Really solid improvements to the latest piece! Happy to see you putting in so much effort into your work and pushing yourself and taking the critiques well. If I had a thing to crit it would be the cape, and how it's silhouette juuust barely touching the edge of the painting and things like that can make an image feel claustrophobic. To solve it either have it go beyond the canvas edge, or increase the space between the cape and the edge by moving the cape closer to the center. The face looks great, and I want that to be a focal point but I get too distracted by the cape actually. It's one of the areas with most contrast, and I wonder if that subtle golden glow on the face which is essentially lowering the contrast of that area makes my eyes wonder off a bit too much to the cape area.
one_two: Thanks! I usually begin with hard edged brushes, then smoothen out everything a bit with softer ones for a more natural look.
ItsAllHam: Thanks! Great input regarding the cape area, I'll see if I can rework it if I find time. Right now I'm moving on to another painting!
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Started on a new illustration, featuring a prince with his mischievous dragon. I'm going for a classical fantasy feel with this one, so I'll likely use some cool colors for the painting process... we'll see! Figure referenced here, tried my best to stay close to the general pose while taking a lot of artistic liberties in regards to his design and overall look. Any feedback would be appreciate it before I try some quick color tests!
Cool man, you're really pumping these illustrations out and its really inspiring! For the dragon I think you can push the drama a bit more with his wing. You could flare it out a bit and have it go beyond the border of the painting or you could just make it bigger, but that's just a personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt hehe
Pose looks good!
It's going to be fun seeing it develop, I wonder right now if the trees in the top will look too symmetrical but it's something I would consider changing later when things are getting fleshed out a bit more.
If your going for a more traditional fantasy feel you might want to do a serie thumbnail to see if you are going to fall into your own style and the more you do of those thumbnail you will be able to tweak to get the color that feel more i would say painterly... you want the paint(brush) to be more dynamic meaning that it mix more than just the normal brush which apply as if the paint is dry.It depend what are the capacity of the software you use.For example on sketchbook pro there is certain brush that push around the color you place down(i am not talking about a smudge brush here but a brush that ask as a paint brush and a smudge brush in a way.But there something else to consider which is the opacity of the brush on a real brush you never have 100% opacity so you build your color from the back to the front.I am saying this in case it of use but i assume you know all this by now.
I think you might run into an image that going to be very flat perspectively speaking.Just looking at the depth of object in the scene most thing are very close to use we see a midground but there isn'y much of a background i would say so try to use light to counter balance that to give object more depth.
Ooh I think this is probably one of your nicest figure drawings. It feels quite natural. The only thing I would tweak is the boots, the right foot feels a bit like we are looking down on it too much, though it's on a step that is about eye level. I think the reference does have a shallower angle from heel to toe that makes it feel more planted on that step. The shape of the other boot is quite flatly drawn, might feel more correct if the form was explored more, but it probably doesn't matter for a preliminary drawing like this.
I like the way the dragon is drawn, especially the neck. I wonder if you could explore the structure of the head more though just so we really feel like we're looking up at a solid skull structure. I don't get a ton of info about the structure from the outline of the chin, and the spots on the skin also feel like they are all on the same plane instead of going onto an under-plane of something. Sorry if these are really nitpicky comments.
I think his clothing definitely communicates that he's a prince. That was my impression before reading.
Eager to see what you do with the color and lighting. Would love to see you do something a different tone than your go to.
ItsAllHam: Thanks, I try! :) Great suggestion with the wing, just incorporated it! Trees will probably be very subtle as the painting progresses so I'm not too worries about that at this point, but I'll keep it in mind as I work on the image!
darktiste: Great suggestions! I think I'll continue doing these color tests early on as they're not too time consuming and quickly allows me to see what works and what doesn't!
JosephCow: Thank you! Great suggestions as well, tweaked the image based on your input. Glad to hear the figure reads as a prince, as that's very important!
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I tweaked the sketch a bit and began some color tests. I think 'A' is the strongest, but any suggestions on what works best is more than welcome!
I think i would go for B with a less satured green grass .Also one thing you don't have to put just one color per item you should try to add complementary color to the accessory you can also add decorative element to the cloth to make it more refined so that you avoid the let say animation looking feel by animation i mean the ratio of detail.Since realism =The higest level of detail.
I would also add a whiter spot in the blue near the head in the sky section to bring attention to is head.
For the cloth i would probably go for a dark red.
Oh and before i forget do you have a reference board for this piece... after all if you try to emulate a style you probably better not work from memory if you didn't already done alot of study in that style...
JosephCow: Thanks! I decided to with a mixture of A and B!
darktiste: Thanks, went with a combo of A and B to get the best of both worlds! Great input on colors, and for style I'm referencing some of Bouguereau's works to get a better understanding of colors, specifically for the grass.
DamienLevs: My pleasure, and thank you! Decided to combine both A and B as mentiioned.
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I proceeded the painting process, combined both A and B for the colors. It's come quite a long way too and I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping up. Any input is welcome as always!
I think you need to simplify the rock in foreground or at least try to get better shape that help.You have alot of small object allign in space here it make sense since it stair but graphically is not helping the flow because it horizontal detail repeating you want the repeating element to have a flow in depth. The rock on the stair the bigger one i would get rid off it just look out of place. If you really want to put detail in the stair you could do more with less by using blade of grass instead it would be less plane heavy and time consuming i would say.Plus the blade can be good to create the flow that was missing.
But personally i think you would save time by just overall learning to put less detail but use color change to still keep it interesting where the image need to ''breathy'' this way you avoid the stylize very uniform color.An other thing would be what going on with the color around the subject you should have earthy tone brown and green for the reflective light since they are inside the forest but it should be subtile since the light is block mostly by the tree top.A blue rim light coming from the back probably since it make sense because of the background opening behind them.
I don't think the hole in the wing are necessary they add a bit of confusion to me at first so i think i would say try to instead of clumping them spread them a bit more across the wing.
I added this poor paint over just to show a bit of where it can go.
darktiste: Really excellent feedback there, and very helpful paintover as well! Thank you for that! I revised the image and implemented your input, hopefully it's an improvement!
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I finished up the painting process, pretty pleased with how the image turned out. Of course there's still time for revising if needed.
I also started on a new self portrait, wanted to go for a classic feel with this one which will be much more obvious during the painting process. Any input on the material is welcome!
Where are the occlusion shadow?Cast shadow of the object in the scene... it those little detail that give the xtra dimension to thing.Also the space between the dragon and the character armpit where i put it very dark in my paint over it not for nothing it because there no light to be found there it not an option in term of realism but it absolutely to your own discrestion. Why does every step as lips those are stone stair they should feel as if they have been cracking and crumbling due to the vegetation root and rain erosion.
darktiste: Great point regard the shadows, I tend to do that step last and a lot of times I end up forgetting it altogether. I updated the image based on your input.
JosephCow: Thank you! I spend a great deal of time painting and I'm generally used to working at a fast pace. Regarding the self portrait, it's much more of an ideal look than a realistic one to be honest... I'm unfortunately not as well built as the drawing suggest - but with enough had work and perhaps some juice, anything is possible!
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I updated the Prince/Dragon image, added a drop shadow and broke up the straight lines on the floor. Hopefully it's OK now! Also began the painting process for the new portrait, it's come quite a long way! I'm pretty pleased with the colors I've achieved here at this stage as well. Any feedback is welcome!
The warrior girl turned out fantastic. Love her expression, pose, costume and back ground & colors. Top notch!
The prince and dragon look great. Love how you handled the color and markings on the dragon. The glowing butterflies are a nice whimsical touch. Well done!
Your portrait is looking cool. If I'm not too late with a suggestion (sorry it seems like I always am) — I suggest you turn to some references for the chest muscles. Right now they have kind of a 'loafs of bread look'.
Otherwise — the laurel wreath around the head is looking quite good and the portrait itself is pretty amazing. Love the expression and the muted color palette is a nice touch! Looking forward to seeing it completed
Jephyr: Thank you, glad to hear it! Good point regarding the chest muscles, they're a bit stylized. I don't it down a bit and finished up the image, hopefully it looks more natural now!
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I finished up the self portrait! Lots of fun with this one. I was going for a bit of a traditional look with this one, hopefully I was able to convey that here. Below is the final image followed by the steps for those interested. Of course any final feedback is welcome!
Time for a new illustration! Wanted to toy with a both a sci-fi and post apocalyptic theme, so I drew in a futuristic solider with some rubble. I want the environment to be very destructive and animated compared to the calmness of the figure, but this will be more obvious during the painting process. I had a reference for the pose, while incorporating my own character design for the costume. Below is the sketch, any feedback before I begin some color tests would be most appreciated!
I did some color tests for the image. I'm torn between A and B as I think those two work the best IMO, figures pops out the most there. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Get ref of concrete not rock.Other than that i am not sure what you mean by animated but i don't feel it yet.I once again i advice to reduce the number of object you don't need 1billion concrete piece to sell the idea to the viewer a few repetition is fine your better of focusing on getting good flow good repetition and good ratio of small medium and big.It what can help make a picture interesting to look at.
I think my idea for animated would probably be something like a giant spaceship beaming it laser in the background toward a cityscape.But i don't think spaceship is your wheel house from what i seen(no vehicule in here). So instead i would say get rid of that sci-fi overpass i suspect it is.Get rid of the fire.Get rid of the round shape (bad shape language for what you want to make the viewer feel i would argue)i personally find the moon calming in contrast to a more animated background.
I think a distant buzzing cityscape would be a nice addition but again i think it sci-fi is just to far from what you do in general and it seem to limit you
I don't see the post apocalyptic vibe i am sorry i did post apocalypse work in my sketchbook so i talk from a point of experience(even minimal).My experience it not very helpful since it mostly prop and character and what you need is environnement that scream scfi post apo.But it made me think about world building and that enough for me to be of help to you.
I am give you what to me define the genre (post-apo) abandon,broken,improvised,survival of the fittest,highway bandit,high tech vs low tech element and more
Those are some of the keyword i think about. I would say generally that the post apo style don't mix very well with sci fi because they are to far apart.In most post apo the time of event are almost always very close to the time we live in.For sci-fi post apo i am think of something like rediscovering a civilisation almost.Thing have been buried under volcanic ash and tsunami earthquake have devasted the civilisation that once live.
You can have different type of apocalypse i would say.Alien invasion,natural catastrophy,human experience gone wrong(atomic bomb etc),large scale human conflict it up to you to expand on that initial what the cause of that apocalypse... i don't necessarly think you will get near this feeling if you can still see the moon.To me the apocalypse conjure image of smoke fill sky but also i think that sometime when we are thinking about story making we have to try to think in term of five sense.What would you see what would you ear and what would you smell or taste.If you can evoke those sense in a visual fashion i think you will be more sucessful in transporting us where you want us to feel like.
It might be hard to hear but i think i am setting the bar to the level i think is require for you to keep growing as an artist.So please keep that in mind.
