02-21-2014, 03:21 PM
Hey fsg. Your ability to pick colours is quite excellent. Similarly excellent is your dedication to each piece you work on, but there are issues with how you place and depict forms. As far as I can tell it's an underlying problem with your 3-dimensional understanding, in particular, the way you pose figures, you're not quite applying foreshortening correctly. I see that you like the softcore porn! Me too, and that is the perfect format to combine your anatomical understanding with the necessities of perspective.
And there's something else that softcore porn photos can teach you about, that is the effect figures have on the surrounding atmosphere and surfaces. Your paintings tend to divorce the figures somewhat from their surroundings, there's little bounced light, the edges are really hard. There's a lack of visible atmosphere like dust.
I think it was you who mentioned that you "already use the lasso tool to sharpen your edges"? In some places that's a sound strategy, but professionals really do just freehand their stuff, sometimes you need to up the scale of the image to get fine details in there, but they shrink the final paintings down so that they seem better and more detailed than they could possibly have been otherwise.
One more thing, when you get an idea for a painting you need to put a stopper on your enthusiasm (maybe by making a quick line drawing that solidifies your thoughts) and work on the background. If there isn't a believable or realistic setting then your idea falls way short.
Though right now, your real problem is not imagining things in three dimensions. And when you do a design sheet, like for that eyeball-monster thing, you need to bite the bullet and do a three-quarter view. Side views and front views are close to useless to a 3d modeller.
Phew, long ass post.
And there's something else that softcore porn photos can teach you about, that is the effect figures have on the surrounding atmosphere and surfaces. Your paintings tend to divorce the figures somewhat from their surroundings, there's little bounced light, the edges are really hard. There's a lack of visible atmosphere like dust.
I think it was you who mentioned that you "already use the lasso tool to sharpen your edges"? In some places that's a sound strategy, but professionals really do just freehand their stuff, sometimes you need to up the scale of the image to get fine details in there, but they shrink the final paintings down so that they seem better and more detailed than they could possibly have been otherwise.
One more thing, when you get an idea for a painting you need to put a stopper on your enthusiasm (maybe by making a quick line drawing that solidifies your thoughts) and work on the background. If there isn't a believable or realistic setting then your idea falls way short.
Though right now, your real problem is not imagining things in three dimensions. And when you do a design sheet, like for that eyeball-monster thing, you need to bite the bullet and do a three-quarter view. Side views and front views are close to useless to a 3d modeller.
Phew, long ass post.