I've been holding this painting off for quite some time now. I'm stumped as to really finalizing the piece and getting everything to come together as a whole with a narrative on top. When I do illustrations, I really enjoy trying to tell a story along with coming up with a cool concept of some kind. But I'm at a loss as to how to continue with this painting. It's a problem I've developed through speed painting. I enjoy short speed paints but I completely lose focus after maybe 3 hours into a longer painting.
Hey Fei Ou,
I hear you about speedpainting destroying your desire to render. I used to do tons as well and making the transition to the final render always was hard. The trick is really to push yourself to finish off something to an adequate quality. As a way of retraining yourself maybe do some studies of relatively highly rendered images and don't stop until they have the same level of detail.
With this piece I really like the overall comp and where you're going. This kinda reminds me of Frazetta in content and presentation so why not look at some of his stuff and see if that sparks off some ideas on setting and give you a desire to finish it.
I think your work is pretty cut out for you man, you've started refining the girl, so it seems obvious to just crack on with doing the same all over the place. You've already picked a general silhouette for the dude, just start throwing in some values to render the form, then just slowly pick away at it and keep refining. In terms of the comp it is good but very centred. I had a thought that you could maybe use a strong upside down triangle (point ending at her face) utilising some shape in the background to drive the comp a bit more.
So just throw in some value and shape in the background to flesh all that out a bit, then keep refining. Always work from large to small and leave the fun bits (reflections, highlights, lighting accents or whatever gets you going) towards the end as a reward to end off on :)
Perhaps an ass kicking would help, so if you don't post an update on this in a few days, I'll kick your ass on this post? Get to it.
(11-24-2012, 01:46 PM)monkeybread Wrote: Hey Fei Ou,
I hear you about speedpainting destroying your desire to render. I used to do tons as well and making the transition to the final render always was hard. The trick is really to push yourself to finish off something to an adequate quality. As a way of retraining yourself maybe do some studies of relatively highly rendered images and don't stop until they have the same level of detail.
With this piece I really like the overall comp and where you're going. This kinda reminds me of Frazetta in content and presentation so why not look at some of his stuff and see if that sparks off some ideas on setting and give you a desire to finish it.
I think your work is pretty cut out for you man, you've started refining the girl, so it seems obvious to just crack on with doing the same all over the place. You've already picked a general silhouette for the dude, just start throwing in some values to render the form, then just slowly pick away at it and keep refining. In terms of the comp it is good but very centred. I had a thought that you could maybe use a strong upside down triangle (point ending at her face) utilising some shape in the background to drive the comp a bit more.
So just throw in some value and shape in the background to flesh all that out a bit, then keep refining. Always work from large to small and leave the fun bits (reflections, highlights, lighting accents or whatever gets you going) towards the end as a reward to end off on :)
Perhaps an ass kicking would help, so if you don't post an update on this in a few days, I'll kick your ass on this post? Get to it.
Frazetta has always been one of my most respected artist for his figures and really powerful compositions. Nothing but the triangles. Here's a bit of progress on this piece. I changed up and added a few things. It's gonna be a long time before it ends and to be honest I still don't see an end to the piece nor do I think I ever will. The changes I've made were influenced by my love and fear of old Asian horror films I was exposed to at quite a young age.
I have a pile of work stacked to the brim for school right now so it might be a while before I can take another round at this painting. Hopefully I can still squeeze in some sketches over the next few weeks.
Thanks for you help sir! I'll post more progress on this piece when I can and I would love more critiques for future paintings. I'll be lookin around the forums and try to give input when I can to be more active and helpful too.
Dude, that is so much more dynamic...you've really pushed the triangle comp idea and that thing is so much more freaky now that it is starting to inhabit the space well. I also really love the space under her feet, as if she is far above or separated from any safe base. Couple of things with this: you've started building in a lighting scheme (love your subtle treatment of light, you do have a good understanding of how it works) but at the moment there is still quite a fair amount of ambient in there. You might want to be thinking about making use of a slightly stronger directionality or shadow scheme to amp up the sense of drama and horror. I think the creature partly in the shadows could work very well and create some interesting shape to your composition. You could also think about secondary lighting and what this source may be to add some accent and variation to your scheme.
In terms of the girl the anatomy and proportions are great. I like the head on aspect of the girl but wonder if a little bit of twist to her body or a tilt to her head might make it just a little more dynamic and interactive with the beast. At the moment she seems a bit too relaxed in a way. Also her expression is pretty neutral at the moment which doesn't really add anything to the narrative of what is supposed to be going on.
You're onto a good start; you took on crit and really improved so I can say this in all honesty, that defeatist attitude doesn't suit you! :) Do yourself a favour and be determined to push through and finish this. I can totally see it finished and it looks awesome. Just keep going!
(11-27-2012, 12:50 PM)monkeybread Wrote: Dude, that is so much more dynamic...you've really pushed the triangle comp idea and that thing is so much more freaky now that it is starting to inhabit the space well. I also really love the space under her feet, as if she is far above or separated from any safe base. Couple of things with this: you've started building in a lighting scheme (love your subtle treatment of light, you do have a good understanding of how it works) but at the moment there is still quite a fair amount of ambient in there. You might want to be thinking about making use of a slightly stronger directionality or shadow scheme to amp up the sense of drama and horror. I think the creature partly in the shadows could work very well and create some interesting shape to your composition. You could also think about secondary lighting and what this source may be to add some accent and variation to your scheme.
In terms of the girl the anatomy and proportions are great. I like the head on aspect of the girl but wonder if a little bit of twist to her body or a tilt to her head might make it just a little more dynamic and interactive with the beast. At the moment she seems a bit too relaxed in a way. Also her expression is pretty neutral at the moment which doesn't really add anything to the narrative of what is supposed to be going on.
You're onto a good start; you took on crit and really improved so I can say this in all honesty, that defeatist attitude doesn't suit you! :) Do yourself a favour and be determined to push through and finish this. I can totally see it finished and it looks awesome. Just keep going!
Ahhhhh! Thanks man! I'll work this piece a bit more to drive the narrative even further. These crits are really helping me drive towards a specific goal for the painting and I absolutely appreciate it, sir!
