The Nightmare [C&C] (Final)

Scosglen

It's been quite a while since I've bothered to make a crit thread, but It's also been quite a while since I put this much time into one piece, so I think it's merited. Anyways, here's the original WIP from the doodle thread with some more refinemens




have at it.

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Alright, I finally found some solid ref for the face. Hopefully most of the anatomy problems are alleviated in this revision, the angles of the demon's head and the victim's head now agree and make the composition more coherent, and most importantly the face is less liable to give the impression he is being penetrated by a demon.. (I decided to pull away from the "shock/horror" expression entirely mostly because I wanted to reinforfce that the demon is causing a nightmare, not just going "oogaboo"
when he wakes up)

earthwormadam

I really dig the overall composition of the picture. The creature also looks very good. The only thing that looks off is the humans face.

Something about the eye line, and his left eye showing too much. Actually, upon closer inspection I think bothe eyes are skewed. If you make a line from one eye to the other, it creates an angle completely contradictory to the rest of the face. I think the nose may also be throwing the face off a bit too.

Still, if you ironed out the face problems, I think you'd have a really solid pic.

Scosglen

earthwormadam wrote:

I really dig the overall composition of the picture. The creature also looks very good. The only thing that looks off is the humans face.

Something about the eye line, and his left eye showing too much. Actually, upon closer inspection I think bothe eyes are skewed. If you make a line from one eye to the other, it creates an angle completely contradictory to the rest of the face. I think the nose may also be throwing the face off a bit too.

Still, if you ironed out the face problems, I think you'd have a really solid pic.

There's still some definite problems with the alignment of the facial features, I'm still wrangling with them as we speak. I so seldom do human figures with anything but a front on, upright exact profile, or 3/4 view that It's embarassingly apparent when I try to reach like this.

earthwormadam

Scosglen wrote:

There's still some definite problems with the alignment of the facial features, I'm still wrangling with them as we speak. I so seldom do human figures with anything but a front on, upright exact profile, or 3/4 view that It's embarassingly apparent when I try to reach like this.

You are a brave lad. I commend you.

Angel_of_Bacon

Agreed with adam; you definatly need to get some ref for that guy's face. Also, if you're going for that tilted angle with the guy, I'd reccomend tilting the monster's head a bit, too; right now there seems to be some style discrepency: the guy being 3d, the alien being more 2d, and graphic.

And another thing, and you are very welcome to chalk this up to me being a dick that reads too much into things if you wish, but you might want to think about making the monster head's angle coming from more of a downward angle; right now it's possible to interpret the positioning as the two of them being in the missionary position, and the the guy's reaction being far from "terror".

Scosglen

Angel_of_Bacon wrote:

Agreed with adam; you definatly need to get some ref for that guy's face. Also, if you're going for that tilted angle with the guy, I'd reccomend tilting the monster's head a bit, too; right now there seems to be some style discrepency: the guy being 3d, the alien being more 2d, and graphic.

And another thing, and you are very welcome to chalk this up to me being a dick that reads too much into things if you wish, but you might want to think about making the monster head's angle coming from more of a downward angle; right now it's possible to interpret the positioning as the two of them being in the missionary position, and the the guy's reaction being far from "terror".

haha, I suspected someone might connect those dots. The idea was that a while ago people thought nightmares were caused by demons sitting on someone's chest, so I was aiming more for having the creature sitting, or straddling if you prefer. Duly noted about the angle discrepencies.

I should probably also say that I searched quite a bit for a good ref for this angle but absolutely couldn't find one, otherwise I'd have pounced like a cougar.

edit: Damnit Bacon, now it's all I can see. Since the face is rubbish in general anyways, I'll try to find a way to make the expression less ambiguous and less likely to read that way.

Tweaked_Bat_

but you might want to think about making the monster head's angle coming from more of a downward angle; right now it's possible to interpret the positioning as the two of them being in the missionary position, and the the guy's reaction being far from "terror". Wink

Goddammit I won't look at that picture the same way again... it's like they're in some sort of lover's embrace, in some sort of sick alien-rape gay porn cartoon :shock: You ruined my innocence AoB, thanks alot!

But yeah, I would be pretty terrified of having something like that in my dreams, or 2 inches from my face for that matter, pretty nice work... just maybe make their position a little more "unambiguous". *shakes fist at AoB*

Scosglen

op updated.

Scosglen

Final, unless something horribly wrong is pointed out.

Razza

Its still the eyes for me. If you angled the pupils down and added a furrow to the brow it might look more ..... menacing?

melting_doll

is he supposed to look happy?

Scosglen

If you're talking about the demon, yes, he's being mischevious.

If you're talking about the human I'm gonna kill myself.

melting_doll

er, don't do that. i meant the human, but it's minor stuff.

maybe exaggerate the eyebrows a taaaaad bit more so they look more..tense? and the mouth is good, it just looks like he's trying to hold back a smile.

could just be me.

Creambun 007

I'd hit it.

Tweaked_Bat_

I'd hit it.

I was seriously waiting for that... surprised it took so long for it to be said at all. Would you hit the demon, or the human? Or both? at once?

Ape2001

Cool How lond did that take and which medium did you use, PS?

Please, don't pull the trigger ^^' but I would try and put a bit more strain into his expression, atm he appears to relaxed to me.

Scosglen

Ape2001 wrote:

Cool How lond did that take and which medium did you use, PS?

Please, don't pull the trigger ^^' but I would try and put a bit more strain into his expression, atm he appears to relaxed to me.

About 4-6 hours, Photoshop indeed.

I sort of wanted to take a 180 degree turn away from having him "uncomfortable" or "horrified", since it made misinterpreting the composition entirely too easy.

SpeedKnight

Angel_of_Bacon wrote:

right now it's possible to interpret the positioning as the two of them being in the missionary position, and the the guy's reaction being far from "terror".

It's like he settled for a one night stand with a "lagoon creature".

Funky Phantom

its keanu reeves!!

Spilltoy

Funky Phantom wrote:

its keanu reeves!!

Truth.

srsizzy

Spilltoy wrote:

Funky Phantom wrote:

its keanu reeves!!

Truth.

Umm...no?

I'm confused as to whether the black is negative space and the white is "smoke", or vice versa. Or if it's supposed to be a combination of both...?

Creambun 007

Tweaked_Bat_ wrote:

I'd hit it.

I was seriously waiting for that... surprised it took so long for it to be said at all. Would you hit the demon, or the human? Or both? at once?

Demon?!! I thought it was a dog or something!

RubberAC

...You've seen humanoid dogs with scales?

Creambun 007

- Insert 'your mom' joke here -

Ape2001

^^' And it has no muzzle.

TimTheSloth

The light background against the dark outlines makes the fog more visible to the viewer than the faces which is a bit confusing.

Rye

Because you asked so nice in another thread, I thought I'd throw up a helpful crit in this thread. (Not that you asked ME personally, but that you asked anyone in general)

The way the lighting is set up, I feel like you should light both the nightmare's front face/chin and the mans chin in a higher light.

The extreme light in the middle (relatively extreme) indicates that some sort of light is being shined on both of them. First, look at a small thumbnail of your pic. It's a good looking tumbnail, but the IMPORTANT details don't stand out (the shilloutetyeter... I can't spell that word).



Now, I did a quick,crappy, mouse-drawn paint over of what you already had. Here's yours then mine:



Now, you'll notice that mine uses the shitty default airbrush from PS. It gives it that glowing effect which you probably don't want. Yours has MUCH better texture, but if you did the value treatments I did using the technique you used, I think it would be MUCH improved.
Here's my thumbnail next to yours:



I don't know that you agree with me, but I think the sihlouette on mine is a tad better. You don't get the spiking effect until after you see the faces. If the shadows on the man's face are that sharp, then the highlight MUST show that.

EXACTLY as TimTheSloth pointed out. You don't have to get rid of the spikes, but you need to accentuate the faces more.

I might be wrong, so I'd get more people's oppinions. Never be satisfied with one person's critique

Creambun 007

Something in between yours and his. That's what it needs.