Harry Potter

[oogieboogietoogie]

I love the colors; it really makes them pop!

Here are just some points from my own personal perspective:
- I think the color scheme is great
- perhaps making the characters a bit bigger as to fill up more of the picture? The empty space above them sort of makes the structure of the picture seem empty. It seems like the trio are almost "posing" for the viewer, so I think it would be better if they filled up more of the "screen" so to say. Maybe exposing more of their torso/chest as well. This compositional suggestions are really just my personal thoughts, however - they're just my views on your image.
- The lighting is great, and I really enjoy the mysterious fog from the trees ^__^ I think the light reflection on the characters need some reworking, as it seems like there is the lightsource from behind them with the fog.

I think the best stuff you've got here is the color scheme, which really is wonderful, and the technical drawing, which is stupendous as well. Just a little more smoothing it out, redifining the composition, and checking the lightsource might work to bring it all up! I'm really an amateur at this myself, but I hope these suggestions could help ^__^

Keep up the awesome work. :p

[Kevin-Killjoy]

Here's my usual no-nonsense crit :)

- it's fan art. That's gotta be a huge strike against it.
- The skin tones aren't consistent. The guy on the left (I'm clearly no Harry Potter fan!) doesn't look like he fits with the other two.
- The skin painting is unrefined. It's blotchy.
- The hair is rendered in a simplistic way.
- overall it looks rushed.

[thePoet]

I truly feel for you. I know exactly what it’s like to work had on something, doing everything you know to do and it still, for some inexplicable reason, it falls short. What is it that makes the difference?!

I hope you really meant it when you asked for critique because I’m really going to try and help you. I’m going to let loose and call it like I see it. Please don’t take offense I’m truly trying to help. I did a quick paintover of your image that hopefully will help you understand some of the things I say.



Your’s is one of those images that usually doesn’t get many responses. Why? Because it doesn’t have a that’s-a-little-too-big or you-have-to-much-red-in-the-lips sort of problem. It’s the mindset/perspective that the image was created from. To point out small problems like that would never get at the underlying issues. There needs to be a mentality course change. Your way of seeing and thinking needs to shift.

Whether you know it or not (and your question indicates you do realize it on some level), you’re in the middle of two mindsets; line (left brain hemisphere) and value/form (right brain hemisphere). Right now you think to much in terms of lines and not blocks of value color/color notes. BTW, “value” means how light or dark something is, not it’s monetary cost. You need to think in terms of block of colors.

The Line mindset is powerful and doesn’t relinquish control easily. Evidence of it can be seen in the “stringy” or “wirey” hair, bark of the trees, tight hard edges on facial features and lack of any stroke cross-hatching. Line mindset likes things to look like symmetrical coloring book illustrations where everything is sharply defined with no blending or midtones. But you want it to look real. Problem is, there are no black lines that trace the contour of things in nature. Just hold up your hand. See any lines on the outside. Course not. Edges are created not by lines but by blocks of color one against another. The logical left side of our brain assigns lines, parameters, defined areas to things.

The Line mindset also loves the colors black and white. It thinks darker=blacker and lighter=whiter. This is seen in the Harry’s skin tone, a fleshy orange native color that has had black added to make it shadowed and white added to make it lighter. There should be a lot more shades of color and a lot less B&W. To light or dark of a stroke in the opposite value range will create mud. Ron’s hair is perfect example. You painted red hair then decided to add some highlights, so what did you reach for—white. Now it looks like he’s graying early. In several cases you put white directly over a dark shadow which created a muddy tone. The values of the two colors were too far apart. White should not have been used at all. It’s too cold of a color to use such a way on red hair.

Another common mark of this mindset is the habit of making all lit areas white. Hear me on this because it’ll make a big difference. Lights fight for supremacy in an image. This adds dynamics and interest but by making white the lightest value for every light source they all cancel each other out and ends you with a visually boring image.

That’s enough on mindsets for now. Here’s some specific little fixes.

Use more angles with your strokes. If the hair/jaw line/branch goes a certain direction, paint it using strokes going a different direction. It’ll force you to think and get creative |
Paint hair like smoke or whipped cream. Don’t think in terms of individual strains but overall form | Harry’s ears have no earlobes and are too short | Being a Harry Potter fan myself, I know that Hermione’s hair isn’t wavy enough |There’s no shadow between eyebrows to indicate the indention between the bridge of the nose and the round forehead | The skin tones were to orangy for a place lit with green light. Just work a little of the green color into the skin tones and shadows |A good rule of thumb is to play down females’ noses | Soften the mouths. Harry looks like he’s wearing lipstick and not a shadow because it goes dark to fast | Soften chin and jaw contours. Even on jaw lines or neck contours remember that the skin is soft and it’s going around a round object | Kevin-Killjoy was right, fanart usually doesn't do very well, so do if for fun but don't expect much in the forums



As parting advice, I’d highly recommend you buy and read Alla Prima: Everything I know about painting by Richard Schmid. It costs about $100 and is worth ten times that. If you are serious about art, buy it. If your budget isn’t there, get the Art Spirit by Robert Henry for about $6-12 on amazon or ebay. If you are truly broke, study the work of Craig Mullins at goodbrush.com and Scott Burdick and Susan Lyons at scottburdick.com for free (good idea in any case).


I wish you the best and happy painting!


-thePoet

[jackie66]

Wow. Thank you so much, these critiques are awsome!
Ninetales- I have always struggled with composition, maybe some day I'll get the hang of it....I hope. The light source definatly is wacked, because the characters should be sillhoutes against the white light in the back. I agree with you how the characters should fill out the picture more, but I also wanted to get the forest in there... Argh, composition is very nit-picky. It has to be just right, or the whole picture gets thrown off.
Thanks for replying.

Kevin-Killjoy- I had also thought of the skin tone problem. It looked off to me too, but I figured no one has the exact same tones, so I couldn't use the same colors on them all. What are you sopposed to do with multiple characters in the same environment?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not making excuses for myself, but about the simplistic hair and blotchy skin, I was trying to go for a more painterly aproach. (not sure if I did it right) Many people commented that my paintings looked to airbrushed and I took all the character out of them, so I tryed to move away from the air brush and smoothed lines.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.

thePoet- wow. Thanks so much (umm, how long did it take you to type that up? ^_^) Anyways, I think you pretty much hit my problems perfectly. Now that you point it out, I can see my 'line mindset' problem everywhere. In the hair, the trees, the facial features, the clothes. I also have to argee wholeheartedly with the light problem. Everything is white, white everywhere. ACK! your paint-over looks totally better. The skin tones look so much more beliveable.
Did you have any more advice about HOW to pick colors? I can see now that adding black or white dosn't work, but how do you pick otherwize? Do you use the color complements? How do you get good colors? I did at one point think that the overall skin tones on all the characters looked muddy, but didn't know what to do about it.
Thanks for the source information, I will definatly look into that, because yes, I am very serious about art.

Thank you so much for all of this help!
Jackie.

[Runecaster]

I think The Poet really hit it on the mark, and I heard similar things the first time I posted something here back in November :) It gets easier, I promise, but it takes a lot of hard work from you!

One other thing I haven't seen anyone mention yet - and perhaps they are being kind but I think it needs to be said (and honestly, you seem mature enough to handle it) I think you should pay a little more attention to making them look like the actors, if that is what you intended... use references! This actually looks just like the Prisoner of Azkaban movie poster.

I think your heart and mind are in the right place, and if you keep taking crits the way they are meant to be taken (i.e. people trying to help, even if it stings a little) then you will go far. Bravo, I say, for taking this like a grown up!!

And Harry Potter is an awesome subject, even if fanart isn't "popular" it sure is fun :) I love Harry!

[thePoet]

Good points Runecaster, good points.
About your questions on choosing color, let me start though by saying that choosing color and building shadows is totally dependent on the form of the subject. Without an in-depth understanding of the subject's form and planes, it's like trying to shingle a roof without putting the plywood down first. Know the planes of the face, where it's the softest and where it's the hardest.
Choosing colors is a big topic and I couldn't possibly cover every scenario but here's some tried and true principles that should help.
Warm light produces cool shadows/Cool light produces warm shadows. That does not necessarily mean red and blue. Could be a yellow-orange light and green shadows or a violet light and blue-violet shadows. The colors can shift around but the principle remains that shadow areas created by a warm light will have a cooler color scheme than the light which created it and vice versa. Also consider reflective light. Objects share their colors with the objects around them. Just because the trio’s faces are not directly lit by the green light behind them, the light would bounce around back onto their face. Also remember Richard’s Law, “Colors do not change value without also changing temperature.”
Skintones especially can have a tendency to become fragmented with many different colors trying to make it up. When that happens get the dominant light color (key color) equal in value to the native skin tone and glaze over all the skin. This will "key" or "harmonize" all the colors together because they now all have something in common. This is one of the first things I did this on the paintover. There are of course exceptions to all these principles but don’t worry about them right now. Side notes: the richest spot of color from a light on an object is the thin area between the light and the shadow not the brightest spot | Make the features part of the face not objects setting on it

Rune's right, your heart's in the right place and if you take the critiques and keep at it, you'll go far. I hope this helps,
thePoet

[jackie66]

Thanks again for the crits and comments.
Runecaster - Heh heh, actually, I did use references, two for each character, to get the faces and the style of clothing... yes, the faces could use more refining to make them look like the actors... and I did copy the background from the Prisoner of Askaban poster, I thought it was a very good representation of the forbidden forest, but I should try to be more unique. Thanks for the complements, its always nice to here someone appreciates my effort as well!
Thanks for taking the time.

thePoet- Ahh, thank-you, those comments are exactly what I was looking for. Now, instead of just draging the color picker up or down (white or black) I will know (or have some sort of better idea) of how to get both proper and more interesting colors. Interesting comment at the end:

the richest spot of color from a light on an object is the thin area between the light and the shadow not the brightest spot

I will definatly keep that in mind.
Also, I checked out the two sites you suggested and the art blew my mind! These are definatly masters. The brush strokes are no less than genious. WOW.

They also inspired me to start working on sketches. I figured I should work on form, brush strokes composition, colors, lighting.... everything, on many simpler paintings than wasting my time trying to perfect something while not knowing what I'm doing. heh.

Well, thanks so much for all of this wonderful help!
Jackie.

Oh, and one more thing, I'm very greatful for these comments because around my house all I hear is "That is so cool!" and comments like that, which really dosn't give me room to grow, which I want to do!

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