Fantasy illustration - asking for help

[Lumens]

Hey Daggers,
I've been working on a illustration with a first attempt at more emphasis on narritive and composition.
So here the current piece. below is the initial idea and some of the drastic changes.

c&c always appreciated.


By lumensart at 2012-08-23


By lumensart at 2012-08-23


By lumensart at 2012-08-23

[Simonarpalmer]

Hey Lumensart

I like the colors and the painterly strokes! The part with the creature getting attacked at the top of the hill looks good, the birdwomen attacking it look very dynamic!

I'm no expert or anything, but I see two problems with this painting.
First of all the lights look very random, you got a sunset in the background, but the characters are lit from all directions, the two closest bird women look like they have been pasted into the image as a result. I made a ultra fast paintover, hopefully it makes sense to you, the red markers show all the random directions of light coming in, the lower one is an attempt to quickly correct some of it using the sunset as the source of light.



The second problem that I can see is that the poses of the characters are a little bit awkward, the birdwomen in the back attacking the guy's mount look good, but the ones in the front are kind of just stepping lightly on the guy, and he's very piled up without a clear silhoutte, making it hard to see what he is doing. I made a quick paintover with a diffrent approach, which hopefully speaks for itself, but I made the guy reaching for the axe easier to read and the birdwoman sitting on him like she's caught her prey. I put his hat a bit up the hill and made the birdwoman's hair point towards the mount, both in an attempt to lead the eye up the hill.



I hope this made sense haha, keep up the good work!

[Lumens]

Ah thanks a lot Simon!
I agree on the lighting beeing kind of all over the place.
So i used pretty heavy ref on the right harpy and felt the other characters fell short, as a result you get the pasted look you described.

I will apply most changes in my own way. Really like what you did with the new pose on the left, and eliminating the bounce light from the figure on the right.

the harpy above the old man is indeed in a very strange pose.. i tried emulating the ''defensive posture'' of an owl, body leaning forward, wings up looked intimidating but doesn''t work the same for human anatomy haha.

The main thing i'm probably not going to change is the positioning of the axe and dwarf.
the prairy grass in the snow is supposed to lead you to the action in the background.
might have to emphasize that more.

will update tommorrow.

[Lumens]

Worked on some values and gave em a slight edge light with more intense light behind them.
Not sure yet if i'm going to change the poses, perhaps flipping the dwarf and give him a longer cape that goes to the right, leading the eye back up the hill.

Thanks again for the paintover ( i copied how you did the cast shadows.)


By lumensart at 2012-08-28

[Simonarpalmer]

Looks a lot more natural to me now Lumens :-) I would like to encourage you to have the dwarf reach for the axe with an extended arm, would help sooo much if his hand shape was seperate from his body silhouette!

[Lumens]

Did a quick paintover his arm..it reads better i think.
NOt sure about the fortshorting.
next time i'll try to fix everything in the beginning stage.


By lumensart at 2012-08-31

[Simonarpalmer]

Yea it reads better, the arm is made too long in the perspective as you say, but the idea that we see his arm reach for the axe helps so much in my opinion :-)

[Warburton]

This is a really nice painting, and you've recieved some really cool crits here too. The one thing that stands out to me is the harpies facial expressions. They look almost tranquil and peaceful which doesnt read well considering the dwarf dude looks like he wants to kill them.
sorry i can't offer more advice, i hope this helps.