Beyond Art 101: Shading, tonality and skin...

[Frosty]

So, I'm getting closer to finished every day.

[walls83]

I say go for it.  Its not like you cant paint over it if it comes out bad.

[RayB]

Can we see the whole side, and other art you already have on that cab? The thing about shading too much is it can then make the style of the work look completely different from other art you may have on there.

[Frosty]

Here's a picture of the finished art on the left side.  The camera flash has washed out some of the lettering on the bottom (colors are cold and silver).

Yeah, there's nothing that can't be re-painted. 

[RayB]

Well in my opinion, the flat look is more retro. Felsir's shading style is closer to modern japanese cartoon style.

[Felsir]

I like the showgirl graphic 

I understand that the dice are on one side and the girl on the other side of the cab? If so, I'd say give it a try and add shading. If the dice and girl are in the same visual field, then I have to go with RayB - try to match their styles.

If you are happy with the shaded showgirl, but the dice don't match you could go two ways:
  1) repaint the girl
  2) repaint the dice
Since a cube is fairly easy to shade you could add a slight darker tone of red to the sides facing to the left. I noticed shading in the flames too so there is some shading present in the image already.

So what would I do? I would probably go with the 'flat' look for this one. I also sense a retro feel in the Vegas graphics that I like. It would be very interesting however to see what the shaded version looks like ... hmmm, choices, choices...

[Frosty]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Think I'm going to try and work the best of both worlds in here.  Because the outline is going to be black and I can paint the fill color all one shade, I'm going to try that first and then see what some shaded skin tone looks like.

Pictures this week when it's all done...

[Frosty]

Well, it's amazing how much the holidays can take from my 'free' time.  You'd think the family would realize that finishing painting a cabinet is just really, really important...

She's about 75% done, with the skin tones remaining.  'Flat' color is going to be the choice, because the highlights are silver, and really came out much better than I thought--especially in low light.

[Felsir]

Well, it's amazing how much the holidays can take from my 'free' time.

[Frosty]

Thanks...

Well, good call on going for the flat style, as I think it really adds to the retro feel of the arwork and cabinet.

[GreenKnight37]

Coming to this thread sort of late....but yes, I would have said to go with a flat color for that particular image.

From the pic of the work in progress, I'd have to say it was a good choice too.  While I'm sure it would have looked good in either case (assuming you've got great painting abilities!) the style of the sideart image is definitely more of a retro pinup.  A flat look is much, much more appropriate for that image. 

[Frosty]

She's done...

Thanks for all the feedback, guys.  I'll put up some final images once the bezel is finished.