CGMythology's Sketchbook

[cgmythology]

Current progress, it's almost there!

[Flow]

Now that is a really good way to go about your drawing: keeping the process constant and finishing one piece at a time. I loved the Superman/Wonder Woman/Batman and Steampunk pieces!

As for your latest painting here, I'm not exactly sure about the hands, probably you would see the palms of the hands from that angle from the wrist on. Couldn't find a perfect reference quickly, but maybe this one helps a little https://c.stocksy.com/a/jjA500/z0/1232915.jpg

Keep going with your stuff, it is looking better and better! :)

[cgmythology]

Started work on a new illustration, featuring the new female Thor. I just finished the sketch and am ready to begin the painting process. I want the lighting to be very dynamic and iconic in this one, so that should be a fun challenge. Feedback encouraged as always!

[cgmythology]

Here's an update on t he image. I established the lighting and did some color and value work. Want to push contrast as much as possible with this one, so I'll work in much lighter and darker values to make it pop. Here's the current progress:

[cgmythology]

Here's another update, worked on the lighting and values a bit more to bring more volume to the figure. Pretty pleased with how the lighting is coming out so far. Still has a long way to go, but any input is always appreciated:

[cgmythology]

Worked on the image some more, mostly defining the foreground and background. It's coming together, should have it completed fairly soon. Feedback welcome as always!

[Fedodika]

hey CG; i like the composition and overall feel of the latest piece. I think the biggest issue for me is all your textures are painted the same, like the cloth, the skin, the armor, all are rendered the same and everything has no edge variation, its all hard. Of course, that'd take some time and research to learn, so i am leaving a paintover with some minor blurs that i found strategic. remember everyhing that doesnt add to the focal point can be dialed back on, if anything it enhances the image since our eye will not focus on everything at once. You can knock things down with big brush strokes too, and use atmosphere to lead the eye around; nice work on this :)

[cgmythology]

I'm calling the image finished, below is the final illustration. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback, always very much appreciated!

[cgmythology]

I started work on a new illustration for a friend. We both thought of the same concept, depicting her as a mermaid, so that was pretty cool. I just finalized the sketch; Will begin painting it soon, but please feel free to post any feedback!

[Fedodika]

alright bro i think you got some nice line weight and design/anatomy just gotta really think about that pose more. I pulled up some Donato Giancola (J.scott campbell) mermaid on google just to show an example. You gotta play more with the camera angle, show more curve in the line of action. Depth will make your pictures killer. Spend as much time as you can planning a pose, and really getting those initial gesture lines themselves to be charming; as that essentially is what youre building literally everything else on top of!

[chubby_cat]

Nice start to the sketch man. I have to agree with Fedodika's crit. I would also suggest studying fishtails alongside how various artists design/paint mermaids. 

At the moment, her tail seems really disjointed to her body because of the way some of the lines are. The 'knees' are pointing away from us, and the line showing separation between her 'thighs' and 'calves' only add to this. The amount of bum we see is also not quite right for the angle her torso is in.
I've attached a pic to try and show you the places I mean.



Hope it helps. Keep up the good work :)

[cgmythology]

Fedodika:  That's some really great feedback, thank you!  I'll try to incorporate more dynamic gestures in my figure work for this one as well as future artworks, much appreciated brother!

chubby_cat:  Thanks, great suggestion regarding the fin as well, I reworked it for something a bit more 'natural'.  

.........

I reworked the sketch a bit to emphasize the gesture more as well as changed the fishtail a bit for something more natural looking.  I blocked in the local colors and worked a bit on the background gradients and values.  Still very early, but I'm satisfied with the color theme so far.

[cgmythology]

Current progress, has come quite a long way but there's still a lot of work to be done:

[Fedodika]

the lighting youre adding doesnt look as if it exists in the environment shes in. I mean its not inherently wrong to use artificial lighting outdoors but it'll usually still interact with the environment. Typically if the water is as blue as youve indicated, it will have some sort of effect on the objects nearby. The lighting youre using looks as if its from an artificial source and it has very little color for instance in her hair shadows which are black.

Id reccomend finding some well lit beach photos, femjoy has tons of them, much better than your average "person on the beach" google search. The lily pads are out of perspective behind her, as the way we appear to be seeing her is conflicting with how the lily pads are sitting, its as if they are in two different vanishing points. I believe in order to see the lily pads (which are strangely in the ocean and i believe they are more a freshwater occurence) You'd have to hold the camera above her, but we are looking directly at her. Im assuming this is the ocean since there are seagulls and the water is very blue.

Also the seagull behind her is very clearly not referenced and doesnt look very good. Im not really sure what he adds to the scene either. Try to think less is more on these things, why are the seagulls behind her flying? What do the mountains in the back add to the scene? the boat? Why is her face so... average in attractiveness? Why are her neck muscles so visible, where are her oblique muscles? Again you may have tweaked the pose a little, but it is still not helping the overall composition, its only 0.5% more dynamic. You'd have to recreate the scene to get the dynamic pose im talking about. Killing your darlings isn't a big loss if you'll only waste time rendering something that wont make something a great image by the time youre done.

Try to make something that really wows you and others on just the initial sketch, then try to preserve that life and excitement throughout the process of rendering, less is more :)

[cgmythology]

Fedodika: Great input regarding the light color, I'll see if I can work more tones to give it a more natural look. Regarding the setting, I try to give it a believable and interesting look for the environment, not sure how successful I was in this case, but hopefully everything will come together in the end. I agree about putting more emphasis on the sketch, I'll definitely keep this in mind when working on my next piece! Thanks for your input, very much appreciate it.

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Current progress, made changes to eye level/perspective and refined the figure heavily. I think it's a strong improvement over the previous version, although it has a long way to go:

[Fedodika]

And a final thing, is to on your next piece is think about shadow placement; The only shadows on this one are under the boobs, the neck, the seagull, and the rocks. I took tons of notes on this recently, but there are so much you can do with shadows. And the instructor said that the beginner mistake in composition is to not consider how powerful they are. I promise you, placing a shadow from something perhaps off screen or within the scene can totally enhance an image. Imagine like a regular face, then put it in evening time, then in the woods with checkered leaves cutting the light from reaching the face, but some still gets through. There's nothing really technical about that, it just looks cool.

Same with the ocean, like theres deviantart called alberich, who does some stuff you'd benefit hugely to glance at ands study

https://www.deviantart.com/alberich/gallery/?offset=0

This dude isnt held back by gravity and balance and his sense of light and shadow is phenomenal. and its underwater!

[cgmythology]

Fedodika: Good point regarding the shadows, really enjoyed what you described and I hope to incorporate it in a future piece!

...........

Found the time to work on the image some more, it's getting there! Want to give it another detail pass or two before I call it done:

[cgmythology]

Worked on the image some more, it's almost there! Will have it finalized tomorrow, but please feel free to leave any final input, would be very much appreciated!

[cgmythology]

............

I revised the image some more and did some final detail work, I'm calling it done for now. I sent the image to my friend and she's very happy with it as well, so I consider the image a success in that regard. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to provide feedback, as there was a lot of things that weren't working in the beginning stages that were pointed out and corrected, so I'm very grateful for all the input I received! Below is the final image:

[darktiste]

Next time you do a splash atleast try to make the droplet not perfectly round and don't over do effect.Of course there a theory that say exaggerate stuff but i don't think it apply to effect it not like she was jumping inside the water she sitting there calm.Also one more thing try to vary the size and the height of those mountain.Try to also group element to create interest such as the bird.Every element should be use to guide the eye around the composition.