Hand Painted Spear

Buffaloon

I decided it was about time I posted some work here for crit. I'm working on a spear based on one of Baklaher's concepts.(http://baklaher.deviantart.com/art/Weapons-Concept-364277571).

I don't really have any experience with hand painting so it would be great to get some feedback on this attempt so far.

xChris

Nice! My only suggestion though is tuning down the ao in between the spear and handle, looks unnaturally dark

Buffaloon

xChris wrote: »

Nice! My only suggestion though is tuning down the ao in between the spear and handle, looks unnaturally dark

Ahh that's a good point, I hadn't noticed that. Think I was a little confused by the concept in that area. Thanks!

AngryMindtricks

It's a good start! But the texture is still lacking that "pop" to it... it's looking really flat to me atm... I'd definitely refine the blade, as right now you can't really tell what kind of material it is... is it meant to be crystal? some kind of stone? metal? just needs a little more variation on it's surface... here's an example of how you could go about with the material definition



Just some reference

Buffaloon

Ok, so I've lightened up where the spear meets the handle and I've also tried to push the values a little and refine the edges.

BradMyers82

Looking a lot better dude! I think you can push the material definition further tho. For example, what is this spear made of? Is the blue part stone, grey metal, brown rope? Its really unclear right now what the materials are. So my recommendation is to give the pieces more real world material definition. Like if the grey part is metal then make it very contrasty, if its stone, go the other route and give it some detailing that lets us know its stone. Maybe cracks and stuff like that? Keep going tho man, its looking good!

JabacOrdof

Looking good! What is the material supposed to be for the staff part? Is it metal?

pigart

AngryMindtricks wrote: »

Just some reference

Honestly that's some pretty bad material definition reference. The one on the left looks like it's all one material, mostly looks like plastic. The cracks on the right sword make it looks like it's all made out of stone.

Here's a better example of metalic surface:

Unlit metal is actually pretty dark. The reason why we see it lighter is because it is reflective. Small bright highlights and overall contrast is what you need to paint believable metal.

__



I did a paintover of your spear. All I did was go over it with a brush set to overlay and a brush set to multiply. The crystal is more or less translucent, so it is the brightest at the thinest parts (the top and edges). I gave the handle darker shadows and much brighter highlights. It really feels more like metal and feels like it has more shape to it.
Another crit is to not make your shadows black, especially on a crystal. Just use a darkish blue.

I'm still learning myself so everything that I say may not be correct. I hope this helps

Buffaloon

Interestingly, you've all pinpointed a specific problem I've been having. I couldn't really work out what the materials in the original concept were meant to be and kind of just clung to copying it as accurately as I could instead of having the confidence to decide what materials they were and change my texture accordingly.

I think the blue spear head is like crystal, although I'm having trouble really selling that. As far as the staff + brown segments, I think I'll try to push them closer to metal + leather respectively.

Thanks to everyone for the crit + encouragement, and thanks pigart for going to the effort of doing a paintover. I'll post updates asap.

Buffaloon

Quick update on progress, trying my best to follow all of the previous advice: