Hey everybody. I'm finishing up this sketch tomorrow and thought I'd ask opinions on background colors or treatments that would enhance it. Any ideas?
EDIT:
Did some further tweaking on this, added highlights and went for a night sky background. Thinking about a subtle starfield and possibly a raised paw for the foreground.
(04-06-2013, 02:44 PM)nathan Wrote: Hey everybody. I'm finishing up this sketch tomorrow and thought I'd ask opinions on background colors or treatments that would enhance it. Any ideas?
EDIT:
Did some further tweaking on this, added highlights and went for a night sky background. Thinking about a subtle starfield and possibly a raised paw for the foreground.
What do you think?
MORE EDITING:
I've pushed the depth by adding a foreground paw and some foggy atmosphere. Any thoughts, suggestions? Is the paw at too weird an angle, or do I need more arm perhaps?
ok im not a great painter by any means but I'll help out if i can.
the first thing that grabs me is that the neck/head transition is a bit weird. he doesnt really seem to have a neck, it just seems to be his head on a pair of really beefy shoulders.
The paw looks a bit awkward because we dont know where its coming from, if you did a more dynamic pose, and zoomed out a bit then we could tell, but seeing as its a portrait with an added paw its a bit hard to tell. I would recommend increasing the canvas size, and actually working out where the paw is coming from, where the arm is, and try to create a more dynamic pose- perhaps on a rock, the paw on the rock closest to us and a turned head towards us? I would try a sketch but I suck... Let me know if you want me to give it a shot.
Hopefully that helped... a bit... hehe, good luck with it.
All the best :)
I agree, the arm needs better integration, looking really floaty at the moment. I'm also planning to better define the chest area, to suggest a slight forward lean. I want to keep the portrait layout, though. Might do another one with a full body pose.
As for the neck, I was going for a sheepdog/cat sort of look, with a bloated hulk type body (size, not definition)-so I'll probably tweak the fur around the neck to help suggest that.
Thanks again for the notes, it's cool getting feedback!
Decided to go back to this and try to finish it up this time. I've modified the hand, made it "hands" and tried to push the depth a little more.
Tweaks to follow:
-Better definition around neck of fluffy fur collar/shoulder
-More detail in focus areas to draw attention
-color pass
-"roughened" pass, where I'll make it look mangy and dirty (as a test)
-tightened up lighting (from front and rim from moon)
Geez, more than I thought to do! I'll keep chipping away until it's done.