background is too dark and/or flat, it washes out the bird people. you need something that maybe provides some shadows without overwhelming the whole background.
So, Little Nemo in Slumberland. I started reading the comics recently and boy they're a real wonder - and quite psychedelic. So I tried doing some kind of movie poster'ish thing and here's what I've got so far:
I remember watching the movie as a kid, it was the scariest thing I''ve ever experienced and I guess this brain kinda captures that
edit: I'm not sure on the placement of the elements (nor their colors). Thoughts?
Working on some futuristic cybernetic stuff. This guy's right arm is supposed to be cybernetic, not sure whether it's clear enough.
And a guy with a little more armor. This one is actually a year old but it's a key concept in this futuristic universe I'm building. I've revised it slightly by moving up his crotch and making his shins a bit longer. It's one of those pics where I go 'god damn your ideas don't suck that much m3nace' (meaning It makes me kinda happy)
It's not really clearly cybernetic to me. I mean it looks different than the other arm, but I'm looking closer because you said something. Doin' some googlin' for ya.
The thing about these compared to yours that I see is that the examples have more divisions or segmentations as opposed to one solid housing. You could certainly have largish armor plates covering the vital parts since it's meant for combat situations. Hope that helped some.
Ah yes it did, thanks. Maybe I should've done some research myself - next time I'll see if I can make some kind of blueprint in order to keep the design realistic.
Anywho, here's something from thursday.
Arm developement.
However I still got to a conclusion where some sort of plating on the forearm would be possible, while still having all the divisions on the inside. The segmentations create a lot of entrance points and I'd like to address these with a plate on the outside. This will sit slightly loose with some flexible foam inside as to maintain maneuverability.
I'm in yet another dilemma here. Whether the crown should be flat or have light on it and whether it ought to be consistent in the whole illustration, when the crown is, or if it's fine if it's just the crown.
I don't have much to offer in the way of criticism but I like the variety of stuff you have going on in this thread, just a lot of cool stuff all around!
I will say that it feels like there's an awesome story waiting to be told with the frog. I'm really interesting to find out where that frog is headed and why is he so calm?
Think I'm done with this.
Apparently I suck at coloring over greyscale so I left that out. Are there any useful tuts for coloring over greyscale or is the technique just garbage altogether?
So, this started off as a landscape painting but I got inspired by Sublimus and wanted to slap an orc in there... Which in itself sounds sort of nasty, here's the orc so far then.
My main problem is having it look like it belongs in the landscape. There's a bunch of stuff I still need trying, but some hints and pointers would be nice as always.
Alright. First of all: is the design readable? Do you notice both the pictures or is it only the one? And does his skin look like a zombies? Because it shouldn't...
Yeah, I think his face could benefit from some contrast. Some normal skin coloration with some highlights from the light from Sting. Is that where you're kinda going?
Is the top level of the cave also forming a mountain? I didn't notice that at first. Maybe if the black area above it had more detail?
Now I don't feel so bad for only seeing Bilbo looking into a cave. The outlines just look like highlights from Sting against the cave interior to me. At best I'm getting a bit of a "hey, if I squint, that looks kind of like mountain" thing.
This might kinda go against the style you're going for, but I feel like this could really benefit from some more color variation in here, if just to clarify that which is being lit by the sword vs. that which is being lit by the outdoors.
Right now it's hard to tell which is which; which is why the face wasn't quite fitting before, and why it doesn't quite work now- in both cases it's not obvious that the face is being lit by the sword and not the outside (except as a rimlight.) Pushing it to a more neutral tone as you've got now just pushes the face back in space, as if he were outside of the cave rather than in it.
I might suggest pushing the light from the sword to a more saturated cyan-ish color and moving towards a purple-ish falloff, distinguishing it from the more pure white back light; that way it's easy to see what is being lit by what. I also would suggest pushing some darks in the area behind the sword; it may not make a whole ton of physical sense under the circumstances, but it helps sell the glow a better, having the contrast there. Right now the sword and the background behind it are very close in color, saturation, and value, so the idea of glowing doesn't really come across. (I probably made it look a bit too lightsaber-ish in my paintover, but the general principle stands regardless. If you're supposed to sell something as notably bright, you can't fill the rest of the picture with things just as bright.)
Also, I'm not sure if you need Bilbo's darks to be pure black, you can probably get away with an understated dark blue/violet; sure, it's got a Mike Mignola kinda thing going on currently, but the soft chalkiness of the rest of the picture makes that one area of high contrast and sharply delineated shadow areas shoot right forward, and I'm not sure if that's really necessary. To me, I would think that the overall silhouette of the figure- selling those Hobbit proportions- is more important that any real details of his clothing/expression, so it's ok to lose a bit of those things if it benefits the overall composition by grounding the figure in his surroundings a bit better.
Last, I didn't get the mountain thing immediately either- I'm not sure if I have a particularly great solution for that issue, but you might have to go a bit more literal with the idea if it's important to really sell that concept. I'm no graphic design wiz but I took a crack at it- although what I did might work better if the whole mountain bit was shoved up a bit higher to make the connection a bit more subtle, it might come across as him emerging from a tiny mountain as is.
Yeah I definitely get the mountain vibe in the paintover, the clouds really sell it. I don't know if the exact mountain shape from the book is necessarily iconic enough to make it stand out so you just have to sell the mountain concept. I like how Bacon got rid of the lines around the peak and made the mountain outline a bit different from the lines of the cave.
I would be careful making it too bright, but you could use the sword's glow to create more solid edging in the cave walls 'mountain'. Some what like what AoB did in his paint over but perhaps more direct rather than ambient.
If you really want to sell the mountain image you might considered adding the print of the dragon from all the early maps to the title text in white or red? So it would sit almost exactly where it does on the maps. Couldn't guarantee it would visually work though.
Fuck yeah AOB crits. Not sure on those clouds going through the different layers, but they definitely sell the whole mountain thing by making the mountain edge more apparent.
I've thought about adding the red dragon too Saintelmos, maybe I could incorporate it with the title somehow.
Thanks a ton guys, these crits are really valuable.
Urgh, this became way too artsy-fartsy and messy at the same time.
The fonts were just quickly done for translation, I hand lettered it in my native language but I figured you wouldn't understand much of that.
m3nace, the rendering on that metal is exquisite. Seriously. Which makes what I am about to say almost painful: he is really structurally awkward. Stiff and tiny-footed, and with arms that appear (to me) to be a bit too short. I am also not sure I understand that helm? Is there a sort of upright guard from the beak tip down to the chin? This, I think, is more a function of the view you chose for it than an actual, structural issue necessarily.
Again, though, luscious metal, and the way you tackled the chainmail skirting is also really doing the trick. Squinting at the breastplate the treatment of light is practically photorealistic.
I agree with bunny and the metal remark, theres light bouncing in all directions, its like a chinese ping-pong game, I love how you rendered that armour. And the help does look strange, or hard to figure out completely, I think its perfectly valid for an action shot, but not so much for concept art of a character (because it doesnt display the item clearly) , his shield arm looks long enough, his mace arm however, it does looks a bit short, no idea if its proportion problem or fortshortening problem, given the light treatment on the arm, I would say its just proportion and its a bit short.
/nitpick mode on: Still, for an important knight, and such elaborate helmet and armguards the chest plate is a bit crude, I know it mostly used on cavalry units, but full armour usually has those circles near the armpit, with like a spike, most commonly to protect the arm with no shield.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
I'm not an armor nerd re: various points in history so I wasn't about to nitpick in that regard but I do know what Fantomas means. It is weirdly simple looking without rondels to protect his otherwise lightly-armored joints.
A lot of armor designs seem to be eschewing those lately (Game of Thrones TV being a big offender since everyone has these hugely unprotected armpits I just want to stab). This guy's joints aren't so glaringly open and don't bother me as much.
it may just be an excuse to watch more of that sweet rendered metal.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
Thanks for the crits guys, I'll try to make the arms and boots work. As for Game of Thrones: guilty as charged, I really ought to give that armor some rondels.
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Seems like everything went downhill since last update on this. A lot of it looks really wrong to me
I remember watching the movie as a kid, it was the scariest thing I''ve ever experienced and I guess this brain kinda captures that
edit: I'm not sure on the placement of the elements (nor their colors). Thoughts?
And a guy with a little more armor. This one is actually a year old but it's a key concept in this futuristic universe I'm building. I've revised it slightly by moving up his crotch and making his shins a bit longer. It's one of those pics where I go 'god damn your ideas don't suck that much m3nace' (meaning It makes me kinda happy)
The thing about these compared to yours that I see is that the examples have more divisions or segmentations as opposed to one solid housing. You could certainly have largish armor plates covering the vital parts since it's meant for combat situations. Hope that helped some.
Anywho, here's something from thursday.
However I still got to a conclusion where some sort of plating on the forearm would be possible, while still having all the divisions on the inside. The segmentations create a lot of entrance points and I'd like to address these with a plate on the outside. This will sit slightly loose with some flexible foam inside as to maintain maneuverability.
I'm in yet another dilemma here. Whether the crown should be flat or have light on it and whether it ought to be consistent in the whole illustration, when the crown is, or if it's fine if it's just the crown.
Guess his face wasn't the only place Hædin had a beard after all
I will say that it feels like there's an awesome story waiting to be told with the frog. I'm really interesting to find out where that frog is headed and why is he so calm?
As for the frog, I've finally started writing some more for it, it's a slow process though.
On an unrelated note I'm currently working on this environment.
Apparently I suck at coloring over greyscale so I left that out. Are there any useful tuts for coloring over greyscale or is the technique just garbage altogether?
My main problem is having it look like it belongs in the landscape. There's a bunch of stuff I still need trying, but some hints and pointers would be nice as always.
3DS: 0447-9966-6178
First up: A giant worm!
and then some figure drawings!
Now I don't feel so bad for only seeing Bilbo looking into a cave. The outlines just look like highlights from Sting against the cave interior to me. At best I'm getting a bit of a "hey, if I squint, that looks kind of like mountain" thing.
I really love it, reminds me a bit of Braid's art style.
Right now it's hard to tell which is which; which is why the face wasn't quite fitting before, and why it doesn't quite work now- in both cases it's not obvious that the face is being lit by the sword and not the outside (except as a rimlight.) Pushing it to a more neutral tone as you've got now just pushes the face back in space, as if he were outside of the cave rather than in it.
I might suggest pushing the light from the sword to a more saturated cyan-ish color and moving towards a purple-ish falloff, distinguishing it from the more pure white back light; that way it's easy to see what is being lit by what. I also would suggest pushing some darks in the area behind the sword; it may not make a whole ton of physical sense under the circumstances, but it helps sell the glow a better, having the contrast there. Right now the sword and the background behind it are very close in color, saturation, and value, so the idea of glowing doesn't really come across. (I probably made it look a bit too lightsaber-ish in my paintover, but the general principle stands regardless. If you're supposed to sell something as notably bright, you can't fill the rest of the picture with things just as bright.)
Also, I'm not sure if you need Bilbo's darks to be pure black, you can probably get away with an understated dark blue/violet; sure, it's got a Mike Mignola kinda thing going on currently, but the soft chalkiness of the rest of the picture makes that one area of high contrast and sharply delineated shadow areas shoot right forward, and I'm not sure if that's really necessary. To me, I would think that the overall silhouette of the figure- selling those Hobbit proportions- is more important that any real details of his clothing/expression, so it's ok to lose a bit of those things if it benefits the overall composition by grounding the figure in his surroundings a bit better.
Last, I didn't get the mountain thing immediately either- I'm not sure if I have a particularly great solution for that issue, but you might have to go a bit more literal with the idea if it's important to really sell that concept. I'm no graphic design wiz but I took a crack at it- although what I did might work better if the whole mountain bit was shoved up a bit higher to make the connection a bit more subtle, it might come across as him emerging from a tiny mountain as is.
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Great concept m3nace!
If you really want to sell the mountain image you might considered adding the print of the dragon from all the early maps to the title text in white or red? So it would sit almost exactly where it does on the maps. Couldn't guarantee it would visually work though.
I've thought about adding the red dragon too Saintelmos, maybe I could incorporate it with the title somehow.
Thanks a ton guys, these crits are really valuable.
The fonts were just quickly done for translation, I hand lettered it in my native language but I figured you wouldn't understand much of that.
Also the latest dude in the Turban is pretty killer. His forehead looks like it's made of bricks though.
Again, though, luscious metal, and the way you tackled the chainmail skirting is also really doing the trick. Squinting at the breastplate the treatment of light is practically photorealistic.
/nitpick mode on: Still, for an important knight, and such elaborate helmet and armguards the chest plate is a bit crude, I know it mostly used on cavalry units, but full armour usually has those circles near the armpit, with like a spike, most commonly to protect the arm with no shield.
A lot of armor designs seem to be eschewing those lately (Game of Thrones TV being a big offender since everyone has these hugely unprotected armpits I just want to stab). This guy's joints aren't so glaringly open and don't bother me as much.