07-20-2013, 01:30 PM
Yoloooooooooo!
Got some crit. Nice start on the thumbs, for the most part I find it useful to remember that the more you can nail with the thumbs in terms of composition (including focal points), value range (and lighting) and shape language, while indicating as much detail as is necessary to show what everything is, the more useful a thumb actually becomes as a design tool and the easier the final illo will be. You want to be able to generate them quickly, so of course detail isn't the focus, but it must be clear what things are...the more lazy you are with those fundamentals in the thumb...the more you will have to solve in the illo, and the less useful the thumb will actually be.
I found in general a few things with your thumbs. The composition of many of the pieces was the main weak point and there was a bit less variation in these iterations than might have been beneficial. In general I find it helps to think about composition first in broad strokes while keeping in mind focal points and rule of thirds. Then keep in mind the specific shape language to put into your forms based on your ref, and use value to get the sense of depth (I think you do quite well here)
Composition is the most important thing for a dynamic image, value is the most important thing for a good "read", shape language is all about coming up with a cohesive feel and design to the image that screams underground arabic design.
Some tricks with comps: Always go dark to light from foreground to background. Have some objects go continuosly from foreground to midground...midground to background etc rather than separated distinctly by depth....that way things look more realistic and less 2D cutout layers. Pick a focal point...then pick two subsidiary ones..use the rule of thirds to continuously divide up the canvas to pick these points. Make sure the highest detail and smallest shapes/visible brushstrokes are at the focal points...everywhere else is larger strokes less implied detail.
The other thing I noticed is that you can play with the balance of light to dark a lot more and come up with thumbs where the lighter values may be the two thirds to the darker 1/3. One thing I learned at CGMA was that the needs of the image outweigh the needs of the ref, so do what you gotta do to make a cool image, not necessarily be true 100% to your ref.
I made some notes on your thumbs on the ones I saw with potential (sometimes combining several similar ideas together) Then did a new sheet with those decisions tweaked values and comps a bit. Don't think my thumbs are anywhere close to finished or address all the issues but hopefully give you a gist of what to focus on with these...?
Got some crit. Nice start on the thumbs, for the most part I find it useful to remember that the more you can nail with the thumbs in terms of composition (including focal points), value range (and lighting) and shape language, while indicating as much detail as is necessary to show what everything is, the more useful a thumb actually becomes as a design tool and the easier the final illo will be. You want to be able to generate them quickly, so of course detail isn't the focus, but it must be clear what things are...the more lazy you are with those fundamentals in the thumb...the more you will have to solve in the illo, and the less useful the thumb will actually be.
I found in general a few things with your thumbs. The composition of many of the pieces was the main weak point and there was a bit less variation in these iterations than might have been beneficial. In general I find it helps to think about composition first in broad strokes while keeping in mind focal points and rule of thirds. Then keep in mind the specific shape language to put into your forms based on your ref, and use value to get the sense of depth (I think you do quite well here)
Composition is the most important thing for a dynamic image, value is the most important thing for a good "read", shape language is all about coming up with a cohesive feel and design to the image that screams underground arabic design.
Some tricks with comps: Always go dark to light from foreground to background. Have some objects go continuosly from foreground to midground...midground to background etc rather than separated distinctly by depth....that way things look more realistic and less 2D cutout layers. Pick a focal point...then pick two subsidiary ones..use the rule of thirds to continuously divide up the canvas to pick these points. Make sure the highest detail and smallest shapes/visible brushstrokes are at the focal points...everywhere else is larger strokes less implied detail.
The other thing I noticed is that you can play with the balance of light to dark a lot more and come up with thumbs where the lighter values may be the two thirds to the darker 1/3. One thing I learned at CGMA was that the needs of the image outweigh the needs of the ref, so do what you gotta do to make a cool image, not necessarily be true 100% to your ref.
I made some notes on your thumbs on the ones I saw with potential (sometimes combining several similar ideas together) Then did a new sheet with those decisions tweaked values and comps a bit. Don't think my thumbs are anywhere close to finished or address all the issues but hopefully give you a gist of what to focus on with these...?