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[Hayato]

Hey people.

I'm a programmer working on a few projects, and I have one that I really want to stick with to completion. The art is really becoming a pain though. You can only work with rectangles so much before you want to freshen things up. My problem is that I'm not a very good artists. I'm trying to create some backgrounds (landscapes, that kind of thing), but I would be completely ashamed if I posted any of my crap here. Does anyone know of any tutorials that would help out a beginning artist? After I get less horrible, I'll post some stuff for critiques.

Thanks in advance.

[nikki]

Other people on these board surely have their links ready for such a question. I don't

But i'd rather ask you a thing?

Have you considered to use your lack of illustration skills as a strength ?
You could for example make a complete game/landscape out of big rectangles (solid colored tiles). just give them well-chosen colors, use some smart programmable color effects on them and build your graphics the programmer/ruffian way.

You could be building landscapes like this , or anything else!

edit: in this post in my devlog is an example program that rougly does what i've described. Its well chosen name is "test program" 

[Hayato]

I'll admit, I haven't thought to do that. That sort of art style wouldn't fit well with my story, though. I'm going for something a little bit more somber, but not too depressing. It's a story about a boy trying to bring his dead sister back to life, so it shouldn't be too happy...

[nikki]

but isn't mood something you can easily generate by playing with colors ?
The association i have with your sory is dark brown, greyish green, black night blue, grays. more brown, more dark blue, more grey.

[Hayato]

I'll try to do a mockup with those colors, sounds like it could be interesting. If anything, it sounds way better than what I have now.

[s0]

Yeah, minimal graphics and somber atmosphere aren't mutually exclusive.

I think the most important things when you're making art without the necessary talent/skill are not trying to go beyond your abilities and finding a sense of aesthetic. When your art is aesthetically coherent, you can get away with a lot. 

[Hayato]

Thought I'd clarify the game a little. It's a 2D side scrolling platformer, with an emphasis on giving commands to your AI companions. The player cannot attack, so protection must come from allies. Navigating allies through areas with you becomes vital in order to get through the game. I'll post more on the story whenever I make a topic specifically for the game's development.

[jwk5]

Find photos and such on google, shrink them down and pixel trace over the top of them. This will give you a basic form you can then modify into whatever graphics you are planning.

EDIT: Here's a quick and dirty example. I was able to snag the image, shrink it and get basic spriting done in under 5 minutes so it is a pretty easy process, even if your artistic skills are lacking. You can use the shading in the original image to get an idea of where the shading would be in your sprite or background.

[Chromanoid]

i think you should try vector graphics or 3d software.
when you don't paint but construct everything with vertices you can always correct a wrong looking line and move the vertices until it fits your idea, just a matter of time. this may work for electronic painting too, but it is far easier to do with vertices than with pixels. for example inkscape could be a good start for vector graphics http://inkscapetutorials.wordpress.com/ -> http://www.trazoi.net/tutorials/inkscape/oots/
same rework possibilities apply for 3d modelling. try wings 3d, softimage mod tool (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?id=13571257&siteID=123112) or maybe blender (in my experience hard to learn).

vector and 3d art have an additional advantage: animating is far more comfortable (for a programmer). you just have to move vertices.

[dbb]

If it's mostly landscapes or backgrounds you're after, why don't you try photography? You couldd either take straight landscape pictures and use them like Nifflas did in Saira or take pictures of cool-looking stuff and assemble it into landscapes like in Samarost, or just use it as a source of textures, like in And Yet it Moves.

I guess the general gist of what I'm saying is that if you can't draw, then don't. I mean, if you fancy the idea of using this as an opportunity to improve your drawing/pixel-art skills then cool, go for it, but if you're more concerned with getting a decent-looking game done, then I'd recommend generating your graphical assets some other way. A lot of people seem to be getting a bit bored with pixel-art anyway, and it's definitely true that there's a whole bunch of different ways of making graphics that are generally overlooked but have the potential to produce really interesting results (Cletus Clay, for example).

[Aik]

I'm not an artist, but the times that I've felt the urge to try I haven't found the internet much use in the way of tutorials. Most books I've looked at are also crap. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards is the only one I was able to make any progress through, because it actively disbelieves the idea that only Artists with great lurking talent will be able to draw and that it will take years and years for them to get anywhere at all. Instead it just shows you what to do with nice, achievable exercises.

[Imagineergames]

Drawing on the right side of the brain is a very good choice for starters. May I recommend that you go ahead and get a sketchbook? make it a good habit of drawing everyday. you'll see a lot of improvement.

 You can always save a bit of money and contract an artist too!