[shilo]

Thanks for the help in the last one. Heres a new one I started yesterday. Fresh eyes would be greatly appreciated!

[MrBrown]

Hey shilo cool Idea man
there was a lot of black and white in this piece witch flattened the picture and the car seems to not be on the road.
here's some links you should look into help you next time
http://www.technologystudent.com/designpro/twopers1.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZWDEmLR90

[stace]

Okay, time to take this piece out of limbo and finish it. Any ideas from you fine folk to make it a thousand times prettier than it currently is? Thanks!

[Pupsie]

Hi there,
I've been looking to get some critiques/tips on my latest WIP.
So here it is, it's almost done but would love to hear of some ideas from the pro's :)



PS: I am planning on editing the eyes (and possibly the rest of the face) when it's about finished, also the armor is far from done and there's going to be a weapon on her back, most likely a huge sword!

Any help would be so very appreciated!

[Somaticsilence]

Hey, worried about posting here but I need the help c:. I'm just putting this picture as a link because while I'm sure its safe for work, there is a naked chest and thus I shall dub it not that safe.

Notes on the drawing: This is a race known as chakats, they are a created race and I am merely drawing someone's character. Chakats front paws are apparently 'hand' paws if you will and have some dexterity to them.

I was originally going for a "just woke up' type feeling of the picture but then I decided a dancer type might be more lively. I find the picture flat and just static and I need ideas/help how to fix that.

Also, I had a friend help with red lining it but I'm still not happy with where it's at, not even a bit.

http://i47.tinypic.com/148xat.jpg

[Snakebearer]

I know this isn't a finished piece. But that's not really what I was hoping to get help with either.

I haven't slept for a long time so I lost the word I'm after. But what I need help with is the whole constallation. XD The whole setup for the image. I know there is a perfect word describing this, but it's totally gone from my mind.
You know, using the rule of thirds. Perspective and angles. Features in the background. Elements like that. If you know the word I'm looking for, please remind me! XD

For the piece itself: It's supposed to be an illustration of a confident magician being attacked by a bunch of gnolls. The magician himself is wielding a flame and a sword. I tried to add some kind of momentum and force to the pose, so that.. well.. it doesn't look like he is simply posing. I tried to foreshort the arms and angle them so that they seem to have force.
There is a gnoll leader that's supposed to be a bit bigger than the other gnolls. He's doing a leaping charge towards the magician. The rest of the gnolls are kind of holding back, but are on their way to surround the magician.
A lot of these things might be a bit hard to see since I'm only showing you the sillouettes so far. But I hope you see what I'm after.
This critizism is really to help me complete the piece.

I hope you can help me with this.

I've played around with different backgrounds as well. But like I said, this is more about the whole setup of the image. At the moment I feel that the background feels really awkward and forced.

Thanks in advance for the help.



Edit: I've slept now, so my brain works again. XD
Thanks to Akeiron, I remember the word I was looking for. XD Composition. ^^; It totally dropped out of my vocabulary yesterday.
Have looked at the video now, and it was very educational. But I would still appreciate the help ofc.

[Akeiron]

@Snakebearer: since this is almost identical (composition-wise) to an illustration criticized by Dave Rapoza on Crimson Critters, I'm just linking you the video. Even if the image is not the same I'm sure his critique will be help you improve your work.

You can find the video here

[DeerandFox]

Hey guys, new here, did this landscape today but im not very good with colour still, if any one could lend a hand with some tips or anything that would be great. Cheers!

[iree]

@Stace
I haven't really done these before, but hopefully this mild revision is somewhat useful!

Original:


Paintover:


I really like your image! It's atmospheric and mysterious, which is mostly what I tried to amplify by highlighting the helmet more and adding that color contrast. Adding the shadows to the girl's hair creates more depth.

The blue looks more intense in the jpeg here than I intended, which is rather bothering me now, but this was quick, and you get the idea!

[Ross]

@Pupsie - Here you go. Maybe not exactly what you were going for, but I hope it helps. There are a lot of anatomical issues that you just need to get reference for. The horns aren't attached to the head. The cropping seems a bit weird at the top (but maybe you're just zoomed in). And the lighting needs work. Don't shade with black, use actual colors. Depending on the light, things may get warmer or cooler as they turn into shadow. And light bounces around a lot, so only deep holes or creases will be completely black. Also, when hair is back-lit you get a very bright light around the edge, you can google "backlit hair" or something.

I'll include a few progress shots (including your original). Mine still isn't super, it's still pretty rough, the hair stinks, etc.

[gabrielabirchal]

Hey guys.

I'm back. Since my last post here I've been studying a little more about anatomy and light. I know I still have to learn a lot regarding those two subjects and that's why I'm asking you guys for help with this piece.

I wanted some kind of backlight ilumination, but also to have a faint light coming from those flying dots.

I know this is really too skecthy and not even close to being finished but I want some feedback before I start putting more time into it, mostly about anatomy and light.

Thanks in advance

[zephyri]

Hey all, thought I'd jump in here with a quick paintover of gabriel's image.

I've tweaked a fair few things while still trying to keep the essence of what's there in the sketch as i think it has the beginnings of a really lovely image.

First and foremost if you're going for glowing lights with those fairy bulbs, everything was way too light in value, and you can't really show off glow with that. It also makes things like rim lighting and highlights on the face and body much more noticeable.

I've changed up the pattern of the fairy lights to try and create a curve that leads the viewer in towards the central character, and cropped the image down a fair bit form what it was, as there's a lot of extra space that wasn't really adding anything - you could make it a little wider than this if you wanted, just pay attention to the line the dots of the fairy lights form. They also crowded around the head of the character way too much - too many at similar sizes that detracted from the character - so I've given her head room to breathe so you can really focus in on her.

Anatomy wise, her arms were too short, her left breast was a little too far over without a twist in the neck to indicate her head is turned at a different angle to her body, and her neck and collarbone area all sort of blended into one another leaving her whole head feeling a little squashed, so I've tried to address those issues for you - lengthening the arms downwards and pushing her neck back in to give her more of a jawline. I also left her hands a little smaller as i think it gives her a nice petite feel - though have a think about the gesture of her hands, right now it's fairly stale, and it could impart much more character.

Her hair didn't really feel like it had any kind of weight or felt like it was growing from a skull underneath it all, so i've tried to keep the exaggerated volume of the bangs, but treated the rest kind of like a semi-heavy cloth, giving it some gravitational pull over her shoulders and off her skull.

Also you didn't really have any overlapping elements, so the whole image felt flat as a result. Just having a couple of fairy lights in front of the character suggests she's standing in a 3D space, and making the smaller ones in the background a bit darker and duller suggests it goes on behind her, rather than feeling like she could be stood in front of a flat wall. Darkening the top and bottom of the image to form a soft frame around the important bits is a quick way to help that too.

I think it has the potential to be a great image, something very magical and whimsical, so I hope the wall of text isn't too disheartening this early on, I just hope me explaining what I've done might be helpful for you. Best of luck with it, can't wait to see it progress!

[gabrielabirchal]

Thanks a lot Zephyri!

That was a great help indeed. Your explanation was great for me understand what I needed to think about and I left out in the image. Indeed the first one was somehow flat and now I realise everything was really too bright so the lights didn't shine quite as much.

I feel much more willing to work this piece again, thanks a lot. I'll keep a note with everything you pointed out beside me while I work on it.

I'll be sure to post the progress here.

[irawan]

hi gabrielabirchal,giving her more contrast with the strong light from the magic ball would be more interesting i guess.
c.h



ORIGINAL:



zephyri's feedback and paintover is really great:



PAINTOVER:

[gabrielabirchal]

Thanks Irawan.

That's also something I didn't notice. I'll be sure to take this into consideration once I get back to working on this piece =).