Zack mentioned the space-eatin' thing somewhere. But I already forgot what he said :S Anyhow... I like your style too. Oh and one more thing.. if the mods don't want 'em... I'll be glad to take their pink n white aminal cookies, Jack :P

the cigar makes the picture. I think that Zack's advice is to use less bluring and blending of colors. Blended colors take up more space. Also multiple layers eat it up, but you only have one layer here. As for me I usually copy a photo with my own changes and don't do alot of experimenting and changing to conserve space. I think everyone here with your kind of talent has felt your frustration in running out of space. The more you draw here, the more efficient you'll get. I hope this wee comentary helps. And thanx for all the positive comments on my stuff.
8D

Hey thug..Jack can do no wrong..he owns a Pizza Restaurant!! lol I like the colors and this style you are developing Jack! Canvas size, layers, and lots of little lines and blending are the big space eaters..

On this particular picture, you used the largest canvas size possible for the Advanced section, which is a significant factor. Like Thug said, though, the main factor here is that you used a semitransparent brush to create a picture with a lot of blending and colors bleeding into each other.

The amount of space that layers take up depends on the complexity of stuff on that layer. Suppose you drew two profile faces opposite each other, on right and left sides of the canvas. Suppose also that each face was on a seperate layer and did not overlap the other. In such a case, the two layers would take up the same total amount of space that a single layer with both faces would.

Here's my advice to avoid going over the limit:
1. Do a sketch drawing with a single dark color first on one of the upper layers. Work with it until you have most of the proportions where you want them.
2. Next, on a layer below that, use an opaque brush to set down basic coloring.
3. Finally, you can either merge the two layers and work directly off them to finish the work (like I did here), or you can start working on a layer above the both of them.

The number of revisions you make during steps 1 and 2 will not take up much space, but the number of revisions in step 3 should be kept to a minimum.

Robot No. 3, a drawing of mine, though a quarter the size of your canvas, takes up less than 6% the amount of space yours does even with 4 layers and 5 revisions. Currently the palette has only 6 colors, though.

I might consider posting a tutorial or something in the forums on the subject of space use.

P.S. nope, they won't take points from you unless the picture is bumped from Advanced to Intermediate, and even then you'll get the same total points from posting this as you would get if you had posted in Intermediate in the first place (although you couldn't with this canvas size). Memo one of the moderators to request more space; I think the mods are listed in the site documentation.

Good info zack!

wow Zack, you know your stuff. Maybe you should write an instruction sheet for the noobies, and some of us old farts who don't know as much.

woohoo... *marks this to keep it for later reference* Thanks for the in-depth explanation, Zack. :D

I'm not sure what you mean by the layer "below," zack. Suppose I have two layers.. which one is the 'below' one.. number one or number two?

This picture does not belong on the Advanced board in its current state. It's a great start for a beginner-intermediate artist, but it has anatomy issues and yadda yadda yadda. The thing is, the canvas size is so large that if it does not meet the requirements I would be tempted to delete this image as opposed to moving it. Also, the 1hour and 5min duration isn't helping either.

Well, I suppose if I could get back into it, I could finish it, instead of leaving it as a rough...then it might belong.

Give the man some space method and let's see where Jack takes this!