Critique a digital painting of a Carrot holding a sword.
polycounter lvl 4
Would appreciate some critique and feedback on this piece, thanks in advance! Would appreciate some critique and feedback on this piece, thanks in advance!
Replies
I'd like to address your lighting for a little bit.
It loooooooooks like your sun is somewhere in the top left hand side of the image, casting a diagonal-downward shadow. There's no clouds as far as I can see, and so perhaps what you might be struggling a little bit is defining your shadow shapes on your character. In fact, he seems to be being lit from the opposite direction as the foliage and the mountains behind him!
So I've made an attempt to group your shadows into clear areas where his body is being hit by the sun, vs. where it isn't. This may have impacted your desired composition in a way you don't necessarily agree with, but I'm just focusing on the light here.
It also appears you're playing up the diffused lighting off the carrot a tad too much. There is a principle called conservation of energy - an object can never reflect more light than is hitting it. If the bottom of his raised arm is in shadow, and so is the underside of his body, why would that part of his arm be the same value and saturation that is being lit directly by the sun? I've paid homage to your diffused lighting under his chin and above his scabbard strap, in a much more conservative fashion.
Thirdly I just wanted to talk about the 'softness' of your light. Your environment has much shorter/harder transitions between your lit areas and your shadows than your carrot does, and those are fairly soft. I'd suggest looking up Lambert's cosine law, and paint primarily with the shadow shape in mind, having a hard transition at first - and only giving minimal 'halftones' between your shadows and your fully lit areas, as I've done. Look on his forward leg, I just have one intermediary value that describes the change in form. It's not as soft as yours but that's about as much halftone as you really need.
The white 'highlight' you've included on the top plane of his head I don't believe would really occur, as carrots aren't reflective as swords are. i have left it there because I think it's a nice little planar indicator. Also I've played up the specular reflections on his sword given he's in broad daylight.
I hope this helps.