Elements.

[Runecaster]

You know, looking at it again, I think this is vile and pretty terrible.

I don't want to take the 20 more hours it needs to make half-decent. Maybe sometime later.

On to different things!

[Brownboot]

I think the stonework you've painted in this is fantastic. It'ls very organic and expressive. I think your figures, the grass, and the distant background all lose that feeling, and come off very plastic. I think your composition could be better as well. All your figures are in pretty much a straight line across the middle of the piece, and your background is more or less symmetrical.

I do think you've done very well at captureing the figures, epecially the proportions (the girl on the right is ace). The fire elemental girl's dress is also very well handled, much better than the other two I feel. I think the green girl's face is ok. I think if anything her face doens't have as much contrast as the rest of her figure, which might be what seems odd to you.

[Runecaster]

You're right about everything of course, with what is wrong with it. That's the problem with using refs sometimes --- it messes with composition - this isn't the first time I'm just almost doing stuff by rote.

I'm just soooo desperately hating this in every possible way, I don't see a way to fix it.

[Brownboot]

I think your idea is very solid, I wouldn't abandon that. I think you can find a better way to present these three characters though that will be much more evocative.

[Shadowbrooke]

Hi there,

I like the ideas of "elements". Don't abandon this work yet. I think maybe you should bring the figure closer together for a stronger composition. Right now the two arches kinda split the painting in half. (Hm...is one element missing?!) However, this is very good for a first pass and wish to more updates soon.

Keep going :bounce: ! We're all trying to be good painters, and I could be your cheerleader whenever you wish ha ha...

Later :)
Brooke.

[Runecaster]

Okay, I completely changed everything. I feel better about this composition -- I always liked this side better. Long ago in the process I had cropped it, but my husband said he liked the big one better. Too bad for him :p

Anyway -- whatch'all think now?

http://www.aequinox.com/paintings/concepts/twoarches_bigcrop.jpg

[jackie66]

The second composition looks much better imo. Maybe it could add interest if you place the characters at more different distances to the 'camera'?
Also, as someone else has mentioned, there are 4 elements, Air, Fire, Earth and Water. did you leave one out on purpose? Is the blue girl water or wind?
don't give up, (although I admit i know the feeling of just being sick of a painting...)

-jackie.

[deathstarchris]

Has a nice warm watercolor feel.

Great earth tones.

[Runecaster]

Ok you're right - there was only 3, I left air out. I didn't think she could fit anywhere.


At this point I may just start all over from scratch on a background and just leave that other thing for itself. I don't know. Maybe I can fit her in. Any of you have any ideas?

Anyway, I started work on Air. Her feet aren't done hehehe -- stock for pose reference from lockstock on Deviant Art -- she has /great/ stock.

This is not done!! LOL I just wanted to show I was adding Air :P

Lotsa things still to fix, I know.

http://www.aequinox.com/paintings/concepts/airelement.jpg

[Gmax]

Hello! I'm probably not the qualified one to say the following things, but here goes: I think it is very wise to work on a character basis and build up enough experience to get the main characters right. You clearly have a promising sense of anatomy, colour, texture etc, but you may want to develop that sense by concentrating on standalone subjects instead of taking on grand projects like this that requires a much broader experience base and deeper insight into artistic theory. I say this not to disencourage you, not at all, but rather because I really like the way your style and confidence is evolving, and I would really like to see how you take on your characters when you're not distracted by huge backgrounds and demanding settings. Take this last piece, for example, Air: the palette, the anatomy, the pose - everything looks very nice, but I guess if you could make five or ten like this every day, then your confidence would grow, your work flow would increase, and you would be a lot more capable of taking that leap from nice to awesome. *Then* you can start combining characters in more advanced settings.

Some of the most admired pieces here on CGtalk are in fact simple character studies and portraits, with little attention to the overall setting. I think you're very capable of getting there as well, but it may require that you give more attention to fewer subjects at a time. Speed paints are always awesome exercises, and you can learn tremedously from them. As I said: five or ten like Air every day, and you'll be mass-producing pieces like this within a year :)

[Runecaster]

Hey Gmax! You're probably right -- honestly I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I feel like I'm nosing around in the dark like a wild dog who is starving.


Thing is, I don't even know what to practice. I just make guesses. Sometimes, when I'm at my most aimless, I feel despair. Sometimes, a teacher would be /really really/ nice.

But other times I feel I can do this OK on my own. I may take longer than someone who gets to go to school, but I have time on my side.

I had an update last night but forgot to post it. I will work on her more tonight. (I had a pretty good Thanksgiving but I'm always glad to get home).

http://www.aequinox.com/paintings/concepts/airelement1.jpg

Maybe I will just go back and render out each girl like crazy and forget putting them into a pile on each other LOL

[Runecaster]

Here is tonight's update.

http://www.aequinox.com/paintings/concepts/airelement2.jpg


I'm kinda thinking this is done -- only because I don't really know what else I can do. This happens a lot, I just sort of look at it and have no idea where else it needs help.

Any ideas before I finish it up?

[frostblade]

I think we're a bit impatient paintings hehe....finish = abandon?



The toes?
From the butt down it doesn't have the same level of detail as above it.

I like how you made it brighter, maybe you can do more constast and definition work.

[Gmax]

Hi again! I agree with frostblade, that you should give some more attention to the lower part of her body. I guess it's a very common thing to concentrate mostly on the face and then work increasingly less the further away you get from the head. It's an established technique to put more details into the parts of the image where you want the viewer to focus, but less details do not necessarily equal less work.

Also, I think simply increasing the saturation in Photoshop is a short-cut that may add some more bang to the image, but is counterproductive in terms of learning how to achieve what you want to create. You really don't learn anything artistically useful by moving some sliders. Personally I like the desaturated version better, because it has got more personality, and also the extreme highlight in the saturated version is very distracting. The eye is drawn towards her belly and follows the lightning out to nowhere, which is kinda strange when her face is the most detailed. I suggest you paint highlights where you want the focus to be, preferably the face and upper body, and then decrease the level of saturation as you move down her body.

Or maybe you should simply do some speed paints, concentrating on recreating on canvas the image you have in your head :) Whatever it will be, I'm looking forward to seeing it :)

[Runecaster]

Actually I didn't abandon her feet really, they /dont/ have as much detail because they arent the focal point and I also painted a ton of "clouds" over that whole area. But I see where you can pick that out when I'm asking what else I can do hehe =D


Gmax, actually believe it or not, I didn't use any "sliders" I painted all that extra color.

The only thing I did was add a brightness/contrast layer, where I made it +5/+10 respectively and lowered the opacity of that layer to 40%.


Before I got up this morning I thought of what I could do, I'll try it out and see how it goes.

Thanks guys for the responses, it makes a huge difference having ideas to bounce off!! :D :D

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