Burger Looking to Improve

Cosmicburger

Been trying to get more into 2d art pieces recently.
Looking for critique so I can improve.

Figured this would be the best place to put my stuff out there.

Fantasy Elf lady.

 

Cosmicburger

Gnomish Mage character wip

Cosmicburger

Did a quick lighting test tonight as well. might as well include it

Aaron Barnett

Hey there! 

I'd say start with studying anatomy closely and look at how bodies of all sizes and shapes bend and move. Some perspective and posing here seem off.

Rendering and lighting of the characters goes a long way when showing their personalities. These are rendered a bit muddy and it makes the characters seem flat. This can dull thier personalities greatly. 

Keep at it!

Cosmicburger

Thanks for the response. I am currently looking into some anatomy studies while other projects are on hold.
Could you clarify rendered a bit muddy? Not sure what you mean.

miguelnarayan

I think they meant to tighten up the edges and detail, everything is very brushy and loose, which would be okay in assuming that's what you go for but you can hardly tell some detail between the old man hands, where the fingers start and where they end, if it wasn't for the dark grey line between them... which is another thing you should look out for, because you either have the line art in your painting, or you don't. It'll look much better.

Cosmicburger

Just tried a quick clean up on the fist a bit here to try to improve the definition.

Cosmicburger

Started working through some anatomy studies. Never did much of this so better late than never. Here's the first set.


Will post more soon

Cosmicburger

Double posted by accident and I dont know how to delete this one

Aaron Barnett

@miguelnarayan pretty much nailed what I meant. Just keep working on clearly and cleanly defining the lines and edges of your characters.

I would also look into doing lighting studies on shapes as well as people! This will help you with blending and shading cleaner too!

miguelnarayan

BTW, make sure you know your halfway to black rule, it helps a TON and makes your painting be faster and more accurate.

Cosmicburger

Thanks for the responses. I looked into that halfway to black rule, very useful.

Did a bit of a lighting study tonight to try it out.

miguelnarayan

Those are some cool studies, I would suggest, to improve more, to make sure the sides of cube have a light that directly makes you notice the value change on each plane, ie: the cube on the right has the top and bottom left plane on the same value (or very close to that?), which is correct! it is a plausible real world light system, but you could really benefit to the rule if you worked a light that shows the 3 different value scales on each plane! Do not forget to add a bounce light on the shadow side (3) of the right plane! Do this until it feels irrelevant and too easy for you, then move to complex forms.

Cosmicburger

Nothing too impressive for tonight's thing. Tried to do better with the bounce lights on the cube from the previous image. Also did a quick separate study to push more distinct tones on the cube.



Want to push for something more complex from now on though.

Cosmicburger

More studies I did quickly this morning. Trying out some blocked out face pieces.

Cosmicburger

Tried my hand at a bit of fan art.

Cosmicburger

Also, progress gif. because I like making gifs.