Wakfu fan art

[SundryAddams]

I've gotten to the render stage but I would like some feedback before I get too far to fix things.

[Amit Dutta]

Ok you're not at the render stage yet. I can't tell what the entire image is going to be doing, so I'd say put everthing that you intend to be in the final in there before you render.

I like the foreshortening of the hips and legs, but the top half of the pose is odd. I'm not sure what she's doing. The torso proportion seems a bit small, and she doesn't have much of a neck. The dynamism of her lower half is at odds with the static top bit. Her expression doesn't really help me to imagine what action that is either.

Maybe some explanation of what you are going for will help us?

[SundryAddams]

After you responded I started to rethink the image. I want her falling while drawing an arrow into a canopy of trees. Which means that I've got to go back to the original drawing. Luckily I kept it on it's own layer, I'll push this further.

Edit: Redrew the poses, finding it more dynamic, what say you?

[Lhune]

It's dynamic alright, but the top half of her body still doesn't flow with the bottom half. If you were falling out of a tree like that, at least one of your arms would be "flailing" for balance. What doesn't help is that, while her hips and shoulders are technically in an opposing tilt, it's the shoulder that should be highest that has her arm down, which looks quite unnatural.

[SundryAddams]

I disagree with that only because she still has to nock the arrow. She is falling, but is in mid motion of firing an arrow.

Does that make sense?

[Lhune]

I understand what you want her to be doing, but the pose doesn't work for it, at least not to me and the main reason for that is the fact that both her arms are pointed down. It just doesn't flow with the extreme position her legs are in. Is there any particular reason why the quiver is on her hip? I know it's not unheard of, but it doesn't make for a very smooth movement of drawing and loosing the arrow.

[SundryAddams]

Compromised a little on the pose. I think it's pretty solid.

[darktiste]

dropping this if you find that pose of some interest

[meat]

The nice flat line created by the bow sort of calms the energy of the rest of the pose.

[SundryAddams]

Not a whole lot of change but I finally settled on a composition.

[SundryAddams]

Final line work, feeling that everything is solid enough to go on to value stage.

[Madzia]

You picked the hardest pose I could ever imagine :D The question is can you handle it? And be honest with yourself. It's incredible hard pose a lot of shortcuts, left arm in foreshortening, legs in foreshortening, twisted torso while few basic stuffs could be worked out a little more. For example if you want to have more dynamic feel, avoid horizontal lines. The bow and the leg are two strong horizontal lines and calms down whole picture when it's suppose to be action! Use diagonal lines! If she's falling down why she screams on side? she should be looking on her destination point especially if she's preparing to attack.
Try more simple shapes, no because it's easy but because it reads much better and and it's actually harder to make good design.
here's fast something I drawn just to try out few things. I don't know how close you want to stay to original characters...

[SundryAddams]

Ah man, should I scrap this again?

[darktiste]

for me she aint failling from a tree because of the sun showing and she seem to far away from the tree to make it believeable

[Elmst]

Don't scrap it! Work thru it. The fact that ithe piece is challenging means you have a great deal to learn from the painting (very exciting).

The first thing I would address is the bow is facing the opposite direction she is going to be shooting in. A bow is always facing the direction you will be firing in when getting ready to shot, the fact that she is drawing a arrow means she is readying the bow for action. You might want to try switching the action of each arm (left hand holding the bow).

The second is her legs. You seem to be stuck on those legs. Legs would only arch back when in a long free fall like skydiving, or the first brief moment you lunge from a position. After the first few, brief moments of falling the legs move out front preparing for a landing. At a minimum have one leg moving forward preparing for impact much like Madzia has done in her sketch.

Keep goin, this will be a great piece.

[ChantalFournier]

Be careful with the scenery vs quiver. Their lines parallel a little too conveniently, it looks weird. Try to look at references for the scenery to make it more authentic and design it to be interesting (I know it sounds contradictory, but it isn't!)