Overall help needed

[Tatar88]

Hello Crimson's !

I started this piece a while ago. It supposed to be Jon Snow from the Song of fire and Ice (Game of Thrones) and I need some help with it.
Dire wolf - I wanted it to be mean looking beast, hence the silhouette of it (it's big, perhaps to big)
Jon's face - i don't know, but there's something wrong about it (and I tried first sketching skull and facial muscles)

Obviously I cannot render well metal (even that kind of rusty worn armor) so any tips are welcome

and don't mind the wall behind him - I plan to add snow falling in the baground to bring focus on the characters

about the light - some kind of a camp fire that is out of the image, a bit of struggling wiht the cast shadow think will do the job.

Could you give critique on the whole piece?

Thanks in advance

[Mike086]

http://livestream.com/mciii

Hey I critiqued your image on my livestream, but forgot to save the paintover, view it on my channel, next time I'll do better and save the final image.

http://livestream.com/mciii

[ChantalFournier]

There are a lot of good things going on, but they don't really fit together. I feel like you didn't really do thumbnails for this. And then, if you used references, you only used bits and bobs. The head of the bird is cool but it's angle doesn't work with the body, the wings are at a strange angle, like those planes that can rotate their wings. Also, consider Jon's posture. Having both legs evenly bent like this is awkward unless you are about to sit or to do squats (give it a try.) I suggest you especially seek out wolf references, its chest and head are way too wide for how high they are and it looks like it has only two legs.

So yes, I look at this and think:"Hey, cool clouds, cool wolf teeth, cool breastplate" but they are not working together to make the whole image stronger.

[Tatar88]

Mike086 - Hey, thanks for the effort! I watched your paintover yesterday and there are some things I leared. The composition and the anatomy - as being major flaws. Will work on them. Another point is a big question you asked - "why did I draw that". I think the answer is - i didn't consider that. It was suppose to be both - my interpretation of the character and illustration. As I understand the middle point between those two wasn't achieved. Food for thought for me ! Again, thanks!

ChantalFournier - true about the thumbnails. Got to incorporate them to my process. I think I do lack unity in my pieces - meaning i render some parts that shouldn't be rendered ( because they're out of the focuss) and don't render things that should be detailed. Thanks for the critique!

[JabyReART]

Hey Tatar, you already did a lot of good job in here, but you did some things that doesnt help your image. Perspective of the wolf, its widht is also too much, it happens the same with the arm that rests on the wolf, the head of the knight is akwardly tilted, he has no neck and you can add some light source in first line of sight to add more interest...I did a little paintover to help you understand all of these, keep the good work!

[manlybrian]

You mirror-flip your image, yeah? If not, you ought to. Mirror-flipping is good.

P.S. It's a two-legged wolf!

[Elmst]

I have been looking at this piece since you put it up for crit. Being a fan of Game of Thrones i took a keen interest in this piece. I love the wall behind the Jon, if you know the series the wall gives a nice additional visual reference. My biggest concern with the piece is the emphasis on several different focal points (Jon, Wolf, Full moon) narrow it down to one and push the others back or just don't paint them with as much detail. The other even more critical piece is the anatomy of the wolf, the wolf in your painting has REALLY long legs, grab visual reference and make the wolf anatomically correct.

I did a super quick paint over adjusting composition and changing the focal points.

I changed the image to grey scale and added an overlay layer for quick color.

Hope this helps

[Tatar88]

Thanks for all your effort. Obiously there are any fundamentals lacking. I won't be redoing it for now. First I need some anatomy knowledge (which I've been doing ever since I got the first critique for this piece). Then I will tackle it again.
Thanks to you all for pushing me forward:)