Spiritual deity. Looking for critique please

[siris]

Hi everyone, first time poster.

I thought I'd introduce myself and post something I am working on at the moment. I'm Siris, I live in England and am studying Games art and design at university (first year)

I'm currently working on this, a spiritual transgender deity. Based loosely on various eastern cultures.

I'm struggling with the lighting and I feel the design is missing something, it's lacking interest I think?
Any critique would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

[meat]

They look more like a bad-ass mage than a deity, to me anyway. What distinguishes a deity from the rest of us mortals? You need your own answer to that, and find a way to visually represent your answer without needing words to explain your point/research.

As for lighting and figure I'm not the best at those, but here's an attempt at exaggerating what you already had in your image - blue secondary light from the magic, and some swirling energy cloud action to add action to a standing pose. I darkened the background and some of the person a lot for contrast purpose, and the drape I darkened the middle to make it look like it's sitting on, and showing the human form underneath (the legs). Since it's magic light, you can make its reflection stronger to really show it off. It'll add contrasting colors and interest to the image.

[siris]

Thank you, I agree, does just look like a mage. I shll have to do some more research as to making her look like a god in human form, perhaps should have followed the Greeks and exaggerated her proportions. Thank you for the paint over and other tips, I'll make some changes to it today :)

[Elmst]

The drapery and head Piece look great!

Looks like you cut out a 3D Poser model and painted over it, you can easily see the hard edges. I am not apposed to that, but 3D models can leave your painting looking stiff and unnatural looking especially in the face, hands and shoulders.

Things to try:
I would add some expression to the face.
The feet make her/him look like he is floating.
Blue light from magic is not reflecting consistently across the different materials.
All the materials including the skin have the same textur, the silk would reflect light differently from the leather and the skin.
Use the background to help bring focus to the character.

Hope this helps:)

Would love to see a re used version.

[siris]

Elmst -Thank you very much, yes, I used a model from Daz as my anatomy studies haven't quite got to a good enough point yet (soon they shall, I hope)

I see what you mean about the materials, they don't have their own texture to them and the lighting I found very tough. Very helpful :)

[ReneAigner]

The issue is that you can't use a 3D underlay like DAZ effectiuvely if you don't understand how light and colour work and if you don't have a solid base built by studying the human figure form life or at least good photos.

Do lots of life studies and continue with your figure/anatomy studies.

[siris]

Hi Rene, thanks for the advice, I do make a lot of time to study the fundamentals also as I know 3d is not a shortcut to greatness.