I think the PO give it more depth. I gotta say i am terrified so this how mermaid really look when they try to drown people?I would not want to be one of those unfortunate sailor.Talking about sailor why not try to add the head of one sailor under her open palm she would be drowning him
I think the fish make it a bit to friendly for such a nightmarish creature.I am not a fan of the coral either to me it evoke calmness.To me this feel more like she going toward the surface rather than running along the bed floor.It as if she want to grab us which mean we would be at the bottom which to me doesn't make sense it would make more sense that she coming from the depth.So that why to me the coral and the fish look bit out of place at least in my storytelling this would be contradictory.
Also planning the depth of where she underwater is important if you understand and want to apply the concept of color loose due to water refractiom. You can see more about what i am talking about here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAJjdA6b...=emb_title
I wasn't aware of the MerMay thing. That may be why this month's CHOW (or CHOM) is a (very particular) mermaid. *nudge nudge* Don't you want to participate, George?
If the fish are not pilot fish following her, I would see them fleeing away from her movements - little fish are easily frightened.
She's frightening alright. Although, as Chris said, don't be slave to the reference.
CBinnsIllustration: Thank you! Love what you did with the tail, looks much more dynamic! I went ahead and implemented your feedback and the image is all the better for it. Thanks for the tips as well, very much appreciate it!
darktiste: Yes, this mermaid isn't playing, haha. I like the contrast of the fish with the mermaid, so I decided to keep them. Also helps with the composition I think. The tip regarding the colors was incredibly helpful, implemented it late during the painting process and it looks much more convincing, thank you for that!
Leo Ki: I think it's a tradition now that I paint a mermaid at least once every May, it's quite fun! :) Glad you find the mermaid frightening! :D
..............
I went ahead and painted the image while implementing the feedback received. Overall I'm fairly satisfied with how it turned out. There's still time for minor tweaks and such if necessary, so if something looks significantly off please feel free to let me know! Below is the final followed by the steps for those interested.
.................
Next up I started on a new personal piece, very much inspired by the artwork of Magic The Gathering so I wanted to achieve a similar feel with this piece. The figure's was referenced from Grafit Studio as well. Any feedback on the sketch before proceeding with some color tests would be most appreciated!
I fixed the leg/hip area to give it a more natural look and did some quick color tests. My favorites are A, C, and D. Not sure which one to go with so I'll take a break for now and have another look at a later point. I'm open to suggestions however so please let me know which you feel works best!
Strangely you didn't add a color to those eye or the eyebrow which in one image would clash with the color of the facial tattoo.Where is this scene taking place that important to determine how tan or how pale she should be in term of skin color.
I am now a fan of the second blade ''energetic'' flow i think it wouldn't hurt to see the energy point back toward her head rather.It doesn't make much sense here since it wrapping around the blade on one and seem completely diconnected on the right.
For me colorwise i would say A or B but i would go for colored hair just so you can make the face tattoo pop more .Try to think of not adding to much saturation to different element or else they fight for attention.A smilar tone of color as the cloth for the hair would probably harmonize thing a little more.
For the hand holding the blade i don't like foreshorten where we loose track of where thing connect as i said previous adding a bit of angle instead of just strict side way few of the arm help create a bit more depth.
Also in term of tangente the blade run pretty much parallel to the arm.
For the hand holding the blade i would add a bit more handle lenght she almost look like she holding the blade also a tangente there going from the brest into the ellipse of the handle could be fix with a more lenght also there...
I wasn't expecting the side lighting on the mermaid since it is underwater. It's cheating but it works well!
On your last piece, the main issue I have is that I don't really understand the posture. Is she leaning over someone with a foot put on something higher than the ground? Would you post the link to the ref?
darktiste: Yeah, I tend to skill the minor details on the early stage but ideally the eyebrows would be the same color/shade as the hair. I like your suggestion for the energy flow direction so I went ahead and implanted, looks better now compositionally! I do like the shape of the blade so I kept it as is, hopefully with shading it now looks more dimensional and natural, so let me know!
ShinOkami: Thanks, appreciate your support!
hristovdraws: Thanks, and I agree about what you said in regards to sticking closely to the linework during the painting process, things can look overly sharp sometimes if I stick closely to it. I like what you did with the paintover and appreciate the time you took to do so, I'll implement what I learned from it in future pieces!
LeoKi: Thanks! I tend to work with dynamic lighting, makes my illustrations more interesting I think so I'm glad to hear that! The reference for the new piece is an image from a set I bought from Grafit References, I don't think I'm allowed to post it as it's paid material unfortunately. With that said, I agree with all your feedback you mentioned in your draw over and went ahead and made the necessary changes, and it works much better now so thank you for that!
.................
I continued to work on the image and pretty much finalized it. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, but I'm open to any final feedback if something looks heavily off, so please let me know! Below is the current preview followed by the steps for those interested, hope you dig it!
The tattoo on here face seem to create a clash in style with the rest of the piece.I suggest removing the countour line since this seem to be the element that create this style clash to let the eye pop a little more and remove some attention from the face also if it not some kind of magical tattoo a little less saturation would help make it feel more like a real tattoo.Also if you remove the countour it can become a magical tattoo if you choose to keep it saturated.
I feel like the leg is a bit to much dynamic i feel like i would rather have it seem as if she charging at us instead.
I feel like my color choose might be a bit repetitive but that allow for some harmony between some element which can serve to create a narrative between the element.
When you plot for where you want the attention to go try to avoid similar value else you don't create a hierachy of where to look at for example the breast was bit to highlighted which took away from the face which as all those great detail and the armor as already similar detail so no need to add more attention to the breast i think unless you want to make something a bit more erotic which doesn't seem to be what you were going for here.
I really like the level of dynamism it great but i feel like you need to try to have the character facing away from us more often to focus more on the storytelling aspect.
Would be interesting to see you with play with proportion like drawing from the perspective of someone on the shoulder of giant helping build a house for example or a sea monster taking on a ship seen from the perspective of the captain of a sea merchant i feel like it would make for epic storytelling exercise.Feel free to use any of those two idea if you feel that something you would want to experiement with.Else as always i am impatient to see what the future hold for you.
darktiste: Great input as always! I agree about the style crash regarding the tattoo, and went ahead and updated it with your paintover in mind. I do like the new pose you suggested, but it doesn't work as well compositionally with the leg down so ultimately I decided to leave it. Great point regarding the highlights on the breasts, tones them down a bit as per your input. Love what you suggested in regards to the storytelling aspect. I took your idea into consideration and decided that I will tackle a new image featuring a giant shortly, should be a lot of fun. Will begin work on that shortly after I finish my current images as I don't like to have too much on my plate regarding personal work to avoid burnout. Thanks again for your input and suggestions!
................
I updated the image a bit and made some changes, hopefully it works better now. I'm considering it finished now as I would like to move on to other painting, but if something major is off please feel free to let me know!
Next up is a painting I began last week. I actually started on this when my Internet was down so I just went ahead and did it without any feedback in mind, although I'm open to hearing any suggestions now that the image is pretty much finished. Below is the image followed by the steps for those interested.
And one more final update! Here is a sketch of 'Mileena' from the Mortal Kombat series. I did this one to see how much I improved from a similar illustration I completed over a decade ago (I'll post it once this new image is finalized and compare the two). I spent a lot of time with the expression as I wanted something really creepy here so hopefully I pulled that off. Any feedback before I begin work on some color tests would be greatly appreciated!
Did some color tests for the new portrait piece. My personal favorite is the last one, 'F'. I feel that comes closest to what I envisioned from the start so I'll likely develop that one. I'm open to feedback however so please let me know what you feel works best!
For the latest: I kinda like E-- but only because of the background. I think it makes the rest pop, and it also fits the theme really well-- a reddened sky/background :) Mhm.
Bookend: Thanks! E is a solid choice as the red can help the figure pop. Ultimately I went with F, but introduced some warmer tones in the background to make it pop which I feel works fairly well, hopefully it was the right choice!
...............
I finished up the painting process. Illustration looks disturbing which fits the character fairly well I'd say! Below is the current preview followed by some steps for those interested. Any input is appreciated!
It looks awesome! :) There's already a lot of orange/red in this piece, so the background is probably for the better.
Hmm... Since it's fully rendered, the pinky finger of her right hand looks askew now-- I think maybe because we lost the last knuckle in translation from the sketch, if that makes any sense. The same thing happens to her other pinky, now that I think about it, but to a lesser degree.
Her extra fangs or teeth look pressed right up against her face, I'm not sure if you meant them to jut outwards at all, though.
The hand could use a bit more love for example you are missing the caracteristic banding of the little finger and some of the finger look way to straight compare to the interaction it would have in reality due to the webbing of the hand which affetc how other finger get affected.
Due to the minimal overlap of the finger over complex area i think it worth trying to fix just to try to reference your own hand more when y
Bookend: Thank you! Good point about the finger, I think the nail is a bit skewed so I'll see if I can fix it in the future!
darktiste: Thanks! I updated the image based on your paintover, love the emphasis on shadows in your version so I incorporated some of that for the current update.
.................
Some updates. First, the warrior/dragon image, I fixed the issue with the handle as it was a bit skewed. I think I'll call it finished for now!
Next I did some subtle changes to Mileena. I'm calling it done for now unless something major is really off!
............
And finally, a new sketch! This time featuring a giant and a... giant slayer I suppose! Pretty pleased with the sketch but I'm open to hear any input before proceeding with colors.
Smart move to frame the giant with the spire mountain btw.
What type of sky will it be? Since it mostly a sky composition here i would say like in the viking piece you did a bit earlier this years.
It will be a great opportunity to pay a bit more attention to environemment on this one i feel like it also a bit part of the scene
Oh and since you talk about skin elsewhere on the forum here a video from the guy that Bookend was referencing to paint is character skin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgOmOzUxx8U and since he all skin why i am sure it can only help.
Oooh, I love it! It reminds me of a titan fighting a greek hero :D I've always been very into greek mythology, but particularly now that I've been watching Hercules/Xena
I don't think I can say anything technically about this piece at the moment, though depending on what you do with the sky, I might crop a bit off the top of the canvas, as it feels like some blank space that's drawing away from the image. Very minor though, and again-- It depends on what you're doing with the sky
Keep up the awesome work, you've got some seriously solid pieces dude
Nice composition on the new piece dude. The one thing I would like to see tweaked is the little dudes spear. It feels too thick right now and pencil lookin. I would thin that out a bit and steam ahead with this one. I’m interested to see how you tackle the feeling of scale on this.
darktiste: Thanks! And thanks for the general idea for the image as well! I experimented a lot with the sky, it was a challenge to get the values right but I think it worked out pretty well in the end. Thanks for the video recommendation as well, very interesting painting process. I think it's particularly useful for me in regards to dark skin tones, so I'll definitely keep that in mind for a future piece.
Bookend: Thanks! I'm a big fan of Greek Mythology so I'm glad you appreciate the image. I used to watch Hercules and Xena when I was a teenager as well, both great shows! I hope you enjoy them! Let me know if you feel the composition works well now or if it can be improved further!
CBinnsIllustration: Thanks! Great point about the spear, it does look like a giant pencil now that you mention it! I reworked it, hopefully it looks more like it should!
.................
I spent some time on the the image, the values in the sky gave me a bit of trouble but I feel it worked out pretty well in the end. It's pretty much finalized but I'm open to suggestions if something feels majorly off, so please let me know! Below is a preview followed by the steps for those interested:
Next up is a new image of Sub-Zero from the Mortal Kombat series. I'm pretty happy with the sketch but I'm open to feedback before proceeding on some color tests, so please let me know if something feels off!
