Olaaaaaf!

[Vandall]

Olaf from League of Legends charging forward. Finding it difficult to make him look quite as bulky as he should. That and the open space in the composition is starting to bug me.

[Amit Dutta]

Hey man, I assume this is for the competition?
One of the issues I see is with the pose / gesture itself. Foreshortening is key when it comes to showing off that dynamic movement and right now I think there are some slight foreshortening issues with the foreground arm and the rear leg.

Also be extra careful about limbs that are hidden by the body or something else, like that raised arm as they can really muddy up the silhouette and feel a bit disconnected quite easily. Sometimes just moving a bit of an elbow or forearm into view can help. I find that your pose could read much better by paying attention to that.


In general feedback I find that your composition and pose are quite similar to the splash art for Olaf, but dialed down in power quite a bit. The bulkiness aspect is really about relative proportions. So again looking at the image below, note the distinct V shape of the trapezius and general ratio of shoulder to hip width which I think is much more exaggerated than in yours.



Note the foreshortening and dynamic diagonal comp (though to be honest I'm not sure the artist nailed that foreground arm completely). Your comp is much more vertical with less movement and simple horizontal bands in the background. Diagonals are a powerful aspect to compositions so maybe try that.

Lastly, and this is the obligatory "have you done thumbnails?" bit, maybe going back to the drawing board, but trying out something different in terms of pose and action and comp could bring something a bit more unique to your depiction
Hope that helps!

[Vandall]

Youre right, even aside from the pose the comp is... boring, im finding this difficult without someone to bounce ideas and attempts off so thank you.

Probably going to go with composition 1

[Amit Dutta]

I'm happy to keep bouncing stuff back to you if you update this thread. :) 1 is good, I kinda see a potentially really interesting viewpoint in 2, though some tweaks maybe needed? I'll see if I can do a quick paintover or something to explore it and post it if there might be something of value in what I do.

[Vandall]

That would be brilliant man, I did like 2 and considered a variation where instead hes driving his knee forward into the 'enemies' before him. Im leaning towards 1 because of the framing and the "story" aspect. Composition is not something I've looked into heavily until recently. Also I know very little of LoL.

[Vandall]

Defined out the two comps I'm looking over more, now that I have I'm finding it difficult to decide between the two

[Amit Dutta]

I still like 2 better, it is a bit more dynamic and the silhouette is more readable but not convinced this is the exact best way to do a viewpoint of that type....Could you iterate a few more "leaping view from underneath" comps just to explore the idea a bit more maybe?

Sometimes it takes me a dozen thumbs or more to explore just to be sure I have done my best and explored all the possibilities, often going back to one of the first, but just to be sure!

[Vandall]

Im really liking this composition actually.

[Amit Dutta]

So much better dude! Were you up till 2am? Nice getting in the groove mate. :)

I like it, I think there are some small tweaks to his pose that coupld make it even more dynamic. At the moment it looks a litle like he is falling off something on the right off canvas, than leaping from the ground. This may be intentional but there is a litle bit of 'uncontrolled fall' in that gesture. One thing that might help is to shift that rear arm to make it look more like he is in mid swing with it rather than just holding on to it. So like he is at or just past the pause point of his blow.

The comp is great, but I think it could be even more dynamic by adding a downward right tilt to the horizon (ie having the other dudes arranged from mid left of the canvas down to the bottom right corner in a diagonal block, rather than in a horizontal band. You might also use background shapes of the environment to add some other diagonals or comp. framing in. Check out the other splashes, they seem to all use the background in that way and they are almost all rendered in the same tight but low detail/contrast way as well. Just something to play with maybe?

You also have to keep in mind the focal point/s and where the lighting might be, just so you know what you are trying to emphasise in this comp.

Nice stuff. Onwards!

[Psychotime]

I agree about the pose. It reads more awkward and funny than badass.

Honestly I'd play up the funny with that kind of character, but to each their own.

[Vandall]

Drew back his arm as if he was going to swing into them and made some compositional changes, I think it adds some directional energy to him.

[Amit Dutta]

Haha, you're gonna start hating me after this is done. I think the shift to the old arm changes the gesture for the better, but that arm is messing up the silhouette, I was imagining something inbetween maybe? I'd do a quick paintover, but I'm at the day job atm.

I like the diagonal flow, but I was thinking that I really liked the big foreground dude overlapping Olaf's arm. It really added depth to the piece, so keep him in where he was and maybe make that other dude on the left bigger or shift him a bit higher in the comp. you could also use things like outstretched arms shielding from the coming blow, spears, swords etc, to add some diagonals that point from that left and bottom edge towards the main focal point.

Or you could also use a background shape moving diagonally through the comp, top left to mid/bottom right, like the side of a ship, that he is jumping off to add narrative and push the diagonals even more!

Also, this reminded me of something if you wanted to try some humour :) . Can just imagine Olaf leaping backwards into a crowd of nasties with his arms crossed wielding the axe and an evil bloodthirsty grin on his face :)

[Vandall]

The ship was a great idea, draws the eye really well, added in another soldier and brought him up and closer to the viewer to create the diagonal line and tried to fix the arm to make the gesture okay but the sil readable.

[Vandall]

Took it abit further. The ship really makes the situation read in my opinion.

[Amit Dutta]

Finally did a little paintover. Take what you will from it, or not. Tried to make it more dynamic, more action and more interest in the framing and the characters.
Moved that damn arm back to where you had it, seems like your gut might have been right first time, just tried to not have it interfere with the silhouette of the head too much.

*EDIT whoops didn't see your latest. Hope this helps anyway!

[Vandall]

God damnit :| Thats way better.

[Amit Dutta]

Feel free to use it man, all I did was perspective transform and move your stuff around a bit.