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Two day deadline.

SublimusSublimus Artist.nowhereRegistered User regular
edited March 2007 in Artist's Corner
So I was informed today by my department that we have an end of the year jurrored student art show, and submissions are due on Wednesday. So I feel the need to enter something, and as such have revisited this piece. Im going to have to figure out a time line to get this done, and it doesn't help I have a draft of a fifteen page essay dues this week too.

And the progress!
balance.jpg

Detail:
balance(d).jpg

I already know to fix is his right hand is a little disjointed. And I want to get the darks darker inside the eye socket.

Oh- and ps. I plan to make him mostly low-sat but the jewly thing on his chest will likely be much more saturated (as its his chi....or something).


Crits? Tips? Tricks? Secrets? Or you can just sit back and watch the show as I franticly devote all my free time to this between now and Wednesday.

Sublimus on

Posts

  • earthwormadamearthwormadam ancient crust Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Nice texture on the skull. The shading on certain parts of the figure look like they were glazed over and neglected. (pants, abs, circular chest thingie) I'm sure this will be fixed once you spend a bit more time on the whole thing.

    As for the background, I would say it is drawing way too much of the attention off the subject. It looks cool, but it is really bright and distracting. Fading it a bit would probably go a long way.

    And his right hand fingers look weird but you already knew that...

    earthwormadam on
  • EpiEpi Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Looks good overall.

    I'd say the spikes from his back definitely need more detail to match the body (as does his belt/sash dealie).

    The design in the back is cool but it seems kind of conflicting with the style of the guy. Unless you sort of incorporated something similar into his chest-chi thing. Like give that some of the colors/design of your background in order to tie the whole drawing together.

    I like the coloring in the neck too (the purple). Maybe carry that through the rest of his body?

    Epi on
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Thanks for the pointers guys. I think once I color in the figure it will seem more unified and the background will be less distracting as the large chest pendent will also bring in some shape repetition from the background element along with the high-sat colors. As for now, I have to stop and go to bed so I can get up for my eight AM class.

    Expect an update around two or three pm.

    Sublimus on
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Small update (without color layer):

    balance2.jpg

    Sublimus on
  • EpiEpi Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Looking better for sure. One thing that caught my eye was that the right side of the right spike could use a tad bit more definition. It kind of just fades away...

    Another small thing is the shading on the orbs around his waist seem to have a light source coming from the opposite direction of the light on him an the creases on his pants look a little funny.

    I'm excited to see with the colors

    Epi on
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Thanks for the input Epi.

    Another update.:

    balance3.jpg

    Things to do: tighten up the rendering on the guy, ad some subtle color to the guy, and I dont like the way the thing near his hands is working right now

    Sublimus on
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Final update for the night. Will probably post the final image tomorrow after I spend another hour or two, and before I go print.

    balance4.jpg

    Sublimus on
  • ShiboeShiboe Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Don't know if I should post this, but I figure a bit of honesty is worth something at least.

    I don't care for the figure. Assuming the anatomical wierdness is purposeful, it just doesn't come off as a pleasing form. All the shapes that make up his body look very haphazard and generalized. I can see where you attempted depth via shadow, but the shapes themselves don't match up or come off right in alot of areas (neck, shoulders, upper arms, horns, etc). The hands are the strongest of his body, but even they are shaded "gradient" style and have some iffy spots in my eyes.

    The head bugs me the most. It might be just that I'm tired of people drawing "badass guy with skull," but even beyond the premise, the expression gives off a humorous "mentally challenged" feel with the overbite and huge smile. I'm not gonna do the "study a skull for anatomy" because I'm assuming your not basing it off a human, but it still needs to make a bit more sense in it's form to me. If you just layered some skin over it now, it would look pretty funny... and I don't think that's what you were going for.

    I do like the background, especially the texture it exudes. At this point, I would say the piece would be stronger simply removing the figure from it. I know this is probebly opposite of what you want to hear, especially with time limitations. As far as all the additional swirlies you are adding, I think it's working against you. It looks like you are trying to hide the figure behind a mass of non-useful clutter. If you keep going like that, the image is simply going to be too busy.

    I think it's easy to get cought up in the "more is better" thought process when your trying to do something *good*. In the end though, adding a bunch of lines to a bad form doesn't make the image better, just busier. To me it's like when someone put's photoshop filters all over the place. It makes the image busier, but it doesn't really add to the quality. Then you will have people (usually not artists [and I feel like a bastard cause I'm now insinuating that I am]) say it looks good, when they are actually/subconsiously saying "you spent time on that, and that's commendable."

    Overall, it just seems like a weak concept to me. "Straight front portrait of skeleton dude with energy powers from his hands, cropped at the legs" has been done alot on these interwebs. I hope this was helpful in some way and not too scathing.

    Shiboe on
  • EpiEpi Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    I think the chest glow would look better if the auxillary lines were behind the dudes arms/hands. THe light/ energy stuff originating from his chest wouldn't simply pass through his arms...

    Edit: I think I'm probably too late to tell this

    Epi on
  • ScosglenScosglen Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Frankly I don't really like the design of the character, or at least how you've portrayed the design (particularly the head, is just really forgettable). It's also very "photoshoppy" in the background and glowy hand orb element, and those probably detract more than they add. The lighting is also really spotty and overall it's pretty flat looking.

    Short of scrapping the entire figure, if you want to salvage this I'd suggest working on building up some contrast on the figure by portraying a strong lightsource to give him a little more depth.

    Scosglen on
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Thanks for all of the honest input guys. But I already turned it in much earlier today. So I will just try and keep all of the useful advice in mind for the future.

    Here is the final, which is not much different at all from the precious image. At the very least, it was a great exercise in deadline and trying to create a finished product (since I usually dont take much to this level of completion). it is what It is, and we'll see if it makes it in the show.

    balance.jpg

    Sublimus on
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