Critiques would be nice, thank you

[yangdaniel027]

Hey guys, I'm trying to build a new portfolio for myself. I know I still need a lot of work and so any sort of advice/critique would help go a long way. Thank you :)

[Piotr Jasielski]

I'd either make the soldier a bit smaller or expand the canvas a little up. I'm not sure, but it seems it's an underwater scene, if so maybe add some air bubbles or a fish. Having something in the foreground bottom corner would be nice as well (a branch maybe).

[Amit Dutta]

Yep what Piotr said. Also your colours are all very monotonous. Yeah that does tend to happen underwater, but there is more colour variation in reality, and since this is a painting you could amp that up even more.  The first study/thumb below demonstrates that well.

Your edges are also very sharp all over. If you want to simulate water, make some soft edges to contrast against the harder ones. Focus and lighting tend to drop off quite sharply in water, so keeping everything in focus like that is breaking the impression of water

You could also push the lighting and make it stronger on the focal point. Caustic patterns tend to appear under very direct lighting and closer to the surface, so don't be afraid to push the lighting more to promote that. If this is supposed to be at great depth, you're breaking that impression with caustics.

Here is either a quick study or colour thumb example from Repin Sadko to illustrate. I've included the final painting, but I thinkn the thumbnail does a better job of capturing the feeling of water, as much as I love the final.

[yangdaniel027]

Thank you both for the quick response :) I should provide some context into the idea of the painting. The scene isn't exactly underwater. I was really inspired by the cave scene in the Prince of Egypt movie and how the lights were reflecting on the walls, and I wanted to somewhat mimic that. I'll try to attach reference for you guys.



I would agree that my colors are very monotonous. Truthfully, I just wasn't very sure how to sneak in more color variations. I knew my light source was blueish, but I couldn't completely figure out how that light would interact with the different hues specifically on the soldiers armor. That thumbnail you posted is quite helpful though. I probably should have looked at more master painting references to help me with color.

Edges are something I've always struggled with. I've never been sure where to soften edges and where to keep them sharp? I know there's probably not any hard and fast rules, but would there be any specific spots in my piece above where edges should be softer?

[Amit Dutta]

Ah. Well they look exactly like water caustics, and in the gif we know exactly what the source is from and even though it totally resembles water we know it isn't so we let it slide. In your static illustration, we can only assume from what we see. So, either make those light patterns less caustic-like or show us the source.

Squint your eyes for edges. see how it affects the comp focus. I would say perhaps the rocks in the foreground could get some lost edges. Maybe some of that hard edged cave could be lost at the extremities. Then again if you are going for a cell shaded look like in the animation, maybe you don't need to do this. Totally depends on your goals. In the future you should mention this stuff up front in future when asking for crit ^^ so people know what page you are on.

[yangdaniel027]

Here's my second go at it. I scaled down the soldier, redid the rock, and tried my best to do less "watery" caustics. I was looking at a lot of fire for reference but it was pretty difficult to imitate. Also made an effort to have more soft edges.

I'm wondering if I should just get rid of the caustics all-together.

[BenFlores]

Yang, I liked the caustics. It gave a magical feel to the piece and suggested a shaft of light was lighting something just ahead of him as if he saw something cool. I also liked the first version you had. Google , "Boat Caustics". If you decide to keep that element, make sure you have water at the base. That is light reflecting back up past the ripples. Try to sneak in some warm accents where you can. Lastly, you can work the front leg some more to make it look like it is planted forward on the ground. It is a bit flat because you placed the brightest value on very right side of the calf.

Edit- The caustics from a blue flame would also work and you wouldnt have to put water on the ground.