Shipbucket

Well I've always used Paint too, and Garlicdesign deserves kudos for his hand-done shading to that level of detail (I've just zoomed it in paint) and the skill he has in matching the shades well and his drawing ability.

The main reason why we've stuck to three gradients of shading is mainly accessibility and to reduce complexity and to allow anyone to produce similar work without feelings of failure or inability and folks moaning about the lack of Da Vinci-qaulity shading on every profile. Psilander's method and skill is probably best done by him and attempts to replicate it might be less successful. Shading has evolved, if everyone compared their superstructures and underwater hulls to those in the shading guideline I bet nearly 90% now would not conform, especially underwater hulls. I've seen platforms and overhangs without shading underneath etc. as well. Now us mods could go one of two ways, police every drawing for correct shading and risk pissing off the artists or continuing to monitor the trends and step in only when neccessary.

Now, regarding the above two shadings for comparison. The top one looks great, but when you zoom in the effect is rather spoilt. Bouvet for example has about 9-11 shades in the hull. Anyone who wishes to perhaps re-use that hull or re-colour it in the future will either have to spend a lot of time matching 9-11 new shades to equal qaulity or change the shading pattern. The bottom one looks less neat, but I think could be improved further, and is easier to look at on a PC screen or when zoomed and its easier to re-colour the ship. I like both but for the sake of practicality and overall viewing I vote for the bottom one, but like Kim says doing two versions is an option. I would also say though that we've had problems with bow shading before, but tumblehome hulls like these do really need some kind of shading to bring out that aspect.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Hello again.

OK, this time with less hull shading and more below-waterline pixels. All of them, actually.









Greetings
Garlicdesign

On the infernet you seem to have reversed the shading in front of the fore casemate

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Garlicdesign: since your insight into this ear of French warships is so thorough, could I possibly prod you to draw the protected cruisers Tourville and Amiral Cecille (1889-90) and why not the first real armored cruiser, Dupuy de Lome? Also, if noone has drawn the Amiral Aube-class, I'd encourage you to do it!

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Great additions!

Hello

When I shade vertical surfaces, I assume they are lit from straight ahead. So, as the hull curves inwards in front of the forward casemate, I shadowed it; aft of the rear casemate, it curves outwards, so I highlighted it.

Of course there probably are dozens of spots on any of my drawings where I got it wrong, but that was the basic thought.

Greetings
Garlicdesign

Hello yet again

The result of some more serious research especially in colouring, plus a few minor corrections, again in historical order:











Greetings
Garlicdesign

Garlicdesign - You're doing an awesome work!

Second that

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Work in progress:
DD County Class PNS Babur (1982)(PAK)
FF Type 21 Class D182 PNS Babur (2000)(PAK)
All relevant Coat of Arms

This is pixel art. Gradients should be reserved to vector drawings and other stuff. Like Hood mentions, it doesn't lend itself to this type of drawing.
: /

The "ancient" style you refer to is the style. There is no other. All the variances that have been introduced lately are deviating from the style, but we allow it to occur because, like Hood mentions, it's counterproductive to try to change it. The original style looks quite nice when properly executed, and gives all the ships a uniform look.

The bottom line is that I can pretty easily fire up Photoshop and put you all to shame with the different tools available. I choose not to because I am truly dedicated to furthering Shipbucket, and not my own "style" of drawings as an egotistical artist.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)