Tips of "Over" detailing?

[Suh Dude]

I admit it, I over detail over my work, covering it with crap I don't need. Is there any way to stop this than making the work look empty? It looks great over-detailing but coloring is a pain.

Calling all medical artist to help meh teh swift0rz of bax0ras !!l1?!

Dx

 

[Skiwan]

It'd help if you showed what you mean... and the media you're using. If its pencil, its possible you're not using the right pressure while sketching it out, and then you're trying to use too much of a similar pressure when detailing, it makes the drawing muddy and smudged, also remember to keep your pencils sharp when going for detail.

 

[Suh Dude]

Pen, pencil, ect.

Here's an example.

Draw over it on red if things I don't need to get rid of if you do one. =o

 

[Skiwan]

hmmm im guessing you're drawing the fable guy in your sig? the only problem i see is that you're thinking about "where do i put the detail" rather than, "how would it look", i used to, and still do this myself. Basically the way i go about thinking about it is think where the light is coming from, and the ammount of contrast i want to give, to do that you have to think about where the light is comming from and the planes in the picture (planes are like faces on a model) the more a plane is directed at a lightsource the lighter it'd be. The point being is, if the light was comming from the left in your picture, you're guy wouldnt have a line at the left side of his nose, it'd probably be on the right. Understand what im saying? >_< its really hard to get across what i mean.

 

[bapplebo]

IMO, over-detailing in a digital painting is like saying: 'Now should i make just one extra 5px light stroke?'

About teh lightsources, you can also observe in REAL LIFE! =D

Like, get a fully dark room, get a lamp, put your hand infront of it, and turnz0rs it on.

 

[Tales]

Pen, pencil, ect.

Here's an example.

Draw over it on red if things I don't need to get rid of if you do one. =o

i think when you say overwork... you just add too much of the same detail.. like the facial hair and hair.. you can kinda hint at it and draw it with just the shilloette of the hair instead of drawing every single strand. the eyes under the wrinkles are the same too. just draw a line instead of darkening up the whole thing. simple > complex! always remember that

 

[The_Real_Legend]

eyes under the wrinkles

you have eyes underneath your wrinkles??! I always wondered what those were for...

Anyway lineweight can do a lot. It can transform a pic with virtually no detail into a sexy little thing. It really can

Right now i'd say you don't know what lineweight, but i"ll leave to the pros like tales and david to explain it right. All i can say is by drawing in thin lines first the complexity goes down too. And you can always fatten them later on, preferable in places that might look darker in real life, like those famous organs: the wrinkleye