01-02-2014, 08:43 PM
Hey man, happy new year! And I hear ya on the whole on the whole time spent effectively thing. Though one thing to consider is that you couldn't have come to this new style of studying effectively without spending all that time learning otherwise. Some one might have told you but would it really have sunk in? I would guess not. And in fact, by coming to this realisation you have in fact, improved yourself. You learnt a new way of learning which works best for you, and I a year or two's time, you'll probably come to a new realisation of something else you were doing wrong and slap yourself at how much better you have become. Its all relative to how you look at it I guess ;)
I wasn't sure about doing this, because I feel like a dick destroying all your hard work and detailing but you mentioned you'd like an opinion on the new piece so I did you a quick paint over to better show what I mean.
The main issue is like you said, you went into detailing way too quick and in doing so let the main big shapes and values take a back seat. Plus I think there was too much focal points previously. The horse head, the spear, the monkey face, the armour and the cat on his lap. Although in this quick paint over ive kept them, the biggest contrast area (where that hard light is hitting the monkey face) i think is now the main focal area.
Keep an navigator window open when you paint and look at it to see if it reads really small. Because if it doesn't it probably means you need to spend more time adjusting your main shapes and setting up contrast and values. On a final note, still not sure about that spear, because its dragging the viewer out of the canvas as its acting as an arrow pointing away from everything, especially with that horse starting at it (seemingly)
Hope that helps man, so in a nutshell, focus more on the overall construction, spend more time working out the thumbnail stage and not detailing, and setting up dat lighting and values. That's what i would do anyways ;)
All the best mate!
I wasn't sure about doing this, because I feel like a dick destroying all your hard work and detailing but you mentioned you'd like an opinion on the new piece so I did you a quick paint over to better show what I mean.
The main issue is like you said, you went into detailing way too quick and in doing so let the main big shapes and values take a back seat. Plus I think there was too much focal points previously. The horse head, the spear, the monkey face, the armour and the cat on his lap. Although in this quick paint over ive kept them, the biggest contrast area (where that hard light is hitting the monkey face) i think is now the main focal area.
Keep an navigator window open when you paint and look at it to see if it reads really small. Because if it doesn't it probably means you need to spend more time adjusting your main shapes and setting up contrast and values. On a final note, still not sure about that spear, because its dragging the viewer out of the canvas as its acting as an arrow pointing away from everything, especially with that horse starting at it (seemingly)
Hope that helps man, so in a nutshell, focus more on the overall construction, spend more time working out the thumbnail stage and not detailing, and setting up dat lighting and values. That's what i would do anyways ;)
All the best mate!