Composition Critique

[ruffledo]

Hi all!

This is still a work in progress (more light and rendering needed). I would be glad to receive feedbacks regarding composition and anything else to make this piece work. Don't worry about being harsh, we all need it. :)

Thanks

[Tetsuo]

Hey ruffledo,

did you try shrinking the piece down to a much smaller size to look at the forms themselves? Like did you start with some thumbnails or roughs ? If not I would go back into that part of the process and just block in the forms structurally (like make 10-20 quick ones) and see how the composition works best...perhaps even post them here first and then go from there.

As for its current state - turn it into values and see whats happening with the depths. Right now the foreground claw has the same or almost the same value as the background claw..and the figure is getting lost in the middle. This might be able to work as a "C" style composition if you played around with those three forms a bit more value wise and location wise.

[ruffledo]

Hey Tetsuo,

Thanks for taking your time to reply! Much appreciated.

Yup I have started some rough thumbnails.

My goal is to only showcase the shaman-summon duo and not have a scene where there will be enemies. From my limited knowledge, I came up with just a few choices. Reason I chose the one I worked on.

So yeah, I'll have to work more on foreground to background values. I am fully aware that I suck most in that area (painting wise), cause I have relied too much on gaussian blur for a long time to create a focus on layouts. I work as a graphic designer btw, and now I want to slowly shift to illustration and hopefully concept art in the future.

Again, thanks bro! will update on what I'll come up in the coming week or so.

[Amit Dutta]

Hey man, great stuff on going back to basics. What might help you out now is a bit of process for your workflow....i always post this one because it explains shit so basically and so well. Give it a go!
http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.nz/2012/1...nails.html

Also just becauseit is a thumbnail, doesn't mean you are "allowed" to be loose, lazy and just pile a bunch of junk up there. Make sure it reads. That's the point of a thumbnail...it's a testing ground for the fundamental aspects of your image. If we can't figure out what is going on, that means you haven't figured out what is going on!

[Tetsuo]

Yes by quick thumbs I mean to give them some time. Like 2-5 mins each. Don't worry too much about if the forms look perfect...but at the same time get the forms somewhat right so that they read decently.

[ruffledo]

Thanks for the link monkeybread. I'll surely apply these lessons in my future projects.