to be honest, theres an entire lack of composition of this illustration. it kinda just looks like syndra has been placed there with no thought to it. there is also a lack of perspective and depth. check out some tutorials on compositions technique for illustrations, plenty on deviantart. use them to your advantage, it will really lift the image.
Unfortunately you're right. I've never really tried to do illustration before and I hadn't thought about composition at all. Is something like this better?
I plan on playing around with the foreshortening anyway so that should help too.
I'm not really sure how to add depth to it? there seems too little objects to add it easily, and advice?
you could probably easily add depth if zyra had something on her costume that was able to flow behing or forward of her...eg like a cape or long skirt...or even if you added some magic effects ... at the moment her pose is very static
eg this image uses a cape to suggest depth in the image (see how the cape flies behind him and his left arm is much smaller and further away)
this image uses the magic butterflies in the foreground and background to suggest depth in scale to the character
be careful as because in this image shes very disproportionate... shes bigger than planets here. so her presence should feel much bigger. i would recommend redrawing her in a different pose that has uses foreshortening, maybe her right leg could come forward more.
I added hair ribbons behind her. I might try adding some more things floating about too.
To be honest foreshortening is my biggest weakness. I could in theory try to make her more foreshortend but I'm not sure I could do so whilst keeping Syndra fairly calm feeling.
Made the ribbons more ribbon like, added more planets to attempt to add more depth. I think this is the values I'll go for mostly, might lighten her eyes and lips.
It's not that easy to see her far away knee but does anyone have any tips on the line coming down from it? It's not looking right to me.
This is the first time I've tried to go from grey scale to colour and I've encountered a problem. If I just turn the white to transparent my drawing looks very washed out, no matter what mode. How do I fix this? ^^;
It may not seem much but this is the very first time I've ever used photoshop, the layout is completely different to what I expect of a paint program but After a day of fighting with it I've started to learn.
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I'm having a bit of trouble making it look galaxy like.
Does this look better?
I'm not brilliant at foreshortening, how's her arms and legs looking?
I might play around with her silhouette as well.
I plan on playing around with the foreshortening anyway so that should help too.
I'm not really sure how to add depth to it? there seems too little objects to add it easily, and advice?
Touched up the foreshortening, is this better?
eg this image uses a cape to suggest depth in the image (see how the cape flies behind him and his left arm is much smaller and further away)
this image uses the magic butterflies in the foreground and background to suggest depth in scale to the character
be careful as because in this image shes very disproportionate... shes bigger than planets here. so her presence should feel much bigger. i would recommend redrawing her in a different pose that has uses foreshortening, maybe her right leg could come forward more.
Sorry I was without internet for a few days.
I added hair ribbons behind her. I might try adding some more things floating about too.
To be honest foreshortening is my biggest weakness. I could in theory try to make her more foreshortend but I'm not sure I could do so whilst keeping Syndra fairly calm feeling.
Made the ribbons more ribbon like, added more planets to attempt to add more depth. I think this is the values I'll go for mostly, might lighten her eyes and lips.
It's not that easy to see her far away knee but does anyone have any tips on the line coming down from it? It's not looking right to me.
Started on the shading and added her hand, which looks a bit funny.
Shading.
It may not seem much but this is the very first time I've ever used photoshop, the layout is completely different to what I expect of a paint program but After a day of fighting with it I've started to learn.
I like these colours, but they're just temporary.
Getting all the different arias onto different layers, these colours aren't too bad if to bright.
Unless anyone has any suggestions it won't be too long before I stop, still got to add some random colours though.
Everything together, any last advice before I send it?
Finished, completely and utterly.