I think you should try to fix you shape and scale.Also you seem to have deliberately made the mountain end at the same height which make what should look a bit more naturalistic like intelligent design remember that when you lead the eye you want to avoid making it to obvious.I don't think for example that you really need the wood plank in the foreground not only are they flat the eye of the viewer already generally enter the picture going from top left.
Now for the problem of giving scale cue to the viewer there is not a single character standing which make scale a little harder to establish.But sometime scale can be fix with atmospheric perspective so it kinda hard to determine scale of thing when you are on high ground because one second you are in the foreground and the second later the midground is 1km away due to a cliff it hard to tell what the distance is if you don't put tree along the way here since it a mountain i suggest putting vegetation and rock as scale cue .The spear is pretty much your only indication of perspective cue after that it very hard to determine the scale.If you could put a character standing somewhere it might help to.
I hope i already gave you enough that you can figure the solution by yourself.
Also one question why do we never seem to see a thumbnail stage you make it hard on yourself to fix any issue if you don't try a few idea before you get the bad one out of the way.I know it very tempting to go all with no hesitation and try to make it work regardless but i think that if you focus more on the thumbnailling stage you definitevely get better at composition and you be more flexible which you certainly don't leak but maybe at a stage where it alot easier to actually be fixing thing.
Oh and i shouldn't be reminding you to check your tangente there one with the mountain and the flag.
Ignore this part if you don't intend to work professionally for a living.
Also shouldn't you be trying to do more than one piece at a time?I don't know if your looking to be pro but i think it would be a skill necessary to have because some work might need to be review before they get the green light and having an other work on stand by is necessary to avoid down time.But working on multiple project isn't just to get yourself busy it also refreshing i would argue and might help work for longer period of time without fatigue.
nice compositions and you seem to be improiving a lot with your rednerings. I would try to avoid using black colors and values 0-15 at all cost though to make your lighting and image look more 3d
one thing i noticed about your latest illustrations is you are using 1 point view perspective so things can look flat.
the orc girl is holding 2 weapons and they are angled the same way almost as if theyre lying flat on the ground.
the 1 pt perspecitve thing seems to be your comfort zone and theres nothing wrong about as i seem to be stuck in my own comfort zone too.
one thing u can try is get blender( free 3d prograM) place some objects or sphere in it and use the grid as areference to start drawing more things in persepctive
remember what dave rapoza said. imagine ure wrapping things in 3d in ur mind as ure drawing and imagine how the light falls on every plane.
i might start doing those rotten fruit still life studies myself to get what hes talkign about more
That orc girl is fantastic. Again you are making huge leaps with every post. The concept, costume and character are all very solid and that muted pallete and softer highlights really made this one.
Great job! Looking forward to seeing your progress on the 'epic' scene on the next one.
darktiste: Good call regarding the wood planks, I removed them and the image works and feels betters without them. For thumbnail sketches I usually do those for commercial projects; In this case I already had the poses defined for me already from the reference photo so I didn't see much of a point to doing small thumbnails. I also fixed the tangent on the flag, good eye!
On a final note, I am actually working on multiple images in the form of freelance work. I only post my personal work here on the forums as I'm trying to build a stronger portfolio at the moment. I don't post commercial work because of NDA, would get into trouble if I post any sketches too early unfortunately.
handsomekorean: Thank you, glad to hear I'm improving! Great feedback regarding the one point perspective, I'll try to do some sketches in 2 or 3 point perspective to get out of my comfort zone. In general I really dig the iconic look and feel of the 1 point perspective images, but I am probably overdoing it as mentioned. A still life study would be fun, might consider doing that soon! Thanks for your tips and advice as always!
Jephyr: Thank you, really glad to hear the new approach worked! I'll definitely apply the same techniques to my new work! Thanks for the support as always :)
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I just finished the painting, applied what I learned with the 'orc' image to this painting, mainly with a more muted color palette and being careful with the bright highlights, particularly on the skin to avoid that plastic look. Overall I feel I achieved that with this image. Below is the final painting followed by some steps for those interested. As always, any final feedback is welcome so please feel free to offer any input!
Woah amazing rendering! The drapery on the shirt is so juicy
I agree with darktiste earlier about the mountains, they are all very similar in size so it's a bit jarring to look at. Always remember big, medium, small when designing shapes like that, right now they are all medium. However they don't jump out too much and frame the focal point nicely.
Also not a big fan of the super blown out light behind the head, but that's just me.
Another superbly rendered piece, nice work. There has been something I have noticed with a few of your illustrations and that is, at times, there can be a stark contrast between your strong referenced elements vs your non-referenced elements. An example being the dragon in the dragon and knight piece, the rocks in the Yoda piece, the columns in the warrior lady one and the background elements in your latest piece to name few of the most recent. Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing as it provides more focus to your main elements but I’m not sure you want that for every piece. The other elements can come across as a lot flatter at times. Is this just down to time spent on those parts of the drawing and wanting to get to the render phase quicker where you excel at? Can’t say I’d blame you for that after all a lot of flat drawings can be fixed in render, but not all. I personally would like to see these elements where you do not have a clear reference a bit more thought out and developed to allow them to compete with your subject a bit more. Doesn’t mean it has to be more detailed just more interesting. The last thing you want is for a piece to look as if two different artist worked on it. An example could be the spears and mountains on the last piece, some variation and creativity could have gone a long way and we really made this a great piece. Maybe not every spear being the same style and stuck in the ground and seemingly the same perpendicular angle to the viewer, maybe some stuck butt down, maybe some broke, maybe a sword etc…
I really hope you don’t mind me saying this as I feel like this would make you an even better artist. There was a time I also would rely quite strongly on reference and it made me a better artist for it, but I needed to dial it back at some point as I noticed it was causing me to rely on it too much for what I wanted to create and my imagination drawing suffered for it. I challenge you to create a piece, with a human, totally from imagination with anatomy you have learned from all the pieces you have done previously and see what you can conjure up.
All that said you are great at what you do! And this is just an observation from a fellow artist to help you get even better
I hate when I end up in a pile of dead orcs — and it's been happening a LOT more frequently lately — so this one really hits me where I live.
This one is indeed EPIC. Your armor is especially tasty and as antonjd pointed out that fabric on his shirt is superb.
As always your figures/anatomy are well done and proportioned.
A small nit for me is the uniformity of the mountains/volcanos in the background and the relative over saturation of them and the some of the distant spears which pull them forward instead of allowing them to recede into the far background.
That aside your color palette is really beautiful and your lighting really POPS.
antonjd: Thank you! Glad you like the illustration and great point regarding the mountains, I really wish I noticed that before but I'll keep that in mind for future works!
CBinnsIllustration: Thanks! Great input regarding the referenced/non referenced parts of the illustration. I think it's because I rush the construction process a bit and that's easier to get away with when drawing from reference since it's easier to have something you can view as accurate. I'll try to slow down a bit in that regard and put more effort into making sure the quality remains consistent throughout. For my latest piece the environment wasn't as well thought out as it could have been - I wanted to avoid the image getting too cluttered primarily. At one point I drew in a face pierced with a spear but I felt it was too much and detracted attention away from the figures.
Regarding your challenge, I might just do that for sketching, no clue if I'll turn it into a final painting, we will see. But I agree with your comment that I should do more imaginative drawings without reference. In general I prefer to use reference material since I have a hard time imagining dynamic poses, and lighting tends to look much more interesting with reference material since it contains information that the mind cannot necessarily create or remember. But for study purposes I'll do more imaginative sketching as requested while working on my regular paintings. Thanks again for your suggestions!
Jephyr: Those poor orcs - I couldn't help myself :D The background was much more saturated at one point and I dialed it back several times throughout the painting process, it's interesting to hear that it still reads as a bit oversaturated. I'll try to start off even less saturated than normal for my next painting. Glad you dig the lighting and thanks again for the kind words, much appreciated!!!
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And time for a new illustration! Wanted to do something pretty straightforward with this one focusing on a figure primarily, while keeping the environment simple but interesting. The figure was referenced from FantasyArtistReference (not sure if the blog is still active, but I uploaded the reference here). Going for classic Fantasy with this image, inspired mostly by the works of Vallejo so I hope it gives off that vibe. Any input before I begin the painting process would be very much appreciated as always! Here is the sketch:
Those bra are anti gravity? They don't even seem to have thickness either strange.
The back foot look a bit to much like a sock.
The grass also in the foreground seem to be alligning and are to equidistant which is a sign of human made design which make the composition a bit obvious.
I also suggest to revisit those ellipse on the staff to be less flat but actually follow the change in degre related to the perspective.Also i would like to see you add thickness to those leather band on the staff grip.
Hi CG - Your new sketch design looks amazing! I Love the interplay between the circles and how they balance with the rest of the image. The poses are really good too.
I hope I'm not too late with these thoughts because you asked for input BEFORE you began painting — but thought I'd share a few observations:
The female's legs below the knee seem a bit short in relation to that beautifully proportioned thigh. : )
And IMO — (as dark pointed out) the tiger's head as well as that paw — could be a bit larger.
I took the liberty of doing some quick lasso changes and as I did I found by moving the tiger's head down just a tiny bit — it gave it a more glowering look — dunno if that suits this image but thought I'd share the quick comparison comp I made with those ideas.
Hope my timing isn't way too late.....
Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one!
Almost forgot to say I LOVE the butterflies — really a cool addition to this image! And her expression is well done!
darktiste: Thank you! I made the changes requested and the image is all the better for it I hope!
RocketPocket: That would have been interesting! Maybe next time :D
Jephyr: Thank you kindly! Great input as well, I made all the changes you described and it works much better!
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I finished up the painting process and had a blast with this one. Below is the final image followed by the steps if you're interested. Of course there's still time to revise it, so any feedback is always welcome and encouraged!
Careful with the tiger whisker you put some on top when they grow from the side and under not on the bridge of the nose.
The lighting feel kinda force i would let the staff be a light source and the back light from the moon be more present.Where that front light coming from the artist in me ask himself i always try to make sense of lighting outside the frame to me it as to make sense for example the natural light of a candle or something here it outside where is all that light coming from??... seem unlikely.Feel free to ignore i am just trying to make you think.
The butterfly are getting lost i think i would add a bit of sparkle dust to help them stand out a bit more now they look to similar to the moon they blend in as if they are painted on the moon surface so try to separate with some kind of contrast...
I feel like the face tattoo doesn't harmonize wht the pattern found on a tiger it just to symmetrical which make it look strange compare to the rest which look more random and natural.
The tiger paw could use some reference it seem kinda weak maybe exaggerate the claw.
Haven't commented in your thread for a while. You've definitely caught a good momentum with the work you've been doing continuously. Really dig the orc and the knight pieces. The last painting also looks good overall. Maybe it would do some good if there where some lost edges, like where her left leg is, it would've helped with form readability and realism. Respects for continuing painting and finishing pieces!
That new piece is BRILLIANT!! I LOVE the lighting, composition, character design — it is crazy well balanced and just plain cool.
You are always making huge leaps with everything! Thank you for accepting my late suggestions too.
I'm 100% Team George — and am excited about your progress — so I'll dare to make some more suggestions on this one.
I did a fast and crumby paint-over to try and show some of my ideas:
There seems to be missing stripes through the woman's arm to our left.
I feel the tiger's stripes are a bit too black and hard edged. I used a softer edged brush and blended them a bit on the hind quarters in my quick and sloppy paint-over. But think you could do that on other areas as well. I'd leave the face as it is because it's a focal point.
I'd also advise looking for some tiger references to make those stripes seem a little more natural. The front is ok but the hind quarters and tail area seem a little less realistically done. edit: I found an ok image and added it below.
I'll share a composite of tiger paws and did a quick paint over on yours as well. IMHO Tigers (and all cats) paws flatten out a bit when they are standing on them — (especially as seen in that chubby zoo cat's paws to the right in the composite). Also their claws are retractable and so I suggest shortening and softening those up a little too.
I didn't do anything with it on my paint-over — but the small planet could also be softened and a little less saturated — unless you intend for it to appear on a near plane to the tiger and woman.
The computer I'm working on unintentionally changed the tint over-all on your entire image — sorry about that:
Some images of tiger paws I found after a rushed search:
Tiger stripes
Anyway — I think you've been crushing it with everything. It's been cool to watch you taking off like a rocket ship!!
darktiste: Thanks for your input. Great point about the butterflies, just fixed the issue as well as the tiger paw, hopefully it works better now!
one_two: Thank you, always great to hear that! I'll keep my eye out on edges during the painting process as well!
Crowbit: Thanks, much appreciated!
Jephyr: Thanks, glad to hear it! I made some final changes to the image based on your input, hopefully it works better now. Great feedback as well, very much appreciated!
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I finalized the image based on the input received, attached it below. I'm calling this image done for now!
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Next up I worked on a new fantasy-inspired piece, this time of a Goblin in a swamp. Always wanted to illustrate a goblin so I just went ahead and done so. I had a reference for the general pose of the figure here as well, courtesy of The Pose Archives. Below is the sketch, any input before I begin the painting process would be hugely appreciated!
Love the lighting of the last piece and your line is always so crystal clear! I would only say for that that the right goblin foot looks a little unclear (around the heel area), but maybe that's on purpose?
Nice! I like the goblin piece a lot so far. That's a great reference for it.
There are some things I suppose could be worked on a bit. I think I notice this more because it's something I tend to do myself, but you've flattened things in space in this drawing. By that I mean things feel more on the same plane than they probably should. I wish your drawing emphasized more the hunch of the pose, his torso really leaning forward and compressing his abdomen. (I'm trying to indicate the direction I want forms to tilt with the orange arrows) And I also wish it captured more the distance between the feet. In your drawing you have the leg on the right pretty close to the same plane as the leg on the left, I don't really feel like it's far behind it, it feels more like beside it due to how the pelvis sits and the position of the feet. however, I prefer how it is in the reference with one foot far behind the other. You can see that the right foot sits beneath him, supporting his body weight. I imagine the ground like a plane in space and it helps visualize the space beneath his body. On yours I'm not really buying that aspect.
Just as a side note, I think the right upper arm is too short compared to the other arm.
The head is a cool design; he looks crazy. But that's one important element that you didn't take from the reference, so you have to be careful to make it well constructed, and fit onto the rest of the body. I think it would again feel less spatially flat to have his head tipping forward, not so straight on. In the ref his head is like that, but tipping the head forward but having the eyes still look at us could be a better option. The U shaped curves on the face can easily emphasize the tilt. And that position naturally creates those V shapes of the brows, and mouth which look ugly and mischievous.
Hopefully some of these suggestions help. You have some good skills, and create full compositions really fast, a lot faster than I could for sure. But it would be nice to see you slow down on a piece and try to really develop it to be your best possible. There's a lot of nuance that could be added to the anatomy of this creature which isn't strictly necessary for the piece to work, but it would be cool to see.
*btw I re-read this and edited it because I realized it was written really weird. I'm trying to work on using my words lol *
You probably already heard me say something similar to john.But this time he is illustrating what i mean.Even those some of the limb are running parallel to the viewer the fact that the other limb as a foreshorten just make them sit on a different space.When i look at your drawing it doesn't feel specially wrong maybe exept that some limb seem to be occupying the same space.I also felt the pose was disconnected from the perspective the point where the foot connect with the floor in particular.
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