Digital Study for a Painting (NSFW)

[Anisia Villamejor]

Hi guys! New here. Thought I'd get right into it with what I'm currently working on!

I'm doing this oil painting for class and I mistakenly thought I could survive off a rough sketch and fill in the details later. Guess I'm just not quit there yet on my skill tree.

I took a quick photo and started doing a paintover on Photoshop but I'm worried I'm already working off way too problematic figures that I'm not seeing things straight.

I could use some fresh eyes.

They're not meant to be completely nude. I'll have them covered up in a jiffy with some armour here and there. I just wanted to figure out my figures first. (That, and I don't quite know where I'm going with this painting yet.)

Oh, and this particular assignment is to paint a "diamond composition", which you can see from the crude diamond drawn in the original photo. Do you think it works? I got the go signal from my professor but I'm worried I'll lose it when I start correcting all my errors. I also plan to make it more obvious with contrast and junk later. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

(Original)





Thanks for checking this out! Any crit would be so appreciated!

[Anisia Villamejor]

Here's where I'm leaving off for the night.



I raised the angle of the blade a bit. I think it helps? Before that I tried to give her more thrust as if she was pushing the blade further in but it changed the energy of the painting away from what I was after.

Good night! Can't do a proper reply because my dog keeps handing me toys. Will look at this with fresh eyes in the morning!

[Amit Dutta]

hey Anisia, I like the start. I played around with your painting a bit. Not really a paintover fixing anything, since you don't have much of a painting there yet, but maybe it will be useful.

I did do one thing which was tweak her head position and his arm, to make it seem like he was holding the back of her head and pulling down and she was a bit defiant. I don't know if this is what you were going for, but since she is skewering him, I figured it wasn't a friendly encounter. I also moved his arm and tweaked their whole angle, but these weren't to fix anything really, maybe just to help the narrative.

[Anisia Villamejor]

hey Anisia, I like the start. I played around with your painting a bit. Not really a paintover fixing anything, since you don't have much of a painting there yet, but maybe it will be useful.

I did do one thing which was tweak her head position and his arm, to make it seem like he was holding the back of her head and pulling down and she was a bit defiant. I don't know if this is what you were going for, but since she is skewering him, I figured it wasn't a friendly encounter. I also moved his arm and tweaked their whole angle, but these weren't to fix anything really, maybe just to help the narrative.

Amit! That's really brilliant! You've really helped me answer the question of lighting because man that really had me stumped. I like how you interpreted the scenario, though you're right by saying it isn't exactly what I was going for. For example, the guy's holding flowers in his left hand, not a sword. ;)

This is so helpful though, really! Thank you! I wish I had considered my composition better after seeing yours because now I'm limited by my canvas size (and the regrettable parts I started painting without forethought).

I'm working on the study right this moment (good thing I checked the forums) and should have something closer to the final posted up soon. I have to be painting this in class tomorrow afternoon and I want to try to look like I know what I'm doing this time.

Thanks again! This is so great!

[Amit Dutta]

Great! Glad it helped. It was actually a fun little narrative to work on, interesting juxtaposition of different intents and actions. The flowers would make it even more so! :) I guess we always have to learn the hard way that if you miss or skip lightly over the fundamental stages in any way, even in the study, you pay for it in more work later.

Good luck with the painting and definitely post up your progress so we can all see it develop!

[Anisia Villamejor]

Here's where I am with the study! I borrowed the idea of the trees from Amit (previously I just had awkward darkness around with very little light on the figures) and I really like how it ties everything together.

I decided on some foliage for a more prominent "diamond" but it's still looking very artificial to me so I think I need to work on that. Oh and I just realized it might blend too much with the flowers in his hand? HMM...

Painting all that metal is my final hurdle.



I have to take what I've got to class now but I definitely will work on this more afterwards. I hate working in class when I don't know what I'm doing. You can only pretend for so long.

---

Whoa wait. I didn't realize I may have returned the sword to it's original angle. Dang! Can't believe I missed that.

[Anisia Villamejor]

Hi, back again! It's been a while. Long story short, I kind of screwed up with the painting, it drove me up the wall a little bit... So this is a do-over! I put aside my canvas and started a new one. This time I'm taking it slow (or as slow as I can with the deadline looming).

I started the study over and so I arrived at this. The figures look better I think.



*deep exhale*

I'm trying to keep positive on this one but as soon as I turn it in next Monday I have another concept and painting to come up with. It's really testing my stamina but I do realize that most of my stress on this one was caused by my own errors, rushing into things unprepared, time management... It all built up into some pretty ugly anxiety but I'm learning and next project will definitely be better approached and executed!

[Amit Dutta]

You've done a great thing. Chucking away a whole lot of work, because it wasn't working is the right attitude. We should all be willing to scrap anything if it doesn't work and not be precious about it. I think I like the poses a lot better and the comp feels more balanced in terms of the figures anyway. One thing that looks a little off to me are his legs which seem a bit too long for his torso proportions.

Also if there is going to be anything in the rest of the canvas you should consider putting it in now and ironing out the issues with the entire painting comp. before you get to the render stages. Out of curiousity, do you do a lot of thumbnails in the leadup to your drawings? If not, it might help to build in that as an initial stage so you don't work on things in a piecemeal fashion.

Keep it up!

[Anisia Villamejor]

You've done a great thing. Chucking away a whole lot of work, because it wasn't working is the right attitude. We should all be willing to scrap anything if it doesn't work and not be precious about it. I think I like the poses a lot better and the comp feels more balanced in terms of the figures anyway. One thing that looks a little off to me are his legs which seem a bit too long for his torso proportions.

Also if there is going to be anything in the rest of the canvas you should consider putting it in now and ironing out the issues with the entire painting comp. before you get to the render stages. Out of curiousity, do you do a lot of thumbnails in the leadup to your drawings? If not, it might help to build in that as an initial stage so you don't work on things in a piecemeal fashion.

Keep it up!

Yes thank you! I seriously fought with myself about it but I've learned the hard way that sticking with something that you know isn't working will just get you frustrated.

And thank you for pointing out the legs! I didn't see that! Also about the proportions, do you think the woman's body is a bit large in comparison?

And I do thumbnail but I think they're still pretty basic especially in terms of detail. I gotta confess, my thumbnails for this weren't as serious as I'd normally have them and I cut corners. Learned my lesson there. I also think the anatomy threw me off but I don't want to give myself excuses.

Thanks again, Amit!

[Amit Dutta]

No worries at all! There is something a bit funny about her; There is an impression of the legs being a bit too stubby or her upper body being a bit too large but I'm not sure if that is a proportion thing, or just the angle of her leg?

I think there is an unsolved problem going on with her hip and leg connection on further inspection. It is hard to tell from the drawing if that leg is exactly side on to the POV or if it is meant to be slightly foreshortened. If her torso is twisted and her leg is splayed outward then it could be the case, but I think it isn't that clear in the drawing. I think this uncertainty in that hip area is what makes it a bit unresolved for me.
Where is her other leg? It might help drawing that in even if it won't make it into the painting because it will help you with the overall pose and balance of the entire figure. What might also help is to draw around the limb forms when constructing them, rather than just contour them, so you can resolve things like awkward limb angles and distortion due to depth.

[Anisia Villamejor]

Hmm thanks! I see what you're saying. I'll try to address those things now. Her legs are supposed to be spread apart but if that's not obvious then I don't think it's working. Hmm... Oh dang I think I'm starting to see how off it all is. :/ I'm gonna take care of it now.

[Anisia Villamejor]

So I've sat myself down to seriously consider the anatomy on this one.

This is the original in a vacuum:


So I separated the figures and started with the man, taking in what Amit pointed out with the legs.


I'm seeing now there may be an issue with his left shoulder area? I'll try playing around with that.

The female figure is bugging me a bit more. I adjusted the farther leg but I still need to work on the


I tried breaking it down and it still has me confused.


I think Amit was right pointing out the vagueness of the hip region. I have to address that. I think her right arm is also a bit twisted at the elbow-forearm-wrist(?) general area.

Lastly, here are the two figures back together. Just gotta make sure they're still interacting.

[Amit Dutta]

I think that is looking much better. Keep working it till you've fixed anything you see. Nice effort!

[Anisia Villamejor]

Thanks!

Well I'm feeling a little stuck so I'll leave it at this for now and come back in a bit with fresh eyes. Please let me know if anything seems off!