First Post Here! I met some of you at GDC!
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Hey! So after a long time of lurking I'm finally deciding to come out of my shell. I'm not sure if any of you remember me, but I promised several of you at the Polycount party in San Francisco that I'd start posting my work. I was wearing a black shirt with birds all over it, haha. Anyway, I'm trying to switch up the way I work here, going for something a little messier than I'm used to but it's also very freeing. I'd really like to work on improving my speed and overall strength with composition and storytelling. Not to mention work on developing a unique style. And technical improvement. Really I'd like to improve in every way I can. You guys rock and I can't wait to learn from you.
Storywise this is a bridge to the city of Angh Kat and the kneeling character is named Remoir, thanking Arga for trading their life for another's. Or something.
Storywise this is a bridge to the city of Angh Kat and the kneeling character is named Remoir, thanking Arga for trading their life for another's. Or something.
Replies
I absolutely love this scene. Your composition, detail, and overall moodiness ability is well showcased. I am new to digital painting, so take my critique with a grain of salt.
Your ability to take rough paint strokes to create forms and moods is absolutely astounding, I haven't seen a piece quite like it in a while. This I feel is also something that could be worked on, for example, near the second statue on the left, the strokes almost become more of a distraction. I think you were going for a depth of field effect to throw those statues farther into the background, but I feel the lines distorted your amazing details in the process. It also reduces the effect of the light emanating from the statues.
The Angels arm hoisting the sword seems oddly colored to me. Perhaps harmonizing it with the statue color would improve its composition. Perhaps there is a story behind the arm, or you chose to contrast it. Just a thought.
The lighting in the river under the bridge, and on the leftmost (god?) statues seems too bright and white to me. (it could be my monitor) I feel the ambient light would color that reflected light a wee bit more orangish.
Switching to the far right side of the picture, you have the angel statue, but in front of that is a mass of something, if I had to guess, I think its a tree? It could use a bit more definition in my opinion to really bring out the shapes.
I feel like if you were to darken the area around Remoir, it would really draw the focus to her. With all of the competing lights and details, I feel Remoir gets lost, though they should be the focus of the piece.
I wonder if perhaps the glowing lights could be points of contrast, seeing as most of the painting is composed of warmer colors, perhaps switching them to a contrasting cold color would make them pop more. This is more of a muse on my part. There also seems to be a slight color discrepency between the glowing lights. The leftmost statue appears more yellow in comparison to the angel's lantern for example. Remoir's candles seem to take on more of a peachy tone.
Finally, the perspective on the left most ledge seems off to me, I feel it needs to be slightly lower and pushed down, and perhaps even lit up a tad. The cracks and tree limbs overhanging on it also seem to suffer a lack of believability and realistic wear.
The piece is excellent, and way beyond anything I can accomplish at this point. I can only dream of creating something this good. I really had to stare at it for a while to really find anything to pick at.
Your style is excellent. I look forward to more from you!
Here are some of my suggestions, note i'm not too good at composition, and my monitor is a bit weird. So all this is gonna be subjective
First is the composition. Its cool not to have Remoir as the main focal area however nothing is pointing towards Remoir and the only thing that draws my attention to Remoir is the candles.
And I think the right side might be too dark
maybe?
Edit: looking at it a bit more, I fee like the statue on the left should be taller than the statue of the angel as its further forward. At the moment their heights are level. this is mainly due to the wings being at the same level.
Armor Wraith,
Yeah, I've been wondering if using the line brush was a good idea. I guess I'm still sorting through which brushes I'd like to use to emulate a lively, yet hand-touched look. I'll definitely tone it down so it doesn't compete with other textures for attention.
Yeah, I thought it might have looked a little odd but I wasn't sure. I'm quite colorblind so I'll keep my eye more on weird instances of reds(?) like this.
I suppose I wanted that area to seem higher than it was, as though the sun setting could be defracting through the fog there, but I also often compensate for my inability to gauge bright colors with higher key lighting and I know I shouldn't. I'll work on that.
Oh no, it was supposed to be rocks! I'll fix that, too.
I suppose I wanted Remoir to be the second visual element in the scene and not the first, though she definitely falls to the third or fourth spot here.
Poop, I can't see that at all. I don't like using colorblindness as a crutch, but it can be frustrating sometimes.
I think I can see what you mean with the perspective there. As for the wear...yeah, I really need to work on how/where I focus detail. other elements in the scene seem to have so much of it that an area like the thorns and rocks on the right seem unconvincing or strange.
I appreciate that you like it! i'll try to fix a couple of things you mentioned that seem a little easier to do, but I'll leave it mostly alone so I can work on new stuff :].
Hey, Daew!
Yeah, I have dual monitors that have very different contrast/colors on them, so I never know which one I should actually trust, hah.
I agree, I feel like while I personally don't want her to be the main focal point, she's definitely way too low on the hierarchy of visuals here. That grumpy dude seems way too important, haha. Composition is something I struggle with so your visual notes really help.
As for brightness/darkness of the right side, I agree. Do you think another way of fixing the imbalance might be to darken the left side? Just a thought.
Gosh, you're right about the angel! I originally had a different plan for the statue that didn't include wings, but something compelled me to fill in the empty space there. I probably should have left it alone XD.
Glad I could be of some help
Yeah definitely could work just be careful not to make your image too dark :P.
Either way, hoping to see more images if you ever feel like posting, the first image was a pleasure to look at