.
Hulk: A distinct take on an iconic character, the action pose is very nicely done, the muscles are awesome and I like the muted earthy colours. The war zone background is quite cool too.
Grandkids WIP: A lovely digital painting with a more realistic style and some nice texturing. I'm loving the colour scheme and I'm quite curious about the 'work in progress' status, this part alone is looking excellent already.

*Da-Phase-Meister

The Arbiter: *Da-Phase-Meister is extremely diverse and multitalented when it comes to her artistic style. As this piece is demonstrates, she is extremely good at realism and digital rendering, the patterns, the detail and the shading on the armor are fantastic.
YMCA, Mario Style: Dude, THE CONCEPT XD A highly interesting and never before seen take on those Nintendo plumbers. Hehe, poor, confused Luigi. I'm very much digging the bright colours too.
Bootstrap Bill: A watercolour painting with an excellent character resemblance and a very appropriate colour scheme. The details are looking good and he's just so sad. Definitely very effective in terms of mood, pose and facial expression.

~SunshineKitE

Sam: A digital piece, the drawing of the face is very beautifully done. There's a nice balance between realism and stylization. The colours are working extremely well and the shading is quite natural.
Grey: I'm loving the composition in this painting and the negative space being formed by the figure. An extremely cool, bold painting with a very strong realistic yet painterly style. I'd recommend checking out the others in the series as well!
Masao: Another lovely piece done as a gift, I'm really liking the cool background, the dark colours and the overall subtlety in the facial expression.

~Shugamri

Celeste: A nicely drawn sketch of a refreshingly full figured female, there's a good sense of fluidity in the anatomy.
Auberon Bust: An interesting drawing of a mythical figure, the face is quite peaceful and the eyes are nicely alive.
Master of the Dark Force: A collaborative work that ~Shugamri has coloured. I quite like the clean, saturated tones being used so far. It would be great to see this colouring style carried over into his future works, especially once shaded.

~Sesroh

Imuhale: ~Sesroh very much rocks at drawing gryphons and she has a tendency to render crazy realistically at any given opportunity. This gryphon design kicks butt, especially the antlers.
The Night Watch: She also draws existing winged things and frequently paints highly realistic wildlife paintings. As of late she has been dabbling in digital medias with increasing frequency and great success.
Hungry Skull Productions ~Sesroh does occasionally take an interest in poking dead things with sticks. Witness this interest colliding with her mad stop motion animating skillz!

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I imagine everyone has seen this around, but I finally got tagged

I will feature 3 pieces (per person) by the first 10 people to reply to this journal. Be it friends, watchers or completely random deviants! I will try to be thorough and possibly rather rambling in my features.

The only catch is that you have to post this in your own journal and do the same (presuming you haven't been tagged yet)

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1.=lilyhbp
2.~Tsubasa-Mine
3.*Bilious
4.~Kuro-Mizu
5.*Da-Phase-Meister
6.~SunshineKitE
7.~Shugamri
8.~Sesroh
9.
10.


I'll be updating with the first round of features tomorrow night/Saturday at the latest (depending on how many replies there are)

It would seem that I've started a tradition of school year hiatuses, and here we go again! This is definitely the last time since I will be graduating in April/May. But over the next few months I'll probably be somewhat buried in homework, not sleeping and freaking out quite a bit. I may pop in from time to time but it's likely that I won't be active until reading week. Must make this semester count!

I'll see you all later ^^ And in the meantime, I shall distract you with links to cool people!
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Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sadly, I'm not entirely sure how much actual (artistic) updating there will be over the break. I've got a few pieces on the go but it remains to be seen if they'll ever get past the scribble stage. I seem to be experiencing a bit of artistic burnout in the wake of the previous semester. Heck, I think it had already set in prior to final projects. But thank goodness for breaks and large quantities of sleep.

At the very least I am hoping to catch up on all of my commenting before next year. In the meantime, best wishes to all ^_^

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Um, so how does one go about creating a colour scheme that is decidedly not blinding?

I know in the end it all comes down to practice. But I was wondering, where do you all find inspiration for your own colour schemes? Does anyone know of any tutorials on the subject? How do other artists create such amazing, rich and moreover unified coloured pieces?

Over the last few years at art college I've been struggling with colour theory. I know that my classmates have had similar struggles, but I do seem to have an unusual knee-jerk-reaction where I end up hucking complementary colours at each other none too subtlely. I even took an entire class on the colour wheel in first year and dangit, I still tend to gravitate towards inks and graphite >_O

EEP, I have so many storyboards to finish colouring by Monday morning, which is my main reason for being on this subject. It's looking to be a very, very late night *sighs*

Any input would be tremendously appreciated ^_^