Really good job on the elephant studies! Remember to have a b and white layer you can turn on and off above your other layers so you can keep checking your value range as in some painitngs your values are all very similar which will make your work seem flat. Keep pushing yourself!
Here's a crit thought, the values are very similar across the board for the elephant, try using cooler colors and more values to push the parts further away in to the background a little more.
Your value layout seems to be a little off, I'd try pushing the background a little further away with some atmosphere, and bring the foreground closer by darkening the values of the leaves.
Overall good improvements over the sketch, just keep pushing in your next piece and see how far you can go.
After some feedback and a much needed break from it, I went back and tried to touch up the elephant altar, work has been keeping me away from painting most of the day though. (also have a harpy wip)
Some very nice work going on since my last visit :). With your values really don't be afraid to go into the brighter values not 100 percent white but you can really push your light values to make your image 'pop' more. Keep pushing it, looking forward to see your progress on the next piece.
i really like how you try to construct your figures.
your stuff is looking cool, and you seem to do applied studies (thumbs up).
i think you should do more studies of materials and values, to overcome that artificial look. and really take your time with those, and make notes etc. it helps. at least for me :)
cheers,
flo
Please help me getting better by checking out mysketchbook
Thanks guys, I appreciate all the feedback <3
I kind of feel like I'm going about this wrong, I'm feeling strung out across the board and trying to grind everything up at the same time. I don't think I'm making much progress anywhere because my attention is trying to be everywhere, but at the same time, I don't want to ignore things I'm bad at under the excuse "Well, I'm trying to focus on this right now so it's okay that is bad."
I've done a few small material studies and plan to do many more(I'll post 'em later). I had it on my to-do list for awhile and got distracted, forgetting about them. Thanks for reminding me Flo, haha.
Oooh nice things going on here! :D I love the elephant thing scene and your last model looks beautiful! Wish you had pushed it a bit further! You nailed most of the torso value and lower belly-thighs part too. :D Keep going! But try to go deeper into those studies (or do more :P)
John singer sargent on values: how to avoid false accents.
'' You must classify the values, If you begin with the middle tones and work your way up towards the darks, so that you deal last with your highest lights and darkest darks you avoid false accents.
Of course, a sketch is different. You don't mind false accents there. But once you've made them in something you wish to carry far, in order to correct them you have to deal with both sides of them and get into alot of trouble. ''
Good stuff, I think you should play more with contrast, simply dont affraid throwing some crazy colors and values. Can't wait to see more of your work.
@Lumens Thanks man, I think that really helped me. I was starting in my darkest values and building up. I feel like I have a lot more control and a better eye for the values when I start in midtones.
@Ramalooke I agree, colors can intimidate me a bit when they get a little crazy but I definitely wanna fix that.
Studies and WIP of my merchant. A long way to go, but I think I'm learning a lot from it.
Very nice work on the studies Man and I like what you doing with the merchant. I'm looking forward to seeing the different Merchants with the Crimson characters.