darktiste: Yep, got some really amazing feedback from the community for the Helen image, really helped bring it to the next level so I'm really appreciative of that!
Lydo: Glad to hear it! The lighting was very tricky for the face but I got great feedback from here to help me refine it further so I'm glad it's to your liking. As for finishing things, I actually have a ton of sketches already done that I'm planning on painting, but I make sure to concentrate on only painting one at a time so things don't get out of hand.... otherwise I'd never be able to finish anything, haha!
Love your points you made regarding reference material. In general I find it much easier and faster to stick closely to them particularly for the poses themselves, while taking a lot of liberties for the character designs. I do love the technique you described for the portraits, drawing them in new angles (and your sketch looks incredible btw!) which should be a fun practice - I'll definitely apply it to my next portrait piece which I have planned already, should be fun trying your technique! Thanks again for the help and advice, very much appreciate it!
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And time for a new illustration! I started on this sketch a while ago, was going for an 'Assassin's Creed' vibe with this one. This particular character doesn't exist within the universe, but I wanted the character design to feel like it fits in that series if that makes sense. The general pose was referenced from a stock photo I found here, I felt it was very dynamic so I tried my best to recreate it while coming up with a character design for the figure. Any feedback before I begin on some color tests would be most appreciated as always!
I would really advise you to take some time on the side to draw more hand holding object just because i mention it in the past and i am not sure here if the way she holding that dagger is plausible.I have the feeling is goes throught some of the volume of the hand but that just could be me...
Now for the roast and question session.
The dagger on he hips have a guard but the one in the hand doesn't.Why?The guard is only for decorative purpose???Also the upper dagger on the hips show a slight curvature on the handle part compare to the center line also something to note is that those dagger are paper thin they are wrapping around the leg i shouldn't have to remind you that object have volume unless they are seen at a perfect eye level at a 90 degre angle from the viewer point of observation such as in a orthographic sheet for modelling.As for the pant i am not sure how you go from pant to no pant toward the ankle where does it start and where does it end?For the hand on the right instead of 4 finger why not show 5 finger it look kinda strange just my personal opinion.I can't say i am a fan of the shape of the cloak maybe you could try something else but save a back up just in case if you want give a try at something bit more pleasing to the eye.What going on with the foot is that a sandal or what the ankle seem to suggest a bare ankle i am not sold as to what i am exactly looking at in this part.What going on with the size of those window square shape are those window or architectural feature?For the pant are you going for tissue or leather?
We all make mistake so i don't know why i am being so harsh on you.I guess i would expect those error not to be the same one i pointed in the past...but trust me if i didn't care i wouldn't bring this up again but i hope that maybe you can sometime remember some of my word and improve a little more each time so i hope you don't mind me breaking your back a little.Even if not everything stick the first time repeating is important and i should really stop saying that i hate repeating because here i am.
Yes, it does feel like she could come out of Assassin's Creed. I wish her cape (funny how you transposed the reference across the ages) was a bit longer for dramatic effect though.
My main issue is that the woman in the reference looks like she is jumping up and down, which is a different dynamic than jumping from a roof for parkouring. You did tilt the pose, which helps.
You went for a complex architecture, kudos for that, but watch out for a few perspective issues which disconnect the elements from each other.
If you decide to rework the drawing, I can get into more detail.
Because you're so fast I'm getting this in as early as possible! I've got some observations about the figure, but no time to properly write it down, thus I made some paintover notes (sorry about the calligraphy!).
Let me know if you can't make sense of something. I'm including a copy without notes so you can actually see what I'm talking about.
Cool pose pick, by the way! And the design is roughly in line with the franchise.
As always your lines are always super clean, but your characters seem to be stiff still. Maybe you try doing some quick gestures of the poses you're after to make it feel more looser and full of action, rather than a stiff model posing? For this why don't you look up some parkour videos or see if you can see 'inbetweens' It fits with the Assassin's Creed theme, which does come through in her design.
I agree with Leo and Knight about her cape, more air flow under it, either looks bigger or should be higher and look 'billowy'. There also seems to be something 'off' in the hood area, but it may have something to do wit perspective. Look for hand holding a dagger or look at your own holding something with a (similar) handle. The fingers are bunched up to appear there's a finger missing.
You're not scared of backgrounds which is nice to see! Interested to see this develop.
Wow, Lydo this is greeat criticism and really shows you understand how 'line of action' works. You even fixed the position of her right dagger-holding arm. Still missing the beats myself.
Hi, sorry to pile on :p I love your sketchbook and really admire how complex and MANY your works are. I like the idea and composition of your latest sketch, the perspective of the backgrounds and birds swirling up is really nice and dynamic. Aside from the stiffness in the pose I feel like the clothing is somehow a little pasted-on? I understand it would be tight for purpose but it seems to follow every contour of the body in places where it might bunch and gather a bit more (Knight addressed this in their over drawing). And the knives as mentioned look a bit awkward and 2 dimensional. Maybe you could incorporate some holsters over the top of the straps rather than underneath so they wouldn't be digging into the thighs? Otherwise, I love her attitude.
darktiste: That sounds like a good idea, I might try it out (hands holding objects and such). I also appreciate your roasts as well lol. I made the changes based on your input, hopefully things look more natural now.
Leo Ki: Glad to hear it! Great point regarding the cape, just expanded it so hopefully it looks more dynamic now. Reworked the perspective a bit for the background as well. Great input, thank you!
dimensional-knight: Your paintover is awesome and you made some great points. Just incorporated it with the new pose, thanks again!
Dominicque: Yep, some of my figure work is a bit stiff. I'll try to exaggerate the gesture lines in the future to help avoid this for future pieces. Made some changes to the hand as well, thanks for your input as always!
Lydo: That's a great point regarding the L gesture, the paintover you posted works much better, much more dynamic and helps illustrate your point immensely. I incorporated it to the sketch and I'm very happy with how the gesture improved, so thanks a ton for that!!
VorpalBug: Thank you! Great points as well, revised the sketch a bit so hopefully it works better now!
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First off, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to commend on the sketch, it was ridiculously helpful so I'm incredibly grateful. I reworked the sketch significantly and did my best to incorporate all the feedback, and I feel it's a substantial improvement. Attached the updated sketch below. I'm ready to begin doing some quick color tests but I'm open to any final feedback before I do so as well, so if something is significantly off please feel free to let me know!
The cape would not go like the way you shown it anyways because it would mean he as jump without foward momentum.The reason it would be like you shown it is if she was falling down from the edge just by stepping slowly foward let say and it been like 10 sec also the bottom cloth doesn't follow the same direction flow so i total agree with lydo. Not that i think i need to add my weight to is critic.Just trying to make you think of why something flow in the direction that it flow.
One thing i don't like is how the foot line up with the shin guard of the furthest leg this also to me flatten the drawing because so much of the pose is in a profile fashion for dynamism always try to cover all the axis to create depth.
For depth don't just think in term of FG MG BG in term of where are each element but also think of those principle also applying at an individual level for example the arm is the FG the cap is the MG but there is no BG overlap so this mean you don't get as much depth as you could also considering that the arm is in profile you get a flattening effect the cap goes back a little bit into the distance that good the problem is you mostly only have 2 overlap per individual element and most case and those are mostly in profile so they don't had much x,y,z depth.That more of a critic for you to ponder on for future piece.
Great feedback above.
Regarding the perspective, I see that you updated the architectural element that she's jumping from. Is its left side parallel to the left wall of the building and is the platform horizontal? If yes to both questions, the perspective does not work. The element looks like it has a slanted platform and the decorations on the left are slanted as well. The corner line of the top most corner is slanted too. Maybe if you enlarge your canvas just so you can draw some perspective lines it can help you connect all the elements together?
Hey, I like your spiderman. Just have a few changes I'd make that I'd like to share with you if that's okay.
1. The foot was looking a bit balloony
2. The collarbones seem to be missing
3. There's a lot of bounce lighting that I'd add overall given that the rooftop would kick off quite a bit of light. (I suppose this could be considered a style choice of going more photo real since photography tends to crush shadows but in real life you'd see them filled in substantially given the environment)
4. The structure of the shoulder is also a bit balloony
Paint overs (they're links you can click on to make bigger. If anyone knows how to add attached images in a spoiler tag that'd be appreciated)
Other than that the anatomy is lovely and overall cool painting!
darktiste: Great input! I like how the cape flows compositionally, but I just updated it so it looks a bit more natural hopefully. Excellent advice in regards to depth, I'll keep that in mind for future pieces!
Leo Ki: Great point regarding the perspective, just fixed the issue so hopefully it works better now!
Barebobe2: Glad you dig the Spider-Man image, and your feedback and paintovers are great as well. I'll see if I can find time to implement them, it's generally hard for me to go back to an image but we'll see!
mechapark12: Thank you! I do a lot of sketches on the side, some studies usually traditionally, etc. but I try to concentrate on tackling one major image at a time... otherwise things would get out of hand quickly!
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I did some changes to the sketch, tried to make the cape more natural looking and fixed some perspective issues. I went ahead and began the painting process, I'm quite happy with how it's turning out so far. It still has a long way to go, but if something is majorly off please feel free to let me know! Below is the current progress:
What moment of the day is this taking place? It not mid day by the way the underside of the building turret is catching light.But when i look at the Highlight on the spherical object it get conflicted because the HL fall just a bit above the middle.
Honestly i think going away from a red cloak just harmonize the element just a little bit
Here i assumed something a little bit more over expose switch toward a more yellow light will keeping the blue in the shadow.
One thing i also did is add some blur on the wall leading to the furtest turret we don't need two tower to get the idea of what the other is we can fill the blank and it also help push the depth.
I have nothing of major importance to say on this piece maybe exept that i am not buying the metallic quality on those dome i think we should see more contrast in your dark on that material.Sadly my photoshop crash before i could have a jab at that...
There also a few place where you should see lost edge but you are fight against that by putting a line which is a struggle against lineart vs painting i think might just be something you do to keep element visually separate but end up removing at the end it not something i can tell since i didn't really observe this that much until now so that why i want to bring it up.
So for the small image the crash only allowed for a screencap.
Ho, everything is starting to come together!
I love the lighting from behind her and the blue/yellow tint that you put in the shaded/lit surfaces of the building and the character.
Her face clearly has something to tell.
darktiste: Good question! Initially I was going for daytime, but the strong lightning would work better with a warmer tone so I eventually went with a warmer tone, around the afternoon. Hopefully that was the right decision! Great feedback and paintover as well, I really dig the blur effect on the back pillar so I implemented that as well.
Leo Ki: Glad to hear it! I'm glad you find her face intriguing, had a lot of fun bringing it to life!
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Took a small break as I had several bad experiences with burnout earlier this year, so I'm trying to take it a bit easy. With that said, I found the time to resume work on the image and pretty much finalized it. I'm open to any input as well, so if something feels off please let me know. Below is the final followed by some steps, hope you dig it!
You had very strong consistency lately so i can only guess how it could have burn you out to maintain such a streak.It always great to get back into it once you finally recharge.Personally i fight alot with consistency and sometime thing get a bit repetitive so it hard to get out of that rot specially when you are toward the end of any project you hit a bump in the motivation and if you ain't careful you might end up not finishing a project just because of how divorce you are already with the project.It good to have fresh project on the side if you can afford to but the problem now because that you are jungling with unfinish business and could fall in the other project heavily just to procrastinate and avoid finishing the first project.
You either have to build endurance or balance. Like building endurance you can't do alot of hour a day it to straining and if you choose balance well you can work longer but you have to be good at changing project constently to refresh your interest.
Obviously burn out as alot to do with work load it not just a motivation related struggle.
It very hard to listen to wereself sometime and it nice sometime to have drawing day off just to remove yourself from the pression of whatever is going on in the artistic side of were life.
With this recent piece I think the real issue is the cape. It looks sort of like a rectangle and I'm not really sure what's going on with the form.
I'd suggest simplifying the cape, and make the silhouette more interesting.
I was curious about how other artists are handling capes so I went to pinterest and searched up some jumping Batmans. It seems like it's effective to give a cape a wave-like silhouette and form, and it looks cooler if you can see both sides like the form is turning over and passing in front of itself. Just some ideas for the next time you (or me!) do capes or long flowing fabric.
darktiste: I'm glad you understand! I have a very addicting personality in general so burnout is something I often struggle with. I sometimes have to force myself to take a break and it's not always easy. In general for freelance projects I'm very professional and consistent with my work and I have no problem meeting deadlines. For personal work I feel much more relaxed as I don't have a set date to complete an image and therefore I feel the process is a bit more rewarding and even meditative for me. Thanks for your advice as well, very much appreciate your support!
ThereIsNoJustice: I wanted the cape to appear heavy and more like a cloak, not sure if I succeeded in that regard. The references you posted are very helpful, I actually just finished a cover artwork that features a cape and it's much more in line with what you suggested. I'll post it as soon as I'm given the go ahead to do so. Thanks for your help!
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It's May which can only mean one thing... MerMay! I think I've made it a yearly theme to illustrate on during this month. I decided to go with more of a creature than a radiational beautiful mermaid as I feel that's overdone, plus I wanted to challenge myself with something a bit different than I usually paint. For reference, I tried to capture the general pose of this photo from The Pose Archives, and I feel I was quite successful in that regard.
Spent a lot of time on the sketch bringing it to life and coming up with an interesting composition. I have a very strong idea for the color palette as well so I probably won't do a series of color tests for this one. But before I begin the painting process I would love to hear any input on the sketch as I'd like to get that right as much as I can before beginning coloring work, so any feedback would be quite appreciated!
Hey dude nice sketch! I don’t have a ton of time for a better PO but wanted to give my two cents of how you could make the image a bit more dynamic. Personally I think I would like to see more of the mermaids tail and possible backside. It could help with the foreshortening and showing the direct attack angle. I would also lift her left shoulder ( viewers right) possibly. The big tail fin right now is a little hard to see being her tail as it would be huge to still be this big and being connected to her. Letting it made off onto the depths could be cool to see you render.
Also throwing the silhouette on there helps show the line of motion a bit more helping with points on interest and the dynamic feel.
But just my two cents, I’m sure your rendering of this would be beautiful regardless of where you take it. Good luck my dude.
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