Fedodika the Koala
I second what Coinhero&IrishWhiskey said about the pillar i think you should check it perspective and also i think you should make it heigher normally vertical element tend to stop the eye in a composition so i think it just in the right place.Try to flip the image horizontally from time to time. The image should look good in both instance if not sometime is wrong.

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darkiste, Chubby cat, coinhero, Irish:

Yesh yes, i took in pretty much all of your critiques into account. I removed the pillar completely, fixed the hand with the sword, increased the length of the other arm, totally redid the tits, i think they look alot better, much heavier and fit better into the pectoralis. Spent some time refining the background, added some stylized ribbons to the hair, added some line weight, redid the shield angle, and added some line weight :O as well as refined the forms, and added details and jewelry. Tomorrow i'll start adding color, which shouldnt be too complicated, hopefully since i have the values in place. 

Really appreciate all the feedback, it really helps spot stuff i dont notice right away, i freaking sweat while painting this im so nervous for some reason, but i shouldnt be its a digital piece and i dont even have a deadline lol.


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70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

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[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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Horn: thx <3

colorz reeee


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70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

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[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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This is a fantastic Sophitia piese. I especially like the pose, and the soft shading you use is very pleasant to look at.

Two things I have to say, though. For her face, you need way more extreme angle to see so much skin under her chin. At the angle you have you will see way less. This is because when head is raised, skin is stretching. If you used 3d model as a reference, it might not have reflected that. Check out this random photo I got from Google to see what I'm talking about. You also should rise her right cheekbone to emphasize the angle, and I would personally urge you to make her lips shorter to create a more balanced face.

[Image: wNKBLJz.jpg]

I also think, you should drop her left arm down. When people rise one of their arms, the other arm tends to drop down. Right now, both shoulders are raised, so she looks very stiff. Again, it may be an artifact of using 3d model as a reference. Dropping her arm down will balance the pose and make it more dynamic in my opinion.

Hope you don't mind my little paintover.


[Image: 71R8Gs8.jpg]


Fantastic piece overall, definitely looking forward to seeing it finished.

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I think you need to go back and keep practicing lighting it not normal for a figure under those lighting condition for it color to be so diffuse there would have to be an absurd amount of particule in the air for color to look like this.Once again i only applied an auto contrast and auto color and to me the result look way more appealing.If anything i say is wrong let me know the last argument you share with me didn't really convince me.I think that in this particular case the adjustment i did helped improve the mood because it as more vibrant color.For contrast also up the contrast as help it help the figure stand out compare to the background and it help separate it from the background.I don't know if you know about the principle of atmospheric perspective but if not i encourage you to look into it.


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My Sketchbook
The journey of an artist truly begin when he can learn from everyone error.
Teamwork make your dream work.
Asking help is the key to growth.
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Darkiste: youre right, my image needed more contrast; but that is not always the case on all images. This is aimed at being a splash art kinda image and those need high contrast, whereas notan heavy or impressionist styles thrive more with less contrast. Thanks for the writeup :)

Nigel: thats a great observation! I overhauled the face today since my buddy said the face in the black in white was much better, he said "It is the difference between a woman in ovulation and no in ovulation." So i spent a few hours trying to match the likeness of the face in the BNW. its all about like making the cheeks round, making the brow confident, fixing the hairline, making the mouth into an attractive expression, super duper subtle. But yea, im still finishing it up so any more crits are welcome no matter how nitpicky, i wanna put a great image out for once!

Life drawing was fun today, a good break from the pic, was trying out like some pastel chalks and vine charcoal, which is super duper soft. Then another 8 ish hours on the image just loving on the forms and cleaning up everything, pppppheww cant wait to get back to studying!


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Paintover thread, submit for crits! http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7879.html
[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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Great now if you want a new challenge or you if you never dive into edge get rid of those line around the figure try to give the texture there proper edge.


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My Sketchbook
The journey of an artist truly begin when he can learn from everyone error.
Teamwork make your dream work.
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Turning up the volume on a song that's out of tune and chaotic doesn't fix the problem. It just makes it louder.

Same with increasing the contrast on a composition whose values don't work. It just amplifies the issues.

Just my take on it. I honestly think it comes down to value composition, or notan.

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Have to agree with Joseph the value structure needs works so i did a quick paintover

Don't think of things when designing comps think of shapes that point to other shapes, also try to limit yourself to flat values that way you wont have the luxury of noodling and rendering, so you can play around with this kind of stuff making shapes just right, i could have spent hours on that one thumb making sure it reads a certain way.




Also if you open your image in the histogram you can see that you don't utilize the full value range which really kills the realism of it so be aware of that too.



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Darkiste: Thanks bro, im using lines in this one as an experiment, i liked how the turned out, in future efforts i'll vary it, you can do lines or edge with rendering, stanley lau as an example

JosephCow/hobbit: I really appreciate the assblasting here, for lack of better word. Youre totally right, i didnt really plan out a value pattern, i did the lighting but not he objects behind it or the shadow work. Its far too late for me to make global changes on this, nor do i think i'd know how to, I'd basically have to start over, which i dont wanna do for this one. But for the next invented piece i'll certainly plan it more in the value stage, hence i'll be studying more composition stuff and painting to get myself in that headspace of using a full value range. But yea i really appreciate that because i literally did not consider it, nor the value spectrum thing!


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70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

Paintover thread, submit for crits! http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7879.html
[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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Hey man! You've improved a tonne since last time I was here, keep at it! It's already been stated here but for your illustration piece, definitely try to use the full range of values. At the moment you're erring within the midtone range, but pushing through to those darkest darks and lightest lights will do a lot for your image.

Another thing to mention is that imo you're overusing the airbrush tool and it's killing your edges. One particular area of note is the arms - where I'm seeing a vague implication of lighting but no strong definition of the form and musculature underneath (even if you're going with a fairly 'soft' rendering style, you still need your lighting to adhere to those overall forms. The anatomy on the arms (particularly the righthand side one) is looking a bit wobbly too. Don't be afraid to wireframe and build your muscle groups, even if you're softening them out afterwards.

Overall rendering critique - you really gotta work on your edges. At the moment your paintings have a lot of muddiness in them which comes from a lack of confidence on describing edges with form.

Some resource stuff that might help!






Keep practising, and don't forget to flex your studying muscles on an imaginative piece regularly. :D

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Eristhe: Hey thanks so much for the in depth critique! I think my main issue is I do these studies and i just neglect edges. I tried to do a study of Joseph Todorovitch today of a painting i really liked with some nice edges. Spent about 4 hrs on it trying to make the edges close to the original. I get it, like firm edges, soft ones, stuff like that, sometimes i go into render mode and settle into stuff I can do on autopilot, but really i should plan things out better.

I like the idea of planning the hard darks and lights for a comp and i'd heard this concept before, and i tried to do it on the sophitia one but I ended up again just adding tons of midtones too early which makes it unclear about the value heirarchy. I'm gonna do some more studies soon of bouguereau and people whos edges and rendering i love, so i can re familiarize myself with the subtleties of it, so i really appreciate your feedback :)

Had a rough day yesterday, spent about 9 hrs at the hospital. Rather not get too into the details, but i am back and ready to work again, maybe not as hard, but I just love working so I'll be back in shape soon!


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70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

Paintover thread, submit for crits! http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7879.html
[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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Please don't forget to put the reference you study from not only is it helpful for more meaningful critic it can also help someone else answer some of there own problem.

My Sketchbook
The journey of an artist truly begin when he can learn from everyone error.
Teamwork make your dream work.
Asking help is the key to growth.
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yea heres the reference
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/49/23/f3/...08e896.jpg

70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

Paintover thread, submit for crits! http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7879.html
[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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The skintones are more red in the original,
your study also lacks contrast.. the hair and the dress are definitly
darker in the original.
Other than that proportions are looking good :)

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Nice work overall  man. Here is a short "method" article that you may find useful, particularly when you're working straight in color.
http://www.artofscholes.com/checkingvalues/

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Leonard: Thx bro i tried to touch it up a bit, the dress is still too light on mine tho

AsodR: Thanks my dude! 

So i did an asaro head oil painting today, trying to follow what Jeff watts does. Some of my edges are too hard but i like that i was able to even get it this far. I'll probably try to fit one in once a week or something, but canvases add up a lot quicker than Jpegs. Oil painting is so gritty and real, you really feel all the edges you put down, carving things out intelligently. quite often the brush doesnt do what you want it to, it like pulls out color instead of putting it down, but it was very fun. Gonna practice these more in digital, and try to mimic what i was doing IRL. outta feel like christmas painting with cntrl+Z. This was a burnt umber pickout as jeff calls it, i'll include the ref if you wanna roast me


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70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

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[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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I think what you want to think about is how to use layers to separate element for example the character could be on one layer and the background on an other one.This way you have a better control over the edge.

Also about edge a big concept and trick is to work no destructively by playing with mask.

Of course some people prefer to draw on one layers as if it was painting you choose how far you rely on the program.

At the end of the day i think the best is method is the one that solve the problem in the quickest way but the concept as to be understood more than anything.

My Sketchbook
The journey of an artist truly begin when he can learn from everyone error.
Teamwork make your dream work.
Asking help is the key to growth.
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Honestly your painting looks pretty decent! I know how hard it is to get neat shapes of value using that method, I can't really get it to work myself. Jeff(assuming) obviously has really good control over the transparent paint. Do you get to see how he does it?

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Darkiste: Im not sure i understand your english here but i appreciate the sentiment! I think you're trying to say is to separate the background? If that's what you mean i certainly did that today on this study :)

Joseph: Thanks my dude, and yes you do get to watch Jeff. He gives you more videos you'll ever know what to do with, its insanity! I 1000% reccomend his website and his lessons they are invaluable for training artists. Some may not enjoy his non stop talking, but as he even mentions "You can always mute it if you can't take the jibber jabber." I personally enjoy it, i couldnt make it through a paint instruction without some kind of interesting narration. 

So did some gestures from memory after working through a buncha Masters of anatomy. I was truly surprised how much i remembered from the poses, so i should probably apply that after i study them in the book in pen. The bust is a probably 4 hr study of a jeff watts thing, i really tried nipping and combing the edges well and i like the result. I'm certainly more aware of that after doing the oil painting how important edges are, and values. So much 2 learn lol


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70+Page Koala Sketchbook: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3465.html SB

Paintover thread, submit for crits! http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7879.html
[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.882)]e owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke.[/color]
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