03-31-2013, 11:23 AM
Hey Pascal,
The only reason I asked about whether you used lots of photo elements is because some of the things in the piece look a little more real than others and I suspected it might have been to do with different lighting sources on original photo images. Actually you're just technically very good :) but I think there are some minor inconsistencies in lighting that probably give the image that impression.
So I did a paintover.
The first thing I noticed was that your comp wasn't working to bring focus. The light source was your hightest value and focal point, not her, so I toned that down almost to nothing and basically made the light facing her the main source. I brought the focus to her face and chest where it should be. I also upped the saturation at the focal points to hammer home the message. (It's probably a little too obvious, but that was just to get the point across)
There were some depth issues: a tangent with the gun and her head so I tried to push the gun back. I tried to bring her arm holding the gun forward a bit. There was a slight issue with perspective of the gun that I tried to fix in the handle (very subtle) but I still think there is an issue with how it doesn't appear to rest on her shoulder. That would require more painting than I could be bothered with, but basically bringing it and her arm down a little or angled slightly might
fix the problem.
Colour tweaking: I brought in some cools into the shadows and I upped the warms in the highs.
Again the paintover is a bit obvious but I basically tried to reinforce the pyramid comp. and get us looking at the good bits. :D
I hope that helps.
The only reason I asked about whether you used lots of photo elements is because some of the things in the piece look a little more real than others and I suspected it might have been to do with different lighting sources on original photo images. Actually you're just technically very good :) but I think there are some minor inconsistencies in lighting that probably give the image that impression.
So I did a paintover.
The first thing I noticed was that your comp wasn't working to bring focus. The light source was your hightest value and focal point, not her, so I toned that down almost to nothing and basically made the light facing her the main source. I brought the focus to her face and chest where it should be. I also upped the saturation at the focal points to hammer home the message. (It's probably a little too obvious, but that was just to get the point across)
There were some depth issues: a tangent with the gun and her head so I tried to push the gun back. I tried to bring her arm holding the gun forward a bit. There was a slight issue with perspective of the gun that I tried to fix in the handle (very subtle) but I still think there is an issue with how it doesn't appear to rest on her shoulder. That would require more painting than I could be bothered with, but basically bringing it and her arm down a little or angled slightly might
fix the problem.
Colour tweaking: I brought in some cools into the shadows and I upped the warms in the highs.
Again the paintover is a bit obvious but I basically tried to reinforce the pyramid comp. and get us looking at the good bits. :D
I hope that helps.