09-25-2013, 09:34 AM
There's a couple of things that I could see with this one:
1. There are a lot of bright highlights on his left shoulder (our right), but those aren't present so much on his head or right shoulder. Since it looks like his skin (or rock, or scales, or whatever) is pretty shiny, there should be some pretty hot highlights there too (especially on the head and face - that's where you want to draw the attention to, and right now the eye keeps being pulled to the right of his head, 'cause that dark shadow on his face and the lighter average value of that shoulder create an area of higher contrast). On that same note, given how shiny his skin is, some bounced light onto his chest would be a good idea
2. the other characters don't seem to have much texture to them. I know you're trying to blur them to draw the focus to the central character, but by keeping them dark and blurry, it forces the eye to not move at all through the piece. Those other characters would be a great way to pull the eye through your painting. With the pose your central character already has, you have a sort of spiral composition already; maybe try adding to the other characters so that the eye is drawn in from the upper right, down across the two characters on the right, let the eye rest on your central character, then out through the bottom left.
3. Another thing to think about with the composition is your use of space. Right now you have a lot of very dark space, which is good for bringing attention to the lighter areas, but since you don't really have anything going on in the lighter spots (it's a dude sitting down, there isn't a lot of drama to it right now), you might consider brightening up some of the other parts. Maybe add more going on in that window behind the scaly dude?
1. There are a lot of bright highlights on his left shoulder (our right), but those aren't present so much on his head or right shoulder. Since it looks like his skin (or rock, or scales, or whatever) is pretty shiny, there should be some pretty hot highlights there too (especially on the head and face - that's where you want to draw the attention to, and right now the eye keeps being pulled to the right of his head, 'cause that dark shadow on his face and the lighter average value of that shoulder create an area of higher contrast). On that same note, given how shiny his skin is, some bounced light onto his chest would be a good idea
2. the other characters don't seem to have much texture to them. I know you're trying to blur them to draw the focus to the central character, but by keeping them dark and blurry, it forces the eye to not move at all through the piece. Those other characters would be a great way to pull the eye through your painting. With the pose your central character already has, you have a sort of spiral composition already; maybe try adding to the other characters so that the eye is drawn in from the upper right, down across the two characters on the right, let the eye rest on your central character, then out through the bottom left.
3. Another thing to think about with the composition is your use of space. Right now you have a lot of very dark space, which is good for bringing attention to the lighter areas, but since you don't really have anything going on in the lighter spots (it's a dude sitting down, there isn't a lot of drama to it right now), you might consider brightening up some of the other parts. Maybe add more going on in that window behind the scaly dude?
http://www.facebook.com/nickzornart
CD sketchbook: Squiggles and Slashes
Deviantart: http://johnnyveryscary.deviantart.com/
CD sketchbook: Squiggles and Slashes
Deviantart: http://johnnyveryscary.deviantart.com/