I'm all up for faking perspectives honestly, some interesting paintings/drawings do combine perspectives in subtle ways or hide the points that cause trouble.
Well you know having horror in placid ways can be a good hook, because it causes contrast and the viewer is left there to wonder, but you still need a line and sinker? Ha ha. Something for the viewer not to be left out wondering and grow confused, so message, that's why I ask you what is the goal of making the artwork, if you can figure that out then you can go on with the ideas flowing.
I have been feeling the same myself, humans are feeling like not the thing to pursue for me either, but damn ha ha, I know nothing about creature design, yours are very damn convincing! I think I saw once somebody doing anatomical drawings of creatures and myths like so, you usually just have a longer ribcage and two scapula -> arm bones sets? One below the other, so they don't overlap, yours go, inwards? I guess that could work too, like put them sideways, a wider ribcage, but the muscle attachments to the column and ribcage then, some go under the other scapula, might be trouble, but who the hell knows ha ha, it's all make believe. Actually so long you can make someone be convinced something works, you did your job, is all smoke and mirrors here.
I agree with Zorrentos composition advice, personally I'm more interested as to why it's hiding, and from what? The sun? That maybe influence what you would like to add on the other side.
Zorrentos: I was thinking that the background needed something, maybe more cowbell, but wasn't sure of where to put it. I think you nailed it, though. Thanks!
Rotohail: Yeah, I imagined it as having a broad bat-like back with the wing scapulae lying flat on it, and the front leg scapulae in a more dog-like orientation. It's probably bogus, but I haven't gotten revolted comments on that picture so far, so I guess it's good enough for schlocky fantasy paintings. I did not give much thought to the story except "he needed a secluded place to rest after a long hard day of burninating or whatever". It could have probably used more elaboration.
cgmythology: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. It's done for good though.
For the werewolf picture, I tried to draw a background with more cowbell and hopefully well-balanced details, and some semblance of story. I couldn't resist adding the cartoonishly huge moon.
Well guy it not that big of a deal it just not physically possible but it doesn't mean it doesn't look believable what important it what the viewer see and see as believable.Don't mind me to much just giving my 2 cent.
With the hands:
Even though there are always limitations to everything, those can change when weight is added. So resting your chin on your hands naturally pushes them into a new position that might not otherwise be achievable.
Even when I put my elbows together I can still achieve the same curved looked to my hands once I add the weight of my head to it.
if you put your headweight on it it may go well past 90º, nevertheless these types of mental notes are useful if they help someone make structural sense of an idealized body, if they don't, you can completely ignore them and push the gesture as much as the image asks for. Cool notes regardless, completely forgot about this book.
Thanks for the commentary on the wrists, everyone. I'll keep that all in mind when drawing bent wrists that are not being pressed upon. I do like to exaggerate things a bit though, if it makes a good overall impression (e.g. I wouldn't put hyper-flexed wrists on a barbarous guy who shouldn't look like he has Ehlers-Danlos).
JosephCow: It's mainly invention, but some parts are sorta drawn from memory. Mainly the shape of the left arm, for which I was thinking of this sketch by Rubens, which I'd copied repeatedly in the past due to thinking it had the most well-drawn arm I'd ever seen: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...roject.jpg
Artloader: Thanks. I was happy to find an old-fashioned art forum that's still reasonably active, so I like to interact and hopefully increase member retention by bolstering the activity level when I can, haha.
Well damn, the wolf-man pose good. You know I've been looking at bats lately and the face sort of reminds me of the proportions bats heads have! I hadn't noticed, although the eyes are smaller but ha, do you check bats too? You could tone down a bit the reflected moonlight on the bark of the tree, and maybe don't silhouette all the trees/plants or else you flatten them? Try to find the places where the form turns and you can see that edge or plane (tough, lot of guessing required! ha ha. I feel dumb when doing it).
The lady looks fine to me but you already got a discussion stewing about it so I'll just shy away ha ha. (Bullets start flying). So what are you working on next?
Rotohail: It's funny that you mention bats, since bats happen to be one of about 2 animals (excluding humans) that I ever seriously tried to learn to draw, so it makes sense that some bat ended up in there. I definitely over-did the silhouetted scenery a bit; I'll try to do it more subtly next time.
Here's the new thing. I wanted to do at least one Mermay picture, but it ended up being more of a naga. It's finished, in the sense that I ran out of artistic ability and couldn't stand to look at it any more. I've only made a few serious attempts at drawing moving water, and it shows. I didn't have the patience to look for an exact reference so I winged a lot of it.
I'm not strictly concerned with painting the most realistic reflections, currents, and eddies, but I do want to paint water that looks "close enough", so comment freely. I suspect it goes from being see-through to being completely reflective too quickly.
Why not trying to fix your error if you know it messy?Redraw over it try to train your own eye.Your still early at this stage it worth trying.
I tried to add a bit more wet light on that serpent lady i think you did good but i wanted to try even more to see if it would still work.The way you rendered the current of the river is also questionable i think you need to have a reference out for better result.
Thank you Darktiste. I like the look of your paint-over.
To answer your question, when I make an error like this in a picture and I'm not sure what the major issue is, trying to fix it normally proves unproductive, even with reference usage. In my experience, it's better to junk the picture, study the subject I was failing at, and then make more pictures with different approaches until I get it right.
Aha! Bats. Good to know I'm not crazy... just yet! lol. I'm liking them also as of late. I was trying to find inspiration for creature design, I'll probably try some bats studies myself. Fur and wings, yep, that's gonna teach me a lesson or three.
Well that naga looks really convincing to me, water ripples I was a few weeks back staring at a pond trying to make sense of them somewhat but yeah, it's a struggle, reflections like that it's like fur to me, hard stuff, to many changes and details! The patterns. Anyways, I think near the tail poking out they look good to me, the changes. I would say maybe the reflection of the sky on the water could be broken down further. I'm not too sure about what the angle would be where you go from seeing inside the volume and the reflection taking over, but I would say maybe over 30-45 degrees? So the nearest reflections of the sky to the tail side could be reduced in opacity, maybe show a bit of the inside but the far end (to the right of the picture) that one leave as it is.
Best would be to take some pictures tho. Personally the materials of the skin and overall pose are super nice. The level adjustment from Darktiste looks better to me also but it didn't looked bad before, just a darker setting (have some dark clouds, you got a storm brewing). That could be a interesting idea, a stormy day chilling at the river/pond? ha ha. Very fitting for your monster but mundane themes.
Thanks for the feedback Rotohail. Good suggestions regarding the water.
Despite previous mewling I took another stab at the water. It still looks crummy, but I feel slightly better prepared for when I next attempt water. The opacity level is hardest to tackle after the fact so I will just try to do better in future pictures.
Yeah doing certain paintovers is harder than starting over ha ha, ironically. I would say it looks more interesting now to me so better! Best for reflections to get references, dreaded reflections. Have you tried doing gemstones or diamonds? Something with many cuts. That is crazy to follow at times lol.
![[Image: ilL3CcG.png]](https://i.imgur.com/ilL3CcG.png)