ognjisa: Thank you! And thanks for the PDF, will be studying it shortly. You are a huge help, learned so much from your techniques and your input so I'm very grateful you took the time to help me out, really appreciate it!
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And I'm calling this piece finished! Did the final detail and refining, fairly pleased with how it turned out overall. The feedback I received was insanely valuable, so thanks to all for taking the time to give me input, really appreciate it! Here is the final painting:
Huge step up in the recent illustration dude!!! It's got a very harmonious look to it, the palette is really working. For any final touches or so I would look at the horns of the dragon as wel as the teeth. I would tint them just slightly into the yellowish and warmer colors because they stand out to me as being just a little bit too white within that environment. Remember, if the flames are a bright yellow like that, that's effectively a really yellow lamp so the color it would cast around it would be very yellow and warm.
Also, I think, take it with a grain of salt of course (everything that I say hehe) but the design of the horns themselves could be more exciting. They are somewhat generic right now and I feel like you have an excellent opportunity here to give them some character. You had other great design elements in the picture such as her having that tattoo on her thigh, the design of the staff etc but the horns (maybe also the claws coming off the wings. It's sort of like "What does horns look like?" and this would be the first image that springs to mind, but thinking about it deeper they could have some well thought out design that would give the dragon a bit more unique character. It can be very little!
Again, sweet step up and I'm excited to see where you'll go from here. :)
I agree with Uiriamu about the design (and the great progression, the cold fill light on the girl is reallyyy nice). I think it would be the best if the dragon's horns echoed the spear's design someway, so i just went and pasted parts of the spear onto the dragon lol
Also (and this might be personal preference) i blurred some of the dragons edges to push him backward, especially where the girl overlaps him
And a tip that might be useful about rendering reflective surfaces, like the dragons scales, is adding the reflection of the surrounding environment onto the edges of the object (a kind of a simplified fresnel effect, scott robertson's how to render has a pretty good explanation of it). If you observe reflective objects you'll notice they often don't have visually hard edges because they tend to reflect the environment on the edges)
Hope that helps and, again, great progress, keep grinding! : D
Uiriamu: Thank you! Great input as well, will probably refine it when I have the free time as those are some great suggestions!
ognjisa: Those are some great changes you've made, especially on the horns and wings! I will apply them as soon as I get the chance as I feel those simple changes make a huge difference, so thanks again!
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I began work on a new sketch, this time with a Sci-Fi theme. I was inspired by a stock photo I found on DeviantArt, really digged the pose and design of the costume on the figure, so I did my best to recreate it. I tried to do something more original with the expression and especially the background to make it more interesting. Overall I'm very happy with the sketch, although I'd like to hear some input before beginning the painting process, so please feel free to offer any input! Here is the sketch:
I'd suggest going for a more dynamic camera angle. If its an action pose, which it seems like since her back is bent, knees bent, the dangerous element of breaking in a lab etc. Heres some quick suggestions i did in Daz3d. If you want her to feel powerful, look up at her, or if you want her to feel in danger or weaker, look down at her. Its a great pose, i just think with this camera angle its a missed opportunity for storytelling.
Dont let perspective intimidate you, you can handle it. if youre struggling just use sketchup to get a better idea of the scene :)
I like the security camera angle but i prefer the calmer way she walk because she on high heel let not forget.If i can inject my own taste as suggestion.
Fedodika: Thanks for your suggestion and taking the time for those renders, saving them for possible future use. As for the camera angle, it's a bit too late to change it at this point as the sketch is pretty much finalized. With that said, I'm planning on choosing more dynamic angles in the future. Will also experiment with Poser Pro to help with this, recently bought a copy and thinking about doing a comic-book style piece with a very dynamic angle, so Poser would be ideal for that.
darktiste: I think I'll keep this angle for now as I would have to re-draw the whole thing, and I spent a lot of time on the linework so I don't want to begin from the beginning again. Hopefully it works well enough, however.
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I began the painting process, never used a color palette quite like this so it was fairly challenging in that regard. I'm happy with the skin tones as well, feel very natural with this environment so I'm glad I got that part down at this stage of the painting process. Still has a way to go but I think it's looking promising:
The new piece is coming along nicely! Do you have plans on using the tanks or monitor as another light source? I think that’d look badass. Good work so far very clean!
looking good, feels like 60s scifi meets 90s scifi
maybe wants a tad more canvas under her foot, getting bit close to the edge
maybe beef up the tentacle around her torso, will take away that mild boob tangent and give a bit more nice shape design
kvSketch: Thanks! I like your idea about the light source from the monitor, I just added it but not too much, don't want it to overwhelm the image. Great suggestion!
xelfereht: Thank you! Great suggestions as well, will try to implement them by the next update!
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I haven't had a lot of free time lately so I haven't found time to work on the image until today. It's coming along pretty well I hope, any feedback appreciated as always!
OK I worked the image to death and I think I'm calling it final for now, very pleased with how it turned out. There's still some time for some minor tweaks and such, so if you have any input feel free to let me know! Here is the image:
I started on a new illustration, the story of Ceyx and Alcyone which is one of my favorite tales from Greek Mythology. I remember reading this story as a child and was highly inspired, so I thought it would make for a fun painting. Here is the line art, any input would be especially helpful before I begin painting!
The wing don't look to convincing in my opinion i think you would need a bit more time to study bird wing fully understand why they allow flight right now she could not sure missing alot of different feather that allow for flight control and long feather generally are for decoration not flight.They look small and they seem as if she simple smashed some feather and some glue to her arm they don't look like they bend well together.The pose is sad and if that what your going for i think you got it i am not sure about cutting the composition in half with her wing those.An other bird you could put in the scene is the vulture in the back they would had something menacing to the scene.For the corpse maybe some bruise and blood could be nice touch of realism.For added movement some feather detaching for her wing fly off.Also watch out your first bird as created a couple of tangente with the pillar.Try to think of a color palette less saturated than usual and some sad color for future use.I think a sunset would be a create add to the overall story witht the subliminal idea that the end of the day represent the end of a life.
Wow the latest composition is really interesting! Very dramatic One thing I don't really understand about the myth is why Alcyone is part bird. A couple other pictures depict her like that, can't really see why. Doesn't the myth just say they both get turned into kingfisher bids after she finds him? I'm just curious about that, I don't know the myth as well and I can't find and answer for it online.
As for the picture, I think the body of Ceyx looks really good. I'm sure that was a tricky angle to draw, but the overlaps and perspective look really convincing with it, so it's quite impressive. I think the left leg of Alcyone feels a little odd, like the knee is pointing completely to the right, when the leg should probably be facing toward us a little bit more.
But the general posing and composition of the picture is pretty strong. While it's in this stage I might think about the details of the costuming and surrounding elements just a bit more. She's got kind of a Xena the warrior princess kind of outfit going on, with a short skirt and cup bra, and I'm not sure it's the most appropriate choice. Maybe a more traditional greek dress, basically just a sleeveless gown that's belted under the bust, would be more typical.
I like the idea of the ruins, but the pillars you have now don't necessarily feel like they got there organically. You may want to give some thought to what structure would have been there in the first place in order for those pillars to look like that, be that size, fall that way, etc.
And then, if I'm understanding the story correctly, Ceyx washes up on a shore somewhere. But this feels like a hill, with the sea in the background, so one has to wonder how he got up to high ground if he died in a shipwreck. Maybe I'm just getting pedantic with these comments, but just something I'm thinking about I guess.
Just a few thoughts that come to mind. You don't have to pay attention to any of it if you'd rather stick to your vision for the picture.
Hey man, thanks for checking out my sketchbook! Looking at your work really reminds me I should put in the time to work on a single piece and really see how far I can take it.
How long in general do you spend on a single image? As in how many weeks do you stick with something before deciding it's time to move on? Until it's taken as far as you can go?
I don't really have any feedback for you, just that sometimes your facial expressions seem, to me, to have more impact in the linework stage, something gets lost by the time it's all fully painted. Not always, the woman with her forehead against the dragon a few pages back kept the mood, really nice emotion and the other finals still look awesome!
darktiste: Excellent point regarding the wings, I reworked them significantly and hope they're much better now! Great suggestions with the bruise and the cuts on the male figure, I implement your feedback as well as your suggestion on the color palette, thank you!
JosephCow: Thank you! The myth states that she turns into a bird while approaching her husband's body, in which he turns into a bird as well... so this illustrations depicts those moments approaching their interaction, hence why she has wings. I'm happy with the pose so I hope it isn't too distracting. Excellent input regarding the attire of Alcyone, I reworked her clothes significantly and am very satisficed with how they turned out. As for the environment, I just wanted an excuse to paint some rocks and Greek architecture :) Thanks again for your input!
JyonnyNovice: My pleasure! A single image takes me quite come time to complete, especially a more fleshed out image like this as opposed to a more simple portrait. I'd say anywhere from 16-40 hours for a complex image, portraits I'm able to do much faster, maybe 7-12 hours depending on their complexity. In general I'd say I work quite fast as I draw and paint full time for my job, so I'm very lucky in that regard!! Interesting note about the facial features, never really noticed that so that was quite surprising. I'll try to be more conscious of it as I don't want to lose the intensity of the expression during the painting process!
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I managed to find some free time this week, so I painted the image to the best of my ability. I reworked the clothing and the wings of the figure, I think it's a solid improvement. Other than that, I'm pretty much ready to call this finished unless there's some really big problems with the image, so please feel free to offer any critiques or advice. Below is the final image followed by some steps of the process, I hope you find it useful!
Hi it me again idk if your getting commission or not but it might be a good idea to start to post on more than your personal website if you want to growth your audience that my 2 cent of the day.What are your thought on making a portfolio for yourself?
darktiste: Great suggestion, I just updated my signature to include links to my social media, thank you! I'm actually pretty terrible with social media and networking in general, haven't had a lot of success with that unfortunately, so any tips would be greatly appreciated!
mieksta: My pleasure, I always save a ton of steps and I like showing my process, hope you found it useful!
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Started on a new sketch, spent quite some time bringing this one to life. It depicts a scene in the underworld, so I'm likely gonna go with a reddish/hellish color palette for this one. Here is the final sketch, any feedback before I begin painting it in would be greatly appreciated!
![[Image: TBFHWXL.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TBFHWXL.jpg)
