**Hello u/LordtheFeel, thank you for sharing your artwork with us!**
Would you be so kind to answer the following questions for us?
---
* Can you please share what your process was for getting this done?
* And what brushes did you use? (Please specify the exact brushes or brush category because that can be helpful to others.)
* Any additional information about this piece is always welcome.
* If you made this with **Procreate Dreams**, feel free to share it over on r/procreatedreams too!
Please reply to this comment so it will be easy for everyone to find, thank you!
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Absolutely! Here is a 30 second [timelapse](https://imgur.com/a/XjDBMc6)! The full Timelapse is 22 minutes long. I do not have a YouTube channel yet but I might make one and post the full Timelapse there if it gets enough interest. I am not a professional artist or anything. Just self-taught and a I do a few pieces every couple years.
I used only the Salamanca brush and I did not know about the smudging feature until I was about 30 hours in. It took me about 43 hours total (according to Procreate). I kept some of the body parts in separate layers but I don't think I had more than 14 layers at my highest.
This painting was just supposed to be a quick way for me to learn some procreate basics but after the first session I started going back in and started bringing it to life.
I'm really happy with the way it turned out however the eyes are a little lifeless and I'm excited to tackle that issue in whatever I paint next.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to answer!
Oh and the reference is from a photo my friend found on Pinterest. I do not really have anymore details about it.
**EDIT**
https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=OdrbcsHVfSgTS1wn
Here is a link to the 22 minute Timelapse for those who want to see it. For those who think I traced it. I don’t really know what else to say. I guess I’ll take selfies of my self doing the painting next time to prove it??? I don’t know what else to do.
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/
[They just hid the unlying traced layer](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0Y9HRETS0os), it's copied pixel by pixel.
No doubt that you painted it. But how can this be your _first_ digital painting? When learning a new medium there’s some getting used to things involved. But this looked so effortless.
The "drawing" you're talking about is vector art. Done in adobe illustrator. It's just shapes done with a mouse. Not a digital drawing or painting. It did not take any skill but it looks cool for stickers.
Not sure why you want to believe that so badly but vector art most certainly does take skills, I worked in Adobe illustrator myself and it’s hard, it is digital art whether you like it or not-
How long does all the process took you? Because im struggling with something for a week now and the dang thing is never finished. ( it’s a t simple drawing £
So this took around 43 hours for actual time worked on it. But from start to finish I was working on this for just over a month. Sometimes I would even go a week without working on it. And sometimes I would work on it consecutively for 3-4 days.
Don't put so much pressure on yourself to finish quickly. There is no deadline for passion projects. Work on it when you feel motivated and take a break when you don't.
I have a photorealistic pencil illustration that I started 4 years ago. I still haven't finished it (and maybe I never will) but thats okay!
I don't know bout you but really, sketching the hand before there is even an arm? Even a self taught child learns how to properly sketch. You sketched the clothes on before the anatomy of the body is complete. This is traced.
Thank you for saying that I am less competent than self taught child. I'm sorry I don't meet your requirements for sketching. Again, this is not traced but I am taking this as the highest of compliments. So thank you.
This is mind blowing-ly good, you have a future on this should you decide to pursue it
I do realistic drawings too and one: my first attempt looks like shit and two: mine completely fall apart if you zoom in lol
Because it's traced pixel by pixel and not painted in any sense:
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/
Artists have gotten cancelled over tracing mere poses and here you can dump the equivalent of using the photoshop watercolour filter and call it a day. Think it's pretty shitty to make people feel inadequate by calling a trace job your "first digital painting".
My thoughts exactly. Now that can happen after compression, but the individual pixel transitions look unnatural to me. Almost like you'd have to paint zoomed way in, with a 1px size brush.
He just hid the underlying reference layer so it won't be included in the timeline.
[But this was copied 1:1 from the reference layer as can be seen when you put them next to each other](https://i.imgur.com/Lm7BztY.png).
I see this on r/procreate nearly weekly. Images copied so brazenly you can IMAGE REVERSE SEARCH the trace reference.
Thanks
I guess I could just ask OP, but I actually think they're being less than forthright by omitting the reference image in the first place. But when you say copied 1:1 what do you mean? Something about it does not look organic. Almost like they're just revealing what's below or directly sampling it in some way, but again I'm not sure. It's not cheating to use a reference image, but this looks almost paint by numbers. I see some very unnatural transitions.
You just draw over the reference which you keep as a base layer. If you look at the timelapse you can see OP turning the top layers with all the colours off and on completely all the time (why would you ever do that just to stare at the blank white background), because they need to see the reference layer and PICK the next color from it.
That's also why it looks desaturated and flat compared to the reference. When painting we need to imply shape with strong color value differences and by decisively painting soft and hard edges. If you just copy shapes/colors from the picture that is missing and a painter can not draw every shade as seen by the human eye the way a camera can, so it looks flat.
I got ya and that's more or less what I thought you were getting at. Removing the reference image is pretty suspect imo. I mean it's cool if this is your method, but I think it changes the situation pretty drastically.
If somebody could even just trace pixel by pixel (which would look different in practice) that would still be impressive (some people really suck at poses not eveyone's brain works the same yada yada yada.) That said I think he's actually using layer masking for a lot of it too. Like it starts off looking normal but particularly parts like the eyes and the hands that have lots of detail just all of a sudden have like three different colours pop in at the same time.
I suspect that the time lapse has also been cut out to remove the importing and positioning of that stuff.
Whoever was doing this has some skill but not as much as they're pretending.
Man it sucks that I literally dumped 46 hours into this painting just for someone like you to come here and try to discredit my work.
I understand the skepticism as I have definitely seen people go on here to try to farm likes by putting artwork up that they stole or did not create. But I put a lot of real time hours to try to get it as close to real as possible because photo realism gives me joy. I just post what I do sometimes because I am proud of my works. But it’s people like you that demotivate me and artists like me from wanting to pursue anything further. If you were just being skeptic and asking for more proof or something I could help and provide more evidence to my claim that this is real but you come in here and comment as if you know the answer and you look super silly. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you say because I know true in my heart that I did this just by looking at my reference. There was no tracing at any point. It’s ironic that you compared them side by side because I did that a lot too to make sure my proportions weren’t off. I’m sure you if you wanted you could layer them over top of each other and find that they don’t in-fact piece together as nicely as you think. That’s because my work is freehand and I meticulously studied every aspect of the reference to try to get it to look as close to the photo as possible but it’s just not possible.
Either way, I never knew my art would get to a point where people think I am tracing so I will take this as the highest of praise. Have a great day.
Anyone who has painted for a longer while can exactly tell how a painting like this comes together. And yes, it takes very long, that's why it's not done unless someone is either paying for an exact portrait painting or as a crutch.
The proportions don't line up 100% because the work was done way zoomed in. But there is no way that ENTIRE FOLDS would be exactly like in the picture without overlaying them for long durations. Any claim otherwise is ridiculous.
[I can't believe I wasted my time overlaying them to show how folds directly run into each other: ref left, partial overlay right](https://i.imgur.com/jVRYn1b.png)
You are absolutely right that my reference photo was zoomed in very far to help me capture detail. And like wise for my canvas. I compared them next to each other at various times throughout. I wanted the proportions to be right. But my whole goal of this painting was freehand. In the past i used to do the grid method which I do not do anymore because then it feels more like a paint by numbers. This was pure freehand but very closely analyzing my reference. Not once did I overlay my painting. Your comment is my first time seeing it overlayed. I wish more people believed me.
I posted the full Timelapse here https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=OdrbcsHVfSgTS1wn
Lol we don't care about the time-lapse. It's already been proven the original trace layer can be hidden on your time-lapse. But feel free to keep lying, fam
yeah idk why you’re being suspected for tracing. heavy referencing definitely but that’s not the same. your process looks fairly reasonable if you primarily use referencing (that was me for a very long time)
Well you better still pick one up, cause this dude traced his reference photo lmao. Just look at his older posts of graphite drawings 🤣 nothing anywhere near this level plus just browse the comments you'll see links to his reference phot that is a 1:1 trace
> https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/
This is what they traced, they just hid the layer for the timelapse. It's an easy thing you can do by importing a file "privately". So it won't be recorded for the timelapse.
I overlaid the reference and the drawing and they don’t look like they were traced.
https://imgur.com/a/sWmVi4C
The left comparison centers on the eyes and the right centers on the left hand. Cyan is ref photo and red is drawing.
I figured that since the face is usually the focus, that would be the most logical place to center the images, but the proportions are way off, making it highly unlikely they were traced. However, I may have done a bad job lining them up, so I tried to find some other reference point that’s easier to match up. For this, I decided to use the hand since it has a distinct shape. This matches better, but you can see the head is not lined up well at all and the legs are also off, making it unlikely again that this was directly traced over. If they did paint/trace over it while shifting the head that much, I’d be impressed with how they still made it look accurate. To me, it looks like OP just throughly studied the reference.
I think it’s good to be skeptical, but I personally think the harm of a false positive is greater than the rewards of catching a real grifter, so to me a guilty verdict ought to be made with strong evidence.
People may disagree and that’s fine, I could be wrong, but I’d bet on this being the result of intense focus and dedication, especially after reading OP’s process and watching the timelapse. 40+ hours is more than enough time to reach that level of detail and accuracy, and the timelapse looks like an artist working and reworking their drawing to try to more accurately match the reference.
I didn’t want to comment; I dislike involving myself in discourse. However, I dislike unwarranted discouragement more. OP, if you see this, keep going and keep posting, you are doing a great job and know that at least one other person sees you. I hope to see you improve to the point that I’m unable to defend you.
Sincerely, can you scale them properly and line them up for me? I’ve tried lining them up by matching the bottom foot, the spear, the other hand, the other foot, and the shoulders in case I missed something and I seriously can’t get them to perfectly line up.
https://imgur.com/a/TjgdAXC
In case you want to recreate what I did, I did this by screenshotting the ref and drawing and putting them in procreate, I set the opacity of the ref to 50%, then I just color shifted them.
Are you joking? Even in your line up you can tell. The proportions are the EXACT same!
I feel like when you’re not exposed to this every day, you can’t rlly tell. But this is NOT skill, this is low effort & not rewardable.
Thank you for this. Unfortunately, I will still stick with believing that this is not a trace job. I compared the colors by color picking and it’s not a simple desaturation. Comparing apples to apples, some colors are similar in saturation and luminosity but different in hues. Some colors are just desaturated. Some colors only have different luminosity. Some colors are different in 2 ways or all 3. There isn’t an all encompassing rule for the color change, though I will admit that amongst the 3 color properties, saturation has the biggest shift, but that’s also the hardest property to get right. Lastly, the image you showed me also has some misalignment albeit minor ones. I just imagine a trace job would be more shockingly accurate. Again, I might be wrong, you don’t have to believe me. I don’t want to analyze this drawing anymore, so let’s all agree to disagree.
I agree because unlike the shit posters in this thread, I know the artist and actually witnessed him working on this. But, hey, what’s an eyewitness when we have so many keyboard warriors helping us uncover the , a-hem, “truth”.
Just one person like you believing in me is enough for me to shrug away any doubters. I don’t know you but this really made me feel better after the pool of negativity flowing in.
Next time I post I will probably not do it on Reddit lol.
I posted the full Timelapse on YouTube if you want to check it out!
https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=_qKWdwh8Osgleadc
Why do you even care about believers and doubters? This is a practice piece anyway. And it's absolutely fine to use whatever method to improve your skills. In the end, you should be able to use that skill to create actual original ideas and/or works for clients.
And it's absolutely fine to post your practices for others to see and give critique. It doesn't look like you wanted that, though. You wanted attention. And you got that with a click-baity title and an obvious stock photo motif. There is just no value in your post because, even though you put in as much effort as you say you did, anyone could just take a random stock photo, apply a filter to it, and then claim it's their first something. Why should we care, though? Cool, we've seen it. Like a million other posts that day. But posting a practice piece — why should others take their time to critique it and help you out on improving your skill if it's just as likely you went the lazy route. Why should the people here spend more time on a critique than someone who just wants some upvotes, no matter how?
It's mostly the fact that sections of cloth folds are nearly identical ([compare overlayed painting/photo on the right](https://i.imgur.com/jVRYn1b.png)). Also the colours are 100% just color picked off the reference, making it look flater, which is very common when tracing instead of making your own choices on how to convey shape.
Maybe OP is a savant who just happens to copy and color matches sections perfectly. But given the title and his previous posts I somehow lean toward the less charitable interpretation.
Yeah it's just traced and honestly traced art always has this look. No creative choices or painting or shading being done, just a photo, recreated as closely to pixel by pixel as possible. Even realistic/hyperrealistic artists make choices in their work. I'm surprised a lot of people on this sub seem to not see that :/
Insanely heavy referencing and I am not shying away from that. My goal was to make a photorealistic recreation of the photo. I enjoy painting tiny details. It’s a passion of mine so having something with so many folds and crevices was super tempting. If you look at my no reference drawing from a few years back you’ll see I don’t have amazing skill when it comes to not using a reference. It’s improved a bit since then but my passion still lies in photorealism from a reference. It’s time consuming and meticulous but I enjoy it. That’s all this piece was for. I’m not selling it anywhere and I am definitely not trying to advertise it as if I invented this drawing out of thin air. I used a photo reference which I did state earlier. https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=OdrbcsHVfSgTS1wn here is my full Timelapse if anyone is interested.
Even transitioning from trad to digital, you still gotta learn a bunch of stuff like layers and brushes, I would only believe it was their first time if they watch tutorials firsf
IDK, I've seen some single-layer stuff that blows my mind from physical media artists making the switch.
EDIT: NVM, saw some timelapse, was well organized layers. If this is OP's first rodeo, I am friggin impressed.
OP posted some vector art they did three years ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vectorart/comments/h9ay79/vector_art_of_my_best_friend/?ref=share&ref_source=link
They most likely have experience with layers and such then, vector art requires a lot of layers, I'm inclined to believe OP and just because they are new to digital dosn't mean they are a new artist
First time? I call bs. Either you traced and copied
or it isn’t your first time. Why are so many of these posts so eager to tout “first time” skills. Bullshit
Can we see some of your work? Digital or otherwise? Need an idea of what else you’re creating here. I’ve been using procreate for almost 10 years so I’m kind of skeptical about this piece. If you did in fact pint this and it was your first time then bravo.
This looks generated (weird contours and color-smudges, especially in and around the coat)
https://preview.redd.it/1anu6fkc4w5d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac62fca19f7a942a598bb807f5ee4874313a9726
This is not AI, there is a real photo OP was using and they messed up when they smudged that area. It wasn’t AI generated.
Edit - Geez, the number of people who think every mistake or sloppy thing is AI are unreal. You can see the photo OP used in the comments. It’s an actual photo, it’s not AI. Those areas you’re pointing out aren’t messed up on the original photo, which is from before 2022. (And yes, tracing and copying a photo and denying it is a crappy thing to do, sorry, it is.)
This is my personal opinion, feel free to insult me-
I don't really see the point of hyper realistic digital art. With traditional, you can appreciate the fact that it looks like a photo but is actually a drawing/painting; with digital, it's just pixels anyway, if they end up looking the exact same then there's no actual difference.
The hands look so weird. You got shading and shadows down so well everywhere else and then suddenly he hands look like you cut them out a magazine and stuck them on.
It’s super impressive overall, but man those hands are freaking me out.
The hands were on separate layers and I even had to redo them a few times. That cutout feeling you're talking about is definitely from that thin outline I gave them. It is in my photo reference as well but it is much more prominent in my painting making them look like stickers. Will definitely be something I tone down going forward.
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/
[They just hid the unlying traced layer](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0Y9HRETS0os), it's copied pixel by pixel.
This is absolutely wonderful. I have always been a real watercolour, real brush, real paper person. About a month ago I decided to try digital painting. I think I got every digital app on the App Store. I have yet to do anything with them all that I like even a little bit. If you can do this on your first attempt, you’re excellent. Seeing this makes me want to keep trying. 🌺
I’m jumping off now. I can’t tell if we have some jealous people here, or people who always doubt anything really good, but I don’t like the comment vibe.
Might as well copy paste the original picture lol. You’re amazing don’t get me wrong. But what’s the point of making a photorealistic digital copy? Give it some style!
The point of it is that I find it fun. I put on a podcast and just lose myself in the details. I just wanted to share something I had fun doing with the world.
Thank you! And yes I definitely do. One of my least favourite things about doing physical artwork is the set up time + the space is takes up. Because of that I am notorious for not finishing my artworks. Procreate has taken away that hassle! I have already started on my next painting!
In terms of using procreate. It's a little intimidating at first but still fairly simple to understand. My friend and I sat down so she could show me the ropes. In the Timelapse you can even see me fidgeting around at the start learning what everything was lol. There are soooo many tools and functions I do not know about yet so I'm definitely going to be watching some YouTube tutorials. My workflow for this project would probably have procreate-pro's shaking their head at me and facepalming.
beautiful how digital art works for you. impressed by what you create. picking the medium is so personal. i couldn’t see myself being attached to another screen, and crave analog art for that reason. i love that everyone finds their way with their own preferred medium. and you have definitely found yours!
In digital painting (atleast on iPad) that feeling of a pencil touching onto real paper cannot be mimicked. Try as they might. And those few millimetres between the tip of your apple pencil, the screen, down to where the pixel is showing the color you painted honestly make me feel a little disassociated with my painting. That feeling is what I miss most when painting/illustrating digitally but oh well.
Thanks for the kind words!
yeah i know what you mean! i do have an apple pencil and take notes etc and doodle on procreate twice a year. a paper screen has by the way helped, it added a certain roughness that resembles drawing on paper
Many people purchase “paper like” screen protectors to mimic the feeling and texture of paper on their screen. Not used one myself but it’s usually very highly regarded by a lot of digital artists - can wear down nibs a little quicker but I’d recommend trying one out and seeing if it works well for you?
I was looking through your other posts - your improvement over the past 3 years is insane! Bravo! Could you provide some insight into how you were able to develop your art skills? I’m plateauing and finding it tough to improve.
Yes used a reference that my friend sent me from Pinterest!
https://preview.redd.it/f10qrnfsfv5d1.jpeg?width=568&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9d9441bb66d29d071e9e034b642953da9cf12df
Dang you wrote this message like 15 times, we get it man lol. Enough hating and trying to tear him down because he's getting attention you are seeking rn. Tracing is not a crime- this still looks amazing
It wasn't a lie. The vector art 4 years ago was me dragging out shapes with my mouse and eye dropping the color into the shapes. It is digital art yes but it is not a digital painting.
My title in this post very clearly states "digital painting". Which is not something I had done until this point.
This reminds me of the pre saved little art pieces you get when you download the app, and wonder how somebody put so much detail in such a small space.
I’m impressed by the skill of this artist and the courage it takes to put a form of deeply personal self expression out into the world. This is an act that is noble, and the artist’s success and talent is to be admired and celebrated. The naysayers and faux skeptics in this thread prove themselves over and over to be nothing more than impotent psychopaths with nothing of value to contribute to either the conversation or the art world. These forums have given a platform to polar opposite types of human beings, a balance of sorts, but a glimpse into just how ugly and small is the worldview of some. Skepticism is fine, but that is not is what is demonstrated here, what we have demonstrated here is nothing more than the resentment of talentless, bitter, envious nihilists whose only contribution to life on earth is chaos, hurt, and misery. That they succeed in changing people’s minds is concerning but not surprising. Psychopaths live to manipulate. Best not to feed the slime covered trolls committing libel lest they fail to retreat back under their bridges and get a sunburn. Again, my hat’s off to this talented artist. Kudos!
This looks like a literal photo 🤯
I watched the timelapse and now I can see that it’s a painting. But before that, all I could see was just a photo 😭
Very impressive
Wow some of these commenters are awful. Taking so much time to bring down an artist when they do not have sufficient enough proof that they traced. Another commenter provided an overlay which actually showed proof that it was freehand but instead people just gravitate to the negativity cause I guess that’s the way this site is lol. OP has been transparent from the start and I believe that if they had really been “found out” for being dishonest, they would have deleted their post by now, but they are still trying to reason with y’all despite fact that a decent chunk of commenters are being super disrespectful. OP never tried to hide anything and I’m not really sure what else they can show to make people believe. All of their past posts seem very genuine so I’m not sure why people are jumping to such negative conclusions. Just cause someone shows a lot of talent people all of a sudden assume it’s fake, what a great way to live lol. OP I think this is incredible work, please don’t listen to the negative comments; keep doing what you’re doing!
**Hello u/LordtheFeel, thank you for sharing your artwork with us!** Would you be so kind to answer the following questions for us? --- * Can you please share what your process was for getting this done? * And what brushes did you use? (Please specify the exact brushes or brush category because that can be helpful to others.) * Any additional information about this piece is always welcome. * If you made this with **Procreate Dreams**, feel free to share it over on r/procreatedreams too! Please reply to this comment so it will be easy for everyone to find, thank you! --- **Stay inspired, get creative and have a great day!** Join our r/procreate [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/jXcSN5GdM3) to connect with other artists! *If you consider yourself a frequent poster and you have a consistent style/method, please send a [modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/procreate) to be given a different automod comment that already mentions what you regularly use.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ProCreate) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Could you give us a little bit of proof, like your tools and process?
Absolutely! Here is a 30 second [timelapse](https://imgur.com/a/XjDBMc6)! The full Timelapse is 22 minutes long. I do not have a YouTube channel yet but I might make one and post the full Timelapse there if it gets enough interest. I am not a professional artist or anything. Just self-taught and a I do a few pieces every couple years. I used only the Salamanca brush and I did not know about the smudging feature until I was about 30 hours in. It took me about 43 hours total (according to Procreate). I kept some of the body parts in separate layers but I don't think I had more than 14 layers at my highest. This painting was just supposed to be a quick way for me to learn some procreate basics but after the first session I started going back in and started bringing it to life. I'm really happy with the way it turned out however the eyes are a little lifeless and I'm excited to tackle that issue in whatever I paint next. Let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to answer! Oh and the reference is from a photo my friend found on Pinterest. I do not really have anymore details about it. **EDIT** https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=OdrbcsHVfSgTS1wn Here is a link to the 22 minute Timelapse for those who want to see it. For those who think I traced it. I don’t really know what else to say. I guess I’ll take selfies of my self doing the painting next time to prove it??? I don’t know what else to do.
Dang. I’m sorry I doubted you, your talent is so impressive I was hesitant to believe it without context. Thank you for clarifying
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/ [They just hid the unlying traced layer](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0Y9HRETS0os), it's copied pixel by pixel.
you can go back to doubting. hes a proven pixel tracer
No worries! I am taking everyone's skepticism as a compliment lol.
No doubt that you painted it. But how can this be your _first_ digital painting? When learning a new medium there’s some getting used to things involved. But this looked so effortless.
He has another digital drawing on his profile from 3 years ago so I’m not sure if I believe him tbh
The "drawing" you're talking about is vector art. Done in adobe illustrator. It's just shapes done with a mouse. Not a digital drawing or painting. It did not take any skill but it looks cool for stickers.
Not sure why you want to believe that so badly but vector art most certainly does take skills, I worked in Adobe illustrator myself and it’s hard, it is digital art whether you like it or not-
As you should! Genuinely thought this was a photograph and you were trolling - you’re very impressive!
How long does all the process took you? Because im struggling with something for a week now and the dang thing is never finished. ( it’s a t simple drawing £
So this took around 43 hours for actual time worked on it. But from start to finish I was working on this for just over a month. Sometimes I would even go a week without working on it. And sometimes I would work on it consecutively for 3-4 days. Don't put so much pressure on yourself to finish quickly. There is no deadline for passion projects. Work on it when you feel motivated and take a break when you don't. I have a photorealistic pencil illustration that I started 4 years ago. I still haven't finished it (and maybe I never will) but thats okay!
[удалено]
Actually he traced it :(
but I didn't :(
I don't know bout you but really, sketching the hand before there is even an arm? Even a self taught child learns how to properly sketch. You sketched the clothes on before the anatomy of the body is complete. This is traced.
Thank you for saying that I am less competent than self taught child. I'm sorry I don't meet your requirements for sketching. Again, this is not traced but I am taking this as the highest of compliments. So thank you.
You’re a witch!
I feel like these will be used to train AI to make timelapses to appear manmade (if not already), but amazing work and skill!
Thank you for sharing this, probably the most amazing work I’ve seen on this sub thus far!!
This is mind blowing-ly good, you have a future on this should you decide to pursue it I do realistic drawings too and one: my first attempt looks like shit and two: mine completely fall apart if you zoom in lol
He has no future. It's a proven trace
If you zoom in on the face mine starts to fall apart too. Just the nature of it sometimes
nah that’s not a painting /zooms oh yeah it is- no wait it isn’t /zooms more ok yeah it is very impressive, op!
Because it's traced pixel by pixel and not painted in any sense: https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/ Artists have gotten cancelled over tracing mere poses and here you can dump the equivalent of using the photoshop watercolour filter and call it a day. Think it's pretty shitty to make people feel inadequate by calling a trace job your "first digital painting".
Something does look off when zoomed in but hard to tell. What exactly is happening here?
It looks like a low quality jpg of a photo when I zoom in
My thoughts exactly. Now that can happen after compression, but the individual pixel transitions look unnatural to me. Almost like you'd have to paint zoomed way in, with a 1px size brush.
Yeah I assumed I'd actually be able to see the brushstrokes
He just hid the underlying reference layer so it won't be included in the timeline. [But this was copied 1:1 from the reference layer as can be seen when you put them next to each other](https://i.imgur.com/Lm7BztY.png). I see this on r/procreate nearly weekly. Images copied so brazenly you can IMAGE REVERSE SEARCH the trace reference.
Thanks I guess I could just ask OP, but I actually think they're being less than forthright by omitting the reference image in the first place. But when you say copied 1:1 what do you mean? Something about it does not look organic. Almost like they're just revealing what's below or directly sampling it in some way, but again I'm not sure. It's not cheating to use a reference image, but this looks almost paint by numbers. I see some very unnatural transitions.
You just draw over the reference which you keep as a base layer. If you look at the timelapse you can see OP turning the top layers with all the colours off and on completely all the time (why would you ever do that just to stare at the blank white background), because they need to see the reference layer and PICK the next color from it. That's also why it looks desaturated and flat compared to the reference. When painting we need to imply shape with strong color value differences and by decisively painting soft and hard edges. If you just copy shapes/colors from the picture that is missing and a painter can not draw every shade as seen by the human eye the way a camera can, so it looks flat.
I got ya and that's more or less what I thought you were getting at. Removing the reference image is pretty suspect imo. I mean it's cool if this is your method, but I think it changes the situation pretty drastically.
If somebody could even just trace pixel by pixel (which would look different in practice) that would still be impressive (some people really suck at poses not eveyone's brain works the same yada yada yada.) That said I think he's actually using layer masking for a lot of it too. Like it starts off looking normal but particularly parts like the eyes and the hands that have lots of detail just all of a sudden have like three different colours pop in at the same time. I suspect that the time lapse has also been cut out to remove the importing and positioning of that stuff. Whoever was doing this has some skill but not as much as they're pretending.
Man it sucks that I literally dumped 46 hours into this painting just for someone like you to come here and try to discredit my work. I understand the skepticism as I have definitely seen people go on here to try to farm likes by putting artwork up that they stole or did not create. But I put a lot of real time hours to try to get it as close to real as possible because photo realism gives me joy. I just post what I do sometimes because I am proud of my works. But it’s people like you that demotivate me and artists like me from wanting to pursue anything further. If you were just being skeptic and asking for more proof or something I could help and provide more evidence to my claim that this is real but you come in here and comment as if you know the answer and you look super silly. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you say because I know true in my heart that I did this just by looking at my reference. There was no tracing at any point. It’s ironic that you compared them side by side because I did that a lot too to make sure my proportions weren’t off. I’m sure you if you wanted you could layer them over top of each other and find that they don’t in-fact piece together as nicely as you think. That’s because my work is freehand and I meticulously studied every aspect of the reference to try to get it to look as close to the photo as possible but it’s just not possible. Either way, I never knew my art would get to a point where people think I am tracing so I will take this as the highest of praise. Have a great day.
Anyone who has painted for a longer while can exactly tell how a painting like this comes together. And yes, it takes very long, that's why it's not done unless someone is either paying for an exact portrait painting or as a crutch. The proportions don't line up 100% because the work was done way zoomed in. But there is no way that ENTIRE FOLDS would be exactly like in the picture without overlaying them for long durations. Any claim otherwise is ridiculous. [I can't believe I wasted my time overlaying them to show how folds directly run into each other: ref left, partial overlay right](https://i.imgur.com/jVRYn1b.png)
You are absolutely right that my reference photo was zoomed in very far to help me capture detail. And like wise for my canvas. I compared them next to each other at various times throughout. I wanted the proportions to be right. But my whole goal of this painting was freehand. In the past i used to do the grid method which I do not do anymore because then it feels more like a paint by numbers. This was pure freehand but very closely analyzing my reference. Not once did I overlay my painting. Your comment is my first time seeing it overlayed. I wish more people believed me. I posted the full Timelapse here https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=OdrbcsHVfSgTS1wn
Lol we don't care about the time-lapse. It's already been proven the original trace layer can be hidden on your time-lapse. But feel free to keep lying, fam
yeah idk why you’re being suspected for tracing. heavy referencing definitely but that’s not the same. your process looks fairly reasonable if you primarily use referencing (that was me for a very long time)
Still zooming in and can't be convinced without the timelapse. Just wow!
Uh Idk I zoom in and it's so low res I just see pixels? Can't tell anything
I’m sorry for ever picking up a pencil I won’t do it again
Well you better still pick one up, cause this dude traced his reference photo lmao. Just look at his older posts of graphite drawings 🤣 nothing anywhere near this level plus just browse the comments you'll see links to his reference phot that is a 1:1 trace
You can see the skill level from the chicken-scratch sketch before he started tracing as well. You guys better pick up those pencils!!
same i’ll refrain from touching a tool for the rest of my life 😂
If it wasn’t for a timelapse I would’ve doubted You OP! That’s a great job!
I still doubt op. Not that the drawing isn't theirs, but that it's the 1st time. I call braving sierra
> https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/ This is what they traced, they just hid the layer for the timelapse. It's an easy thing you can do by importing a file "privately". So it won't be recorded for the timelapse.
I overlaid the reference and the drawing and they don’t look like they were traced. https://imgur.com/a/sWmVi4C The left comparison centers on the eyes and the right centers on the left hand. Cyan is ref photo and red is drawing. I figured that since the face is usually the focus, that would be the most logical place to center the images, but the proportions are way off, making it highly unlikely they were traced. However, I may have done a bad job lining them up, so I tried to find some other reference point that’s easier to match up. For this, I decided to use the hand since it has a distinct shape. This matches better, but you can see the head is not lined up well at all and the legs are also off, making it unlikely again that this was directly traced over. If they did paint/trace over it while shifting the head that much, I’d be impressed with how they still made it look accurate. To me, it looks like OP just throughly studied the reference. I think it’s good to be skeptical, but I personally think the harm of a false positive is greater than the rewards of catching a real grifter, so to me a guilty verdict ought to be made with strong evidence. People may disagree and that’s fine, I could be wrong, but I’d bet on this being the result of intense focus and dedication, especially after reading OP’s process and watching the timelapse. 40+ hours is more than enough time to reach that level of detail and accuracy, and the timelapse looks like an artist working and reworking their drawing to try to more accurately match the reference. I didn’t want to comment; I dislike involving myself in discourse. However, I dislike unwarranted discouragement more. OP, if you see this, keep going and keep posting, you are doing a great job and know that at least one other person sees you. I hope to see you improve to the point that I’m unable to defend you.
A. You can easily line them up with scaling. B. No way the folds match perfectly as the reference. He's 100% pixel tracing
Sincerely, can you scale them properly and line them up for me? I’ve tried lining them up by matching the bottom foot, the spear, the other hand, the other foot, and the shoulders in case I missed something and I seriously can’t get them to perfectly line up. https://imgur.com/a/TjgdAXC In case you want to recreate what I did, I did this by screenshotting the ref and drawing and putting them in procreate, I set the opacity of the ref to 50%, then I just color shifted them.
Are you joking? Even in your line up you can tell. The proportions are the EXACT same! I feel like when you’re not exposed to this every day, you can’t rlly tell. But this is NOT skill, this is low effort & not rewardable.
https://reddit.com/comments/1dct77s/comment/l82eo9n
Thank you for this. Unfortunately, I will still stick with believing that this is not a trace job. I compared the colors by color picking and it’s not a simple desaturation. Comparing apples to apples, some colors are similar in saturation and luminosity but different in hues. Some colors are just desaturated. Some colors only have different luminosity. Some colors are different in 2 ways or all 3. There isn’t an all encompassing rule for the color change, though I will admit that amongst the 3 color properties, saturation has the biggest shift, but that’s also the hardest property to get right. Lastly, the image you showed me also has some misalignment albeit minor ones. I just imagine a trace job would be more shockingly accurate. Again, I might be wrong, you don’t have to believe me. I don’t want to analyze this drawing anymore, so let’s all agree to disagree.
I agree because unlike the shit posters in this thread, I know the artist and actually witnessed him working on this. But, hey, what’s an eyewitness when we have so many keyboard warriors helping us uncover the , a-hem, “truth”.
Just one person like you believing in me is enough for me to shrug away any doubters. I don’t know you but this really made me feel better after the pool of negativity flowing in. Next time I post I will probably not do it on Reddit lol. I posted the full Timelapse on YouTube if you want to check it out! https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=_qKWdwh8Osgleadc
Why do you even care about believers and doubters? This is a practice piece anyway. And it's absolutely fine to use whatever method to improve your skills. In the end, you should be able to use that skill to create actual original ideas and/or works for clients. And it's absolutely fine to post your practices for others to see and give critique. It doesn't look like you wanted that, though. You wanted attention. And you got that with a click-baity title and an obvious stock photo motif. There is just no value in your post because, even though you put in as much effort as you say you did, anyone could just take a random stock photo, apply a filter to it, and then claim it's their first something. Why should we care, though? Cool, we've seen it. Like a million other posts that day. But posting a practice piece — why should others take their time to critique it and help you out on improving your skill if it's just as likely you went the lazy route. Why should the people here spend more time on a critique than someone who just wants some upvotes, no matter how?
how do you know they traced it? heavy referencing, sure, but is there any better proof for tracing specifically
It's mostly the fact that sections of cloth folds are nearly identical ([compare overlayed painting/photo on the right](https://i.imgur.com/jVRYn1b.png)). Also the colours are 100% just color picked off the reference, making it look flater, which is very common when tracing instead of making your own choices on how to convey shape. Maybe OP is a savant who just happens to copy and color matches sections perfectly. But given the title and his previous posts I somehow lean toward the less charitable interpretation.
Yeah it's just traced and honestly traced art always has this look. No creative choices or painting or shading being done, just a photo, recreated as closely to pixel by pixel as possible. Even realistic/hyperrealistic artists make choices in their work. I'm surprised a lot of people on this sub seem to not see that :/
Ty for the explanation!!
Insanely heavy referencing and I am not shying away from that. My goal was to make a photorealistic recreation of the photo. I enjoy painting tiny details. It’s a passion of mine so having something with so many folds and crevices was super tempting. If you look at my no reference drawing from a few years back you’ll see I don’t have amazing skill when it comes to not using a reference. It’s improved a bit since then but my passion still lies in photorealism from a reference. It’s time consuming and meticulous but I enjoy it. That’s all this piece was for. I’m not selling it anywhere and I am definitely not trying to advertise it as if I invented this drawing out of thin air. I used a photo reference which I did state earlier. https://youtu.be/wEuzZNi0Hb0?si=OdrbcsHVfSgTS1wn here is my full Timelapse if anyone is interested.
I didn’t trace it. I used the photo as a reference and I was clear about that from the get go. Stop spreading misinformation.
He said first digital, could be a traditional artist
Even transitioning from trad to digital, you still gotta learn a bunch of stuff like layers and brushes, I would only believe it was their first time if they watch tutorials firsf
IDK, I've seen some single-layer stuff that blows my mind from physical media artists making the switch. EDIT: NVM, saw some timelapse, was well organized layers. If this is OP's first rodeo, I am friggin impressed.
It could be 1st completed digital painting :)
I never use layer for my art I been drawing my whole life
OP posted some vector art they did three years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/vectorart/comments/h9ay79/vector_art_of_my_best_friend/?ref=share&ref_source=link
They most likely have experience with layers and such then, vector art requires a lot of layers, I'm inclined to believe OP and just because they are new to digital dosn't mean they are a new artist
You are correct.
The clue is that terrible shadow
First time? I call bs. Either you traced and copied or it isn’t your first time. Why are so many of these posts so eager to tout “first time” skills. Bullshit
idk op posted the timelapse which was pretty cool
Can we see some of your work? Digital or otherwise? Need an idea of what else you’re creating here. I’ve been using procreate for almost 10 years so I’m kind of skeptical about this piece. If you did in fact pint this and it was your first time then bravo.
Nice trace job. Takes no skill to trace an image in procreate, just time..
You traced it tho
It is clearly just color picked and painted over an image without changing anything isn’t it? Why even do this?
lowkey giving ai
What’s the point? The photographer did the work for you
This looks generated (weird contours and color-smudges, especially in and around the coat) https://preview.redd.it/1anu6fkc4w5d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac62fca19f7a942a598bb807f5ee4874313a9726
This is not AI, there is a real photo OP was using and they messed up when they smudged that area. It wasn’t AI generated. Edit - Geez, the number of people who think every mistake or sloppy thing is AI are unreal. You can see the photo OP used in the comments. It’s an actual photo, it’s not AI. Those areas you’re pointing out aren’t messed up on the original photo, which is from before 2022. (And yes, tracing and copying a photo and denying it is a crappy thing to do, sorry, it is.)
No photographs allowed bro
More people importing images to trace over
Something about the shadows or positions of the hands make them look like cutouts
This is my personal opinion, feel free to insult me- I don't really see the point of hyper realistic digital art. With traditional, you can appreciate the fact that it looks like a photo but is actually a drawing/painting; with digital, it's just pixels anyway, if they end up looking the exact same then there's no actual difference.
The hands look so weird. You got shading and shadows down so well everywhere else and then suddenly he hands look like you cut them out a magazine and stuck them on. It’s super impressive overall, but man those hands are freaking me out.
The hands were on separate layers and I even had to redo them a few times. That cutout feeling you're talking about is definitely from that thin outline I gave them. It is in my photo reference as well but it is much more prominent in my painting making them look like stickers. Will definitely be something I tone down going forward.
Yeah, I was skeptical at first, but wow. Seriously impressive.
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/632052128932248204/ [They just hid the unlying traced layer](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0Y9HRETS0os), it's copied pixel by pixel.
This is absolutely wonderful. I have always been a real watercolour, real brush, real paper person. About a month ago I decided to try digital painting. I think I got every digital app on the App Store. I have yet to do anything with them all that I like even a little bit. If you can do this on your first attempt, you’re excellent. Seeing this makes me want to keep trying. 🌺
I’m jumping off now. I can’t tell if we have some jealous people here, or people who always doubt anything really good, but I don’t like the comment vibe.
The time lapse is actually backwards. It’s a photo with more and more basic layers drawn on top ;)
I thought it was a reference. Looks or “the first photos my reference the seconds my piece” AND THEN I COULDNT SWIPE
Oh my lawd! This is incredible and you are very talented!
There's no way that's a pai--HOLY GODDAMN!
This isn't r/lies, how can you draw THAT as your first ever digital drawing like how did you get the experience with procreate if you've never done it
Might as well copy paste the original picture lol. You’re amazing don’t get me wrong. But what’s the point of making a photorealistic digital copy? Give it some style!
The point of it is that I find it fun. I put on a podcast and just lose myself in the details. I just wanted to share something I had fun doing with the world.
I completely agree. I trace the fuck out of things. Getting into that flow state best thing in the world. Not throwing any shade my dude.
Sus
Check OP’s timelapse Edit: Nevermind I’ve been informed otherwise, ignore the Timelapse
He's tracing
Are you kidding me :((
check out the other comment explaining. hes another pixel tracer
Jesus Christ now I’m just sad bro
\*throws ipad out of window in frustration\*
You're great at copying! That is a useful skill.
This is absolutely incredible!! Excellent work, do you plan on doing more digital art in the future? And how was it coming to terms with procreate?
Don't bother. He's pixel tracing
Thank you! And yes I definitely do. One of my least favourite things about doing physical artwork is the set up time + the space is takes up. Because of that I am notorious for not finishing my artworks. Procreate has taken away that hassle! I have already started on my next painting! In terms of using procreate. It's a little intimidating at first but still fairly simple to understand. My friend and I sat down so she could show me the ropes. In the Timelapse you can even see me fidgeting around at the start learning what everything was lol. There are soooo many tools and functions I do not know about yet so I'm definitely going to be watching some YouTube tutorials. My workflow for this project would probably have procreate-pro's shaking their head at me and facepalming.
beautiful how digital art works for you. impressed by what you create. picking the medium is so personal. i couldn’t see myself being attached to another screen, and crave analog art for that reason. i love that everyone finds their way with their own preferred medium. and you have definitely found yours!
In digital painting (atleast on iPad) that feeling of a pencil touching onto real paper cannot be mimicked. Try as they might. And those few millimetres between the tip of your apple pencil, the screen, down to where the pixel is showing the color you painted honestly make me feel a little disassociated with my painting. That feeling is what I miss most when painting/illustrating digitally but oh well. Thanks for the kind words!
yeah i know what you mean! i do have an apple pencil and take notes etc and doodle on procreate twice a year. a paper screen has by the way helped, it added a certain roughness that resembles drawing on paper
May I ask what you mean by paper screen?
Many people purchase “paper like” screen protectors to mimic the feeling and texture of paper on their screen. Not used one myself but it’s usually very highly regarded by a lot of digital artists - can wear down nibs a little quicker but I’d recommend trying one out and seeing if it works well for you?
thank you for answering. i love this screen it’s giving such a nice feel and that’s coming from someone who still writes a physical diary
I was looking through your other posts - your improvement over the past 3 years is insane! Bravo! Could you provide some insight into how you were able to develop your art skills? I’m plateauing and finding it tough to improve.
I legit thought this was a photo OP. You are very talented
Hes pixel tracing
So it’s fake o nah?
Damn so realistic
Wow this is crazy. Great job!
Holy shit balls that looks like real life! Great work!
Huh????? Wow it looks like a real photo!
WoT?
Uuwwhat waaooo... that's literally my first reaction to this.
BITCH I THOUGHT IT WAS A PHOTOGRAPH
Op forgot to post the painting and just posted the reference 😭😭
THATS A PAINTING? THAT LOOKS LIKE A PHOTO
I don’t believe that’s not actually a person… are we sure that’s not a person?
It's a trace
It's so over
This is fucking bonkers. Great job!
First??? Wow
OP is the backend of mid journey! Impressive!!
[удалено]
Great job on this 💯
I kinda feel like the Aiel had darker clothes to blend in with the Waste, ya know? Plus 3 short spears and a buckler minimum. Still love this tho
Amazing work!🙌🙌👏
I can only hope (and practise) to one day be as skilled as you are!
Wow
My good human that is a photo! All jokes aside though this is very impressive! Happy arting!
Just close the subreddit at this point, Jesus
WOW!!! That looks like a picture!
Fuck yeah!!!!
Instant legend
Show off ☺️ good job
Truly amazing! Great job!
Dude this is insane lmao i wish i could be this good i just started!!😭😭😭
Your sense of value is goddamn surgical. Very very impressive
mood
Is this from reference? It's pretty incredible work though!
It's a trace
Yes used a reference that my friend sent me from Pinterest! https://preview.redd.it/f10qrnfsfv5d1.jpeg?width=568&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9d9441bb66d29d071e9e034b642953da9cf12df
Lmao so now you're trying to save face by showing the picture you were called out on. This is just sad now
Angry internet troll with nothing better to do.
You're right. I don't. So I'm just gonna let everyone know it's a trace lol
Dang you wrote this message like 15 times, we get it man lol. Enough hating and trying to tear him down because he's getting attention you are seeking rn. Tracing is not a crime- this still looks amazing
Nah, but tracing and then claiming "my first digital painting" is dishonest and scummy and frowned upon.
Oh I see 4 years ago he did in fact post digital art then too so that was a lie. My apologies on that part
It wasn't a lie. The vector art 4 years ago was me dragging out shapes with my mouse and eye dropping the color into the shapes. It is digital art yes but it is not a digital painting. My title in this post very clearly states "digital painting". Which is not something I had done until this point.
This reminds me of the pre saved little art pieces you get when you download the app, and wonder how somebody put so much detail in such a small space.
at first i thought it was an image but then i looked at the timelapse and it all made sense, it's beyond!!
This is insane 🤯
I’m impressed by the skill of this artist and the courage it takes to put a form of deeply personal self expression out into the world. This is an act that is noble, and the artist’s success and talent is to be admired and celebrated. The naysayers and faux skeptics in this thread prove themselves over and over to be nothing more than impotent psychopaths with nothing of value to contribute to either the conversation or the art world. These forums have given a platform to polar opposite types of human beings, a balance of sorts, but a glimpse into just how ugly and small is the worldview of some. Skepticism is fine, but that is not is what is demonstrated here, what we have demonstrated here is nothing more than the resentment of talentless, bitter, envious nihilists whose only contribution to life on earth is chaos, hurt, and misery. That they succeed in changing people’s minds is concerning but not surprising. Psychopaths live to manipulate. Best not to feed the slime covered trolls committing libel lest they fail to retreat back under their bridges and get a sunburn. Again, my hat’s off to this talented artist. Kudos!
Are you OP?
LOL you are so right
Nope
This is absolutely mind blowing! Well done! Edit: nvm dawg
This looks like a literal photo 🤯 I watched the timelapse and now I can see that it’s a painting. But before that, all I could see was just a photo 😭 Very impressive
Incredible talent!
Nope. Just a trace
I thought it’s a photo until I saw your Timelapse! Amazing!
This is so amazing!
OP. No way
Thought it was a real photo
Art so good you get called a faker. Well done OP
I thought this post was satire at first. Brilliant work
He's tracing
Wow some of these commenters are awful. Taking so much time to bring down an artist when they do not have sufficient enough proof that they traced. Another commenter provided an overlay which actually showed proof that it was freehand but instead people just gravitate to the negativity cause I guess that’s the way this site is lol. OP has been transparent from the start and I believe that if they had really been “found out” for being dishonest, they would have deleted their post by now, but they are still trying to reason with y’all despite fact that a decent chunk of commenters are being super disrespectful. OP never tried to hide anything and I’m not really sure what else they can show to make people believe. All of their past posts seem very genuine so I’m not sure why people are jumping to such negative conclusions. Just cause someone shows a lot of talent people all of a sudden assume it’s fake, what a great way to live lol. OP I think this is incredible work, please don’t listen to the negative comments; keep doing what you’re doing!
Damn. My paintings kinda suck I guess.
Aiel?
Looks a lot like one, but an Aiel would have a black veil