Son of Hercules

[Hecartha]

Could i paint over your work? I just need to talk about shading/lighting and colors

[windarr]

Of course, I'd appreciate it if you had something to point out that might help.

[Hecartha]

I think the birds in the sky disturb the eyes from your subject and they remove the feeling we are seeing there an half god. He should be the emperor in this place where only the gods are living! No place for animals excepted for mythological animals. Just my opinion :)

Now about colors, lighting and shading
1. There is a big problem with your use of the yellow. I mean in your illustration the yellow is where the white should be. There is nothing more luminous than a white so the yellow should be used for the translucency effect. More the volume of clouds is thick and less it will allow light entering inside (more blue as the dome light). See the image (http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p76/hecartha/progress003small_paintover3.jpg)
2. same thing for his powerful hand, the white should be used
3. A white material has the property to reflect a lot the light so you need to put some red/orange on his lower leg and his right arm.
4. Try to increase the movement feeling you have started to paint in the bottom part of your image. See the image (http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p76/hecartha/progress003small_paintover2.jpg)
5. and be careful about anatomy when you use perspective. Use the belt as guide.

In conclusion you should change your coloring technic. Try to use more the color picker and less the color palette. Observe everything around you, you will see there is no special color for the skin, no special color for the sky etc... I mean beneath a blue dome light the skin can be blue where the direct white light cannot go.
Under this kind of lighting, the sun creates an interesting effect on the skin, again translucency. Add lot of red in color transition between specular and ambient (i see you use also 3dsmax), the red from the blood under the skin. You can see here (http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p76/hecartha/progress003small_paintover.jpg) if you want now my paintover

[windarr]

Hecartha: Thanks for the notes, I took several to heart and have finished the piece. By the way, your paintover is beautiful, now I wish I hadn't said you could do one, as I kind of like your piece better. Also I didn't notice your link to the paintover until just now when I'm already "done", if I had I think I would have made some more changes to it.

The notes on the lighting on the clouds was of course very helpful, and I took out the birds. I wanted to put something else in the painting, but decided nothing I could think of at the moment was fitting so I just let the main character stand on his own.

http://www.crusadingthought.com/images/2d/son-of-hercules.jpg

detail shots
http://www.crusadingthought.com/images/other/cgtalk/son-of-hercules/progress005detail.jpg
http://www.crusadingthought.com/images/other/cgtalk/son-of-hercules/progress006detail.jpg
http://www.crusadingthought.com/images/other/cgtalk/son-of-hercules/progress007detail.jpg
http://www.crusadingthought.com/images/other/cgtalk/son-of-hercules/progress008detail.jpg
http://www.crusadingthought.com/images/other/cgtalk/son-of-hercules/progress009detail.jpg

[Hecartha]

Hecartha: Thanks for the notes, I took several to heart and have finished the piece. By the way, your paintover is beautiful, now I wish I hadn't said you could do one, as I kind of like your piece better. Also I didn't notice your link to the paintover until just now when I'm already "done", if I had I think I would have made some more changes to it.I'm sorry, sometimes i just like to paint over some works to test myself, i think it can be good for training...and it was really fun with your piece, perhaps a bit too much for just some crits you requested

The notes on the lighting on the clouds was of course very helpful, and I took out the birds. I wanted to put something else in the painting, but decided nothing I could think of at the moment was fitting so I just let the main character stand on his own.great improvements anyway :)

[kami1314]

hey am no expert but i looks as you r using dodge and burn and smudge tools(dont)i looks like u r using a mouse and filling shapes(dont) pardon if am wrong,most things look pasted.the are not enough cast shadows in the clothing to make it look like they belong to the figure.

face and upper leg anatomy are of,from what i can tell.the upper boddy is out of proportion(to small)to the rest of the figure.i am however loving the hands and feet.(i cant draw feet :sad:).try to bring down the britness of the right hand.it kills my eyes .draw from reference you will get better.i had to learn the hard way.but i like the idea everything esle
keep up the good job.:applause:

[windarr]

I'm sorry, sometimes i just like to paint over some works to test myself
It's ok, it didn't bother me, I was just commenting on how impressed I was by your paintover. Your use of colors and lighting was very well done. Thanks for the comments.

Pencildj: Hi, actually I didn't use the dodge or burn tools on this piece (nor did I do any "filling in"), I did use the screen, multiply, smudge and a bunch of other tools though. Which there's nothing wrong with doing in my opinion, it's mostly personal choice. I'm thinking you feel the shadows and lights are took dark and light respectively, and yes I do go back and forth between feeling it's right and feeling I put too much contrast into it. I did use extensive reference, however I didn't have any reference with a figure in that pose or specifically in that lighting, so yes my proportions may be a little off. The idea was to have the legs be most prominent as the figure is flying up and into the sky with the legs closest to the point of view making them the largest due to perspective and causing the torso and raised arm to diminish in size as they are farther away. I like the burning bright hand it's supposed to burn the eyes. :-) Glad you like the hands and feet.

[kami1314]

i dint say it was wrong.what i meant is there is not much cast shadows on the clothing to make them sit as part of the figure..anyways. i guess i havent posted enough for my opinion to matter.:D

[windarr]

No, not at all, it doesn't matter how many posts you have if you have something insightful to add it's always important. I see what you mean about the clothing after looking at it again.

One suggestion which I hope you don't take offensively would be to take a little more time typing your replies. I only say this because they appear to have been written during a texting session on a cell phone. It would make it a lot easier to get your points if you did that.

Thanks for taking the time to give feedback, I probably wont' revisit this piece but your insight will help on my next piece.

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