01-18-2023, 05:13 PM
I think it looks good! In terms of how it's painted it's quite nice. The face is definitely the strong suit. I'd agree with Dark that the pose is feeling a little odd. Without the armor and accoutrements, would everything still line up as it should? There's a couple proportion things as well, like her left leg feels quite long, and I imagine the foot would be pointing toward us more. I wish the right leg were a little more under her, and felt more supportive of her weight. Her hands are a little small, even for elf proportions imo.
Other than that, I think maybe there's just some stuff you could tweak to make the design and the presentation of it to go towards the next level. Like first, we love a tattered cape billowing, but I think it needs more gravity, more direction to its movement so it looks cool. I think her boob armor could be changed to be like a more structured corset or bra, that is rigid, and isn't separate from the bodice. And then the breasts can fit into that. So they fill the shape of the armour, the armor doesn't warp to wrap around her boobs. The way you have it like folding over, with a shaded crease doesn't really make the most sense. Of course it doesn't have to make practical sense, exactly, but it should make like physical sense I guess.
I kind of like the square brush strokes in the background. But I don't really like the vignette on the right. My eye keeps going over there. I think a simple gradient from floor to cieling would work to indicate some kind of ground, and the light coming from upper left. If the value you brushed in behind her is working, and makes the piece look better, we might as well use it all around. I amped up the rim light as well, and made it more like a real light source from behind. That way it really directs the attention to her head. Before, it didn't feel much brighter than the general light parts of the costume, so it wasn't doing a ton for the image. Obviously there's lots of different directions you could go with the lighting, but I feel like these values are starting to work pretty well. Sorry I painted over a bunch of details just because I didn't want to have to paint around them, but there's not anything wrong with what you had, really.
But yeah, hope that helps a little. This is just a rough version of where I would maybe go with it
Other than that, I think maybe there's just some stuff you could tweak to make the design and the presentation of it to go towards the next level. Like first, we love a tattered cape billowing, but I think it needs more gravity, more direction to its movement so it looks cool. I think her boob armor could be changed to be like a more structured corset or bra, that is rigid, and isn't separate from the bodice. And then the breasts can fit into that. So they fill the shape of the armour, the armor doesn't warp to wrap around her boobs. The way you have it like folding over, with a shaded crease doesn't really make the most sense. Of course it doesn't have to make practical sense, exactly, but it should make like physical sense I guess.
I kind of like the square brush strokes in the background. But I don't really like the vignette on the right. My eye keeps going over there. I think a simple gradient from floor to cieling would work to indicate some kind of ground, and the light coming from upper left. If the value you brushed in behind her is working, and makes the piece look better, we might as well use it all around. I amped up the rim light as well, and made it more like a real light source from behind. That way it really directs the attention to her head. Before, it didn't feel much brighter than the general light parts of the costume, so it wasn't doing a ton for the image. Obviously there's lots of different directions you could go with the lighting, but I feel like these values are starting to work pretty well. Sorry I painted over a bunch of details just because I didn't want to have to paint around them, but there's not anything wrong with what you had, really.
But yeah, hope that helps a little. This is just a rough version of where I would maybe go with it