Okay fellas... Wip from that stuff i was doing. Aint feeling the damn tree branches.. I'll definitely play around with those.. Other than that... I guess im gonna start the noodling face... Any tips ?
Probably not much point saying this since you have a deadline, but the perspective seems off tome. Extreme angle of the ground plane doesn't jibe with the characters or bg. I noticed this with your other pieces too. you tend to eyeball perspective, but it isn't accurate enough yet, so use guides next time maybe. For lighting, the maIn source according to the background is coming from the left behind the characters, but the mainsource on them is from left in front. Their main shadow is from a source mostly above them. Just needs tightening and clarifying. What are your intended focal points? At the moment, the blades take all the glory. Just because they are metal doesn't me a n they have to glow like light sabers :)
Amit, haha Yea them swords are too shinny now, that's gonna get sorted out for sure. The focal point was intended to be the girl, As far as the light goes.. I get what you are coming from, but the source light is the sun, not a light bulb, so, doesn't it like.. apply to the same direction regardless ? I figured light sourced just coming from the left .. haha that's all. And yea man, you are right about that perspective, I might've gone too crazy with that horizon line. Can you believe that I have show this piece to my teacher in art school like 5 times, and all this crap we've talked about in here through out, never came up in class... seriously man, fuck art school...
Some teachers just don't give a shit, or don't have the skills. A good one though.....will save your life! Just work with what you have man. Luckily you have the abandoned hideout :)
About the light, yeah I guess it isn't too far off, as long as it sells in the image. I am nitpicky about light myself so I am like a light nazi. Just make the shadows conform to whatever source is your key light And you should be fine.
In terms of focal point and comp, I feel it is all too centered up and down the center of the image. I would be tempted to move the guy to the right so his sword is hidden partially and there is a diagonal move down to the girl, and you could move the palace to the left between the tree and his back. This would create a more dynamic zig zaggy path, but yeah this stuff should have been ironed out in sketch phase so you don't have to do this stuff now! For school or whatever, fine, but when it comes to client work, you will really see you can't afford not to nail down as much as you can in the sketch phase. If you are not nailing it, you must keep going until you do, otherwise it all adds to more time down the line, and time is money. Most things freelance are paid for on a flat rate, so you can't afford to muck around.
The form of his cape is really stiff and awkward looking. Google "flowing cape" and use the reference to do the forms. And it is just a big block in the comp, you might want to try enhance the flow of the shape as a dynamic enhancer, like many of the applibot pieces do (just perhaps not to the ridiculous amounts they do it). Also why is his cape moving if he looks like he is standing absolutely still like a statue? If there is wind, maybe show more of that in the environment too, everything is incredibly static.
For the future I would try and shoot some of your own reference for your pieces, actually doing the movement you are trying to capture. You can't easily make up the nuances of weight and gesture in movement even if you nail a pose down from your mind.
Anyways carry on!!
Just for the record, i did shot all my reference, the dude, and also the girl's. Jaja just saying.. well, maybe thats just more proof of what a noob i am still. And yea the cape is flowing cause of the wind, i mean, what else could the wind affect in this piece? what would you change to make it look more like wind in the piece? there isn't really anything else..
As always thanks for the crits, ill try to move stuff around if i get the chance. :)
Nice character Gliger!
The best presentation I got in LA was from Errol Gerson, teaching the business of art at Art Center for over 40 years.
Just found a podcast interview of his, well worth a listen. Not the standard shit you will hear in most art podcasts. http://savvypainter.com/podcast/errol-gerson/
So im working on a piece based off a master painting ,so i can study how the masters work ,but not go into complete copy mode and zone out. The issue is i can't push this forward, im stuck and the goal is to push this piece as far as i can , i need as much input as possible, finishing a piece is quite difficult and i already have an urge to move on. Crits will be highly appreciated and ill keep improving this piece and will add stuff from the suggestions crits etc and post it here.
painting by Waterhouse
I guess you are keeping the background the same as the original, in which case you nearly got the base colours and shapes blocked in, then its just a case of refining and refining as much as you can, with each new pass you can add more and more detail - you'll learn a lot by doing that, it's well worth it. With the character in front, I would move him back a bit because he looks too close to the fire. Also that circle on the ground, in the original painting it's the lady tracing it with her stick, so you'd have to think about what else it could be; a circle of stones, flowers, the ravens from the painting following that shape etc. For his arms, they look too short as they are, either bring them out further to the sides or get some deeper foreshortening going on. Good luck ^^
Hey Hobbit, pay attention to your character, he seems short? like the legs are way to short, out of proportion, the arms look odd too, double check the proportions so. Next, if you want to get the most learning off of this, pay attention to the painting you are referencing, take in mind that you are not studying from a picture, but from a master painting, you need to look at the technique. Notice how subtle the artist renders the forms and try to emulate that in your work.
You say that you can't to push forward, yes you can, look at the painting, its staring at you in the face. Look are the hands in your dude for example, now look at the master painting, its obviously different right? try to push it to that lvl, dont give up so fast. Same with the cloths, look at the volume of those cloths from the reference, look at the range of values..
Okay after writing all that, i realized that you would be much much better off if you did a direct study of the painting, and then after studying that and learning from that, came and did a new piece from your mind, using what you just learned. I think that'd be more helpful. Because then you are applying everything i just said up there to the new piece, Application studies work best.
Hey Amit, nice graphic quality in here, I know this is just a "speedy" but i feel that left hand is pretty important for the piece, would've loved to see that finished. Good work!
And maybe try to give a shot to an opaque hard edged brush (Maybe try a texture one), so you will be able to control your hues and values better. It doesn't work for everyone, but worth trying.
Hey guys, so worked a little more on this piece, it's my first original piece that I did from scratch, I really enjoyed it!! :D
If someone's interested would love to see an Advanced over paint on it!
Meanwhile, in the abandoned hideout, some characters, crafted by the hand of a recent member, silently made their way into the thread, when suddenly...
Alright, i'm just kidding.
Been working on some characters for a story. I'll post the final studies of some of them.