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WIP Crit/Suggestions? I'm not Dead Yet (Updated)
garytheunicorn
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi, I've been lurking here for a little while now and wanted to get some input on a painting that I am planning to give to my mom for Christmas. One of my biggest problems is figuring out what to do with the background, right now I feel like it's kind of lacking. I plan to add some cookies to the plate, maybe add some sort of design to the tablecloth, and of course put a star on top of the tree. Any advice would be welcome, thanks.
Thanks farbekrieg, wasn't sure about the spoiler etiquette here.
Thanks farbekrieg, wasn't sure about the spoiler etiquette here.
garytheunicorn on
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the gifts look really 2 dimensional (due i guess to being perfectly square)
and yes trees without stars look naked, why do you want nude trees!
Put the crumbs on a separate layer and lower the opacity. They're standing out too much.
The rendered edges on the santa suit are too soft, throw in a few hard ones, particularly in the folds to give in more form and definition.
Try boosting the contrast on the face, particularly adding more dark around the eyes. The values are too narrow here. Same goes for the table cloth.
The embossing filter you're using on the belt isn't working, remove it. Short cuts always look like short cuts, so try to avoid them.
Also try to strike more of a balance between the saturation of your baubles and the tree. At the moment the baubles are heavily saturated in comparison to the tree, you need to try to seat the baubles in the tree. So lowering the saturation a little on the balls and maybe boosting it a little on the tree will merge them together better.
Hope that helps in the short term.
Anyway I tried to implement as many of your suggestions as I could, I think the contrast around the eyes is much improved. I desaturated the baubles and saturated the tree, but I think I might have gone a bit too far, I guess I can tweak that forever and probably will.
Oh and the belt, I didn't touch it yet. But I was wondering, did you mean the belt itself or the buckle? I kind of like the belt but think the buckle needs work. Either way I didn't actually use any filters on it, just a textured brush for the leathery part of it.
Here's the latest Update:
Might wanna get some darker darks in there too, everything looks kinda mid-tone-ish at the moment. Figure out where the light is coming from and darken the appropriate areas. Get some shadows under the plate and cup.
The crumbs look better though!
INSTAGRAM
I also spent a lot of time fiddling with the gifts trying to make them look three dimensional and maintain the patterns I was using but couldn't get it quite right. Anyone have any tips on how to do that properly or am I better off painting the wrapping paper designs by hand?
Yay shadows?
I'd lose that muddy shadow behind the bear, cast on the wall? It's giving the illusion that he's sort of equidistant to the wall as the tree, which is of course impossible since he's way in the foreground, and it's flattening everything out.
The shadow behind the bear is there because I was originally trying to make the background look like it is the corner of a room. You're right though, it's not coming across the right way and looks better without the shadow.
I think this is content complete now
It's a purple rooster!
Try looking at in greyscale and you will see what I mean.
Worstcase, good call, I'll brighten some of the highlights when I get a chance.
I've been working on this one today, It's a Saturn V rocket. This is definitely still rough, I haven't put any work into the foreground umm ground yet or started the scaffolding so it's a bit empty looking right now.
You'll hate this, but I would recommend you use a hard round brush as your only brush for at least the next year. Varying the opacity to give you your softer edges.
Doing this will force you to fill your toolbox with different methods of problem solving, and you'll learn when and where to use a soft edge or a hard edge.
Right now your like: "Smoke, smoke is soft and fluffy, let's whip out the soft edge brushes." But if you actually look at the exhaust from a rocket launch there are very few soft edges.
Do you mind posting up your reference?
Also, I have been messing around with harder brushes...still not quite right.
I have to agree with Zerg, your attitude to criticism is awesome. Detaching your ego from your work is one of the biggest, if not the biggest hump that new artists have to get over on the road to improvement. You're already yielding really positive results.
Canelo: I think my next one might be zanier. So far all of the pieces I've posted in here have been intended as gifts for friends and family so I tried to pick subjects that would appeal to them. But I like the idea of a rooster astronaut...perhaps a cosmonaut. USA = Monkeys; USSR = Chickens?
Try your hand at painting whats in front of you, like a cup and a sphere on your desk. If you don't know how to approach it, I recommend looking for videos/tutorials, like this
It'll help you get inspired!
A hard round brush is all you should be using, only varying the opacity and size to suit your needs.
And I think we'd all like to see the other paintings! Unsuccessful work is the MOST useful when it comes to improving. It's a good sign.
I'm intrigued at the disparity between your rocket ship picture and the latest two. What were you doing differently in that?
Aside from that, edge sharpness is your biggest vice. The raptor on the penny-farthing, for example, is sharp everywhere except for the raptor.
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