Yet another summer sketch I have on my own blog but I need some crits on it. my idea was to show an anthropomorphic elephant warrior on a deserted battlefield (even though i completely forgot to illustrate dead corpses and such in the bg >.>) with a gentler side to him...hence the duck. :P anywho, i could really use some suggestions on improving my armor and the background because I fail hardcore when it comes to scenery. I also started cleaning up the one on the right, should I continue that way or keep it sketchy? Any and all comments will be appreciated!
4 comments:
I like the stylized paintting and the character overall, and I know that its an imaginary creature but there are some things about the anatomy that seem off to me. The right hand seems much bigger than the left, just from the size of the fingers. And to be honest, when I first looked at it, I thought it was one hand with really weird finders. And i think the left leg seems small.
Its good design on the character, but its poor design on where youve cropped it, its sitting in a bad spot for the crop youve made, you need to fix that more than anything else if your going to continue, and you should, i think you could do something with this one.
The Main concern that I see here is the painting. I really think that your choice of brushes is holding you back. Im not saying that things cant be painted softly, but a lot of the time there needs to be a certain level of crispness for things like armor to read as real materials. Overall I think your Design is really starting to work with the whole tribal flavor, but I think it strongly teeters on the level of believability you can get with using more crisp brushes.
The second I would say is the choice of a side profile. This is something that isn't a huge deal and I may go as far as to say its a personal preference but I think that when your designing a character it's best to show them at an angle that is going to accentuate the most features about them. What could be one of the most interesting things about his armor is his chest plate and that is totally hidden but the angle you went with.
The last thing I have to say is about photo ref. There is a crazy amount of texture on an elephant even more on their knees and trunks, and I think that without that it isn't going to feel enough like an anthropomorphic elephant. Although using cleaner brushes will help a lot with that I think it is still going to need plenty of wrinkles painted in.
I agree with alex on this one. It's a cool piece, and made me smile. It's a bit random, but hell if I mind haha.
I like your brush work, stoke direction and all that jazz, and it is really sensitive. The duck for example, I think is pretty perfect as far as playfulness and style go. The brushwork on that little guy is flawless haha
Now the big dude, he doesn't have tat same sharpness that the duck has, and like alex said, he's carrying alot of those different materials and soft and hard edges. Definitely keep the soft feel. It looks like you paint that way, but as far as creating some more believability and reducing the flatness, some textures and hard edges I think could go a long way. If I were you, follow your own example on that duck. It's just well painted.
I don't know what to tell you on the BG. It's a pretty grandiose idea, that makes me see some pretty gory stuff. By first suggestion though is jsut to start working on some shapes first. I'm learning these things too, and so far that has been the biggest help. Since it's digital, jsut go in with rough shapes, kind of keeping in mind what they may mean, and jsut create focus and mood. Block in huge shapes in the foreground, save yourself some work that way, and then go abstract in the background and work from there. See what you see. I mean the good thing about this is you don't have to worry about it, since it's not for school and there's not a teacher breathing down your neck about sticking to thumbnails and planning. I start out all of my speedpaintings this way, for the fun of it, but also because you'd be surprised how minds work organically in this matter. I know of quite a few artists that work this way, the big one being craig mullins.
I like the elephant alot, tribal build and all. I think the only think that needs tweaking there is to have him at more attention to the duck. At this point, other than the eye, it feels like he is looking off in the distance and not looking down and to his left at the duck. Just to drive the story home.
thanks guys, i agree that the painting is WAY too soft, i have a bad habit of using a blend too throughout the whole piece once i start in one spot. I wouldn't normally start abstractly, i guess it's not how i think but i'll definitely try it out on this one. Thanks for the anatomy suggestions, that's always the hardest part cuz i rarely see the mistakes myself. And now that i look at it, the crop is extremely unhelpful haha
Post a Comment