12-15-2013, 10:21 AM
Wow Jaik, that last piece is really cool. Very intersting composition and camera angle. And design. :) Right now, the horse's head is really prominent because it's just a huge black dominating shape, so if you want the focus to be on the monkey's face, maybe tone down the horse-head a bit (not too dark and also be careful not to render too many details/contrasty stuff, unless you really want us to look there). I don't know what you're planning for the monkey-head values, but take extra care to put your strongest contrasts (value, color, detail level, whatever works..) there, if that's going to be a focus point. Same goes for the (very much awesome!!!) cat. I like how you framed her in darker values and made her stand out.
Also, a minor thing.. I'm not really sure about this, so please take it with a grain of salt. While I really love the way you are working with diagonals here, they all seem to go into the same direction: The staff, the tilt of the rider's head, the horseneck. All are "declining" diagonals (I mean like a backslash \ ). This makes me feel a bit like I'm falling over, because there is nothing to oppose that force, especially with the horse looming so dark and oppressing in the upper right area. Maybe you could add something similar dark valued on the lower left part of the image, to balance things out?
I like the ribbons (hope that's the word?) in the background though. They offer a nice (although comparably weak) counterbalance to the strong declining diagonals. Please ask for clarification if it's not clear what I am trying to say, I'm having a bit of a hard time explaining what I mean here :P
The design is awesome btw. Nice way to put the still life practice to use. And I think it's great that you're doing an interesting composition/illustration and not just a plain portait painting!
Sorry to hear about the globe thing though, that sucks :(
Good to see you do all those anatomy basics. They might be tedious at times, but will help to get better results in the end. Be careful not to place the breasts too high though. Unless you're drawing low-gravity breasts. And always remember that the movement and stretch/form of the breasts follow the arm; if the arm goes up, the breast follows (especially noticeable if one arm is up while the other is not). I recommend doings some field research :P
Random question: Do you have a favourite muscle group so far? ^^
Also, a minor thing.. I'm not really sure about this, so please take it with a grain of salt. While I really love the way you are working with diagonals here, they all seem to go into the same direction: The staff, the tilt of the rider's head, the horseneck. All are "declining" diagonals (I mean like a backslash \ ). This makes me feel a bit like I'm falling over, because there is nothing to oppose that force, especially with the horse looming so dark and oppressing in the upper right area. Maybe you could add something similar dark valued on the lower left part of the image, to balance things out?
I like the ribbons (hope that's the word?) in the background though. They offer a nice (although comparably weak) counterbalance to the strong declining diagonals. Please ask for clarification if it's not clear what I am trying to say, I'm having a bit of a hard time explaining what I mean here :P
The design is awesome btw. Nice way to put the still life practice to use. And I think it's great that you're doing an interesting composition/illustration and not just a plain portait painting!
Sorry to hear about the globe thing though, that sucks :(
Good to see you do all those anatomy basics. They might be tedious at times, but will help to get better results in the end. Be careful not to place the breasts too high though. Unless you're drawing low-gravity breasts. And always remember that the movement and stretch/form of the breasts follow the arm; if the arm goes up, the breast follows (especially noticeable if one arm is up while the other is not). I recommend doings some field research :P
Random question: Do you have a favourite muscle group so far? ^^