So... All you did was take an image, mouse on some blood, and apply a marker filter?

I dont know what to say....Perhaps I shouldn't say anything at all.

It's not that's its bad....it's just that you haven't done any major editing to make this image your own, so I don't know how to critique this.

Darklord, yes.

I wanted you to comment on the blood effects. I mean am I on the right track when it comes to blood looking realistic or not?

Honestly, my drawing humans is quite terrible at the moment as I have no knowledge or practice in anatomy. So I just went with something pre-made.

I'm not completely satisfied with the composition of the image as it doesn't meet my expectations. To say the least it's just something I threw together, even though it's not mine.

i think u did a good job on the blood effects, looks very real. keep trying and youll get better

Thanks SEGAmaniac7. I appreciate it.

No, for several reasons (if any of this doesn't make sense, let me know):

1) Their clothes are bleeding.
It appears as if a cut on their 'clothing' is a cut on their 'skin.' In this image, your cuts go straight across wrinkled fabric (without changing direction or conforming to the wrinkles) and the characters appear to bleed from areas where there is no skin (such as the cuts on the left character's leg.)

When adding tears/cuts to base images, try to map out the person's anatomy under their clothes. Turn down the opacity on the 'art' layer, then drawing out an approximation of the person's anatomy on a layer below it. Then (on a third layer) draw out your bloody bits, ensuring that you do not have blood gushing from areas where their body is not.

2) Blood sprays in random directions.
Stylistically, this is okay when a character has just been cut. The chaos of the bloodletting is a good way to 'shock' an audience. However, in this case, the cut on Haohmaru's (?) stomach shouldn't be spraying blood as it is, as that cut appears to be of the same 'age' as the rest of them.

If he had just been cut, then adding in a trail of blood from the end of a sword to the wound would've made your intent clearer.

3) Drawing blood.
Remember that blood is a rather thick liquid. Meaning it is more likely to 'flow' rather then 'spray.' Work on drawing blood which flows out of a cut, and follows the contours of the object its flowing over.

Furthermore, blood 'pools' together easily. Its rare that an injury will have 5 or 6 small streams of blood coming out of it. It more likely to have one or two thick streams.

Continuing on the 'flowing' point, it'll go to the side of the injury which is facing the most 'downward.' If the sides are even, then it goes down the middle.

Hope thats enough criticism for you.

Beautiful. You beat me to it.

Follow these tips, and it'll be better.

Thanks Darklord. That was really helpful. I have some questions though.

When you say this:

"2) Blood sprays in random directions.
Stylistically, this is okay when a character has just been cut. The chaos of the bloodletting is a good way to 'shock' an audience. However, in this case, the cut on Haohmaru's (?) stomach shouldn't be spraying blood as it is, as that cut appears to be of the same 'age' as the rest of them."

Why do you say stylistically? Are you referring to include cuts that have just been dealt within the drawing, so that it will improve the overall feel of the drawing? If so, would drawing in this manner still retain it's realism?

What can I do to fix this if it's an "older" cut, so I can make it look older?

So when is it ok to draw the blood spraying? Like when an artery is cut? Otherwise, draw it flowing? Also, just to be clear, by "flowing" you mean to draw the blood in a stream like manner, following the contours, correct?

I was also thinking that when blood gets on fabric, isn't it going to leave a blotch, (I think that's the right word) like so:



I mean I know there are probably dependencies, like how tight or loose the clothing is on the person, how deep they were cut, etc., but am I right to draw the blood this way? Any corrections I should make? (wasn't going for anything special here, just wanted to get my idea across)

So I noticed when I've cut myself by accident, the blood is darker the more there is of it grouped together and as it separates from itself (such as with the streams) it become a lighter red. Is this the case on fabric as well, like how I did in the picture above?

I'm wondering, wouldn't there be more streams on a cut if you were moving around alot and what would that look like? What about if sweat gets into the mix?

Is there anything else you can tell me that I haven't thought of? Maybe like some more Photoshop tips, since I'm still a novice when it comes to it.

I'm sorry for all the questions but I don't think this info is easy to come by, and it seems you know quite a lot about it. It will really help me when I start to work on my fighting game for the Xbox using the XNA framework. Did you take some kind of class in the dynamics of blood or something, haha? ;) Thanks again.

Meaning if its your style to draw blood spraying randomly from a newly opened wound, then draw it that way. Otherwise, blood doesn't really act that way.


Draw it as if its been bleeding for a while.


If you want to be realistic, then never. Blood never "sprays" from a wound.
If you want to give your drawing some style; then whenever someone is cut.


Seems okay.


Yeah.


Depends on the movement of whatever body part the cut is on.


It'd thin it out, but not enough that it matters.


Don't know what you want to know.


Good luck with that.


Nah, I just draw a lot.

Let's take this to the Fan Sub Forum.

moving..

Awesome! Gotta thank you once again for the replies. Although, I think it would be a lot easier if I were to show you my work in person, so you could tell me what I'm doing right or wrong. Because of the amount of variables, it is rather hard to know what I should be drawing (how it should look).

I thought of one more question. Blood becomes darker in color the more time it has been exposed right?

Blood becomes darker.
In the summer heat it dries.
The dry ichor cracks.

Yeah, a darker color for the blood would've made the image look great.