Digital sci-fi artwork

Crypter

Hey all. Am new here have been working for the last couple of weeks on character artwork for a project of mine. Wondered what you thought of it, any constructive critical feedback is welcome. This is my first ever 'completed' (I say that because I can already see so much wrong with it that I want to go back and re-paint) digital painting inspired by the likes of Danny Luvisi on Deviant Art.

I've never used my tablet for much more than sketching and then laying crisp line-art in Illustrator so to go painting in Photoshop was a very different experience for me. I hope you like it and can give me some useful feedback.

I think, if I'm brutally honest with myself given my style of painting I should not have gone with comic-big eyes and probably should have tweaked some of the proportions a little more. Any other constructive critique would be great, thank-you.

Crypter

Another image this week, same character, some slight evolution to her cybernetic body, didn't have as much time to render this week so it's hand drawn line-art and a quick digital paint, I'll get round to painting her 'properly# soon. As always any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Iruka

You are are at that awkward phase where you are doing a lot of things right, but there are still some fundamental things holding you back. You have a grasp on anatomy, and light that is not bad, but you need to start making the climb to a new level of understanding to improve your work.

Its probably time to hit up some studies, on anatomy and on light and form.

For instance, with the first one:


You are following some rules, like "I want a white light from the topish, left, and I want a yellow light to the right" You then applied that to the drawing in parts: "This foot will have white on the left and yellow on the right". This method has brought you very limited success. Lets say the light is coming from the top left, so why is the bottom of her leg getting lit? Well, in truth, there would probably be some reflective light bouncing off the floor and hitting that part of the leg, but in understanding that you would also know that the light would be weaker, and dimmer.

Also you seem to be getting a little lost in material defining. You'll be able to do that sort of thing much easier if you get a better handle on light, and reference your materials as to how they would catch light. Showing every ridge in the green part of her suit is not as important as defining the form, and showing that the light catches certain ridges.


Try doing some studies like these:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/172670/feb-monthly-enrichment-simple-shapes-light-and-form

Also recommend studying the skull at different angles. Post your studies!

Crypter

Hey Iruka,

You're right, I've got to study-up more on anatomy, form and lighting, I'll post the studies here. ConceptArt.org was the first place I went to, I did have a very old account there which I recently reactivated but now the site is down... hopefully it will come back soon. Do you post there too?

Thanks, very much for the critique and guidance.

Iruka

No problem dude.

These days I find that CA.org is very large, and so it is very easy to lost in the mix. I maybe had a thread there a few years ago, but I haven't really been in a while. Its a good place for inspiration, but now with tumblr I haven't really had a hard time following artists I like and seeing new work every day. Also that site has been mad crashy lately.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing some studies! You'll find the community here is really happy to help when they see people putting hard effort into improving. We have started doing enrichment threads to encourage members to to tackle small parts of their fundamental skills every month. Feel free to participate in those too!