Characters: Armor-clad girl, lil boy, old guy, dog ... & stuff...

[McSpirit]

Woow Great work :beer:

[DeViSoR]

the only thing I reacted on was the left hand holding the sadle(sp?).. it looks werry large compared to the hand holding the spear...

[iBlue]

DUDE!!!! SWEET!!!! http://www.elementaleye.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/048.gif

[victor throe]

i thought that

maybe she used jeremy beadle as a model


in which case

AWESOME!

i like the bird hat most

[victor throe]

the only thing i would change would be the dude with the arrows out from

his face looks stuck on

[Deleted Vertex]

Thanks for the comments all.

DeViSor is right with the hand, I knew there's something unusual about it, just can't figure out what. It happens when we looking at the same thing for a long time. That's why you guys could help.

Re; Victor Throe;

The head of the old guy is a bit odd but it was kinda intentional, see image below.

I didn't have models for any of the ppl, I wish I could afford to, anyway all the portraits are stylized to a certain extend. Just to give them some personalities.

http://www.2dimensional.com/.Misc/faces.jpg

[davids]

AMAZING!! Front Page! Wow its got soo much atmosphere. I love your use of color. The only thing I think it needs is a darker shadow just where the feet are contacting the ground I think the technical term is umbra. 5 Stars from me!

[LordDubu]

Since no one answered your question I immediately assumed it was a girl in male armor. (But them I've seen enough kung-fu movies to know that's a staple of them)

[@ce]

Stunning!!! :applause:

and when I saw the close up (didnt read your post..) I thought...but he..thats a girl not a man :surprised .......then after I read the full post..its supposed to be a girl ^_^....how relieved I am! :p


Keep going w00t w00t :beer:

[unclebob]

Excellent picture. To answer the question. I does look like a girl in a male costume. One thing I did notice.. the boys feet.. kinda large.. like hobit feet. otherwise.. excellent

bob

[Deleted Vertex]

Thanks!
Nice to know that most of you recognized that she's a female, its not good to make a female and end up looking like a man and vice versa, especially when she's not even in a feminine looking dress/ robe.

As for the big feet, you're right, when I tried to reduce the size, the character look a little worse overall, ever notice some contemporary female fantasy/anime characters wearing large footgears, they tend to make the characters look better in a way. ..

Hmm, if I ever do a personal ad, it will be like ... big feet wanted...

[TuLe]

Ohhh... Very nice!
The whole iamge gives me a great sence of "Chinese"... hehehe!
I mean the atmosphere is so rich and nicely done, it transported me to this time!

Great color skills there man...

My only critic it's about the woman hips and legs. I think they're too big and strong! Maybe it's just the armors and clothes!

nice going!

[Aose]

Deleted Vertex:

Where are you ?


You work is very nice!

[seantree]

omg! this is amazing. no crits from me. lets see more!

[Flog]

Awe Inspiring!!!

Great Work. I did notice the hand on the saddle thing. A little manly, but very good work throughout.!!!! Love it Love it Love it!!!

[Gingerhammer]

Dude, that's one excellent peice of artwork!

I've got a few points I'd like to make that you might disagree with...

It really is an attractive piece, but theres something about it that prevents it being one of those great pieces people keep in their favourites folder. Kinda like the art you see for games boxes that catch your eye but soon forgotten?

I feel that the style of the dog and child are a little more cartoony than other elements. You've got a fairly strong outline going on around the child's head and hands that make him not quite fit in the scene. Generally the dog's body is fine - it's just the head that is that bit too cartoony.

The girl is almost cartoony - due mainly to her brighter colours. The other points about her feet and left arm have already been made. I never had a doubt that she's a girl.

Overall I think some work on the shadow details would help give a greater feeling of depth, but that might be more work than it's worth.

Compositionally, the most striking shape is the eagle, yet it lacks some sharpness in its detail and is too dull.
This relegates it to background status but it deserves more and would actually create a good focal point to lead the viewer into the scene. I think it should also be perched on the girl's left shoulder. The girl's sword is demanding more attention than it's worth and actually fighting the eagle for presence.

I'm thinking that by starting at the eagle, you would move down to the girl, down her spear to the dog (maybe bring the spear head down slightly), up to the boy (move his middle hair tuft right slightly and make the left tuft a little more pronounced), follow the left tuft up to the old man, down to the horses knee, up to its head, up to the tree leaves (the bird flying in the distance should be moved cos it looks like the horse is trying to eat it).
The visual path fades off there and, really, you should have some kind of goal. Maybe you should be taken to the distant mountains, but they'd need to have more feeling to them, suggesting a very aduous journey with no end in sight, or a destination like a just-visible fortress?

If you see what I'm saying, you might notice other areas you could work on too, like the huge hand of the muscle man with the bag, or the awkward direction his staff points, or the village that's a little too prominent...

It's just some ideas and I no way profess to have all the answers (if any at all!).

The reason I've said this is that when I look at the picture, I want to soak it all in, but don't know where to look, so I'm all over the place. There's lots going on there and many individual stories to think about but, it's a bit dizzying! Use your gorgeous colours to help send less important elements further back.

Well, you did ask...

[Deleted Vertex]

Quote from Aose
Deleted Vertex: Where are you ?

See the text under my avatar, once you delete a vertex, it will just drop into the bin. Just kidding I'm in Canada.

Quote from Gingerhammer.
Dude, that's one excellent piece of artwork!
I've got a few points I'd like to make that you might disagree with...

To get you to spend time to look at my work and came up with the post, I felt my effort is all worth while. Greatly appreciated.
"being one of those great pieces people keep in their favourites folder" is what a lot of people are shooting for, personally I'm just having fun doing it,
and less concern with how its perceived, especially with this piece of illustration, a relatively pleasant feeling to the viewers is what I'm hoping for... given my background, don't be surprise to hear me talk like Tao :)

Lots of points that you made are right and helpful, some other things are more of my personal preferences, just like a signature that's unique to a person.
Thankz

[HapZungLam]

some great chinese old style of characters. It will be great if you can design a character for me.

Your painting is very good too. The only thing missing is depth. I don't have any good suggesion for you to fix it. It just give me the feeling that if it has more depth, it will look a little cooler.

[Deleted Vertex]

Originally posted by HapZungLam
It will be great if you can design a character for me.


Its odd an artist ask another to design a character, but feel free to message me. I might or might not be able to do it.

Also the banwidth take a toll for linking images like this for me, initially I have some of these things in both 3D & 2D, but it look like I shouldn't be posting like this anymore.

[avalon]

It's great!
Wonderful!!!

[phoenix2k]

wow... looks great!! :thumbsup:

[Ewan Lee]

Hi

I really love your painting but there are a couple of things you could do to make it better, I overlayed some notes over your work, I hope you don't mind.

The center of interest seems to be the face of the girl, the old guy is looking towards her direction so does the little boy and the dog and there are several compositional elements that circle around her... that's the problem I have the painting is great but there is not really a focus, there's detail everywhere!

http://www.geocities.com/wanwoolee/full.jpg

1. First I'd tone down the detail and the brightness in the blue area (I love the expression of the old man but unless you zoom in it does not read at all), try squinting and you'll see where you eyes goes, you'll only see light and dark no detail, if your eye does not goes in the area you want re work the composition.

2. Darken the horse to make the face of the girl stand out more, the center of interest should be the area with highest contrast (dark hair, light skintone, dark horse would be nice framing)

3. the 2 guys in the background behind the girl's horse fill the space nicely but as I said above I'd tone them down and I'd even lose the one without the helmet.

4. The 2 leaves in the foreground really give a sense of depth but right now they happen to be the brighest item on the painting. You could tone them down and move them away, there is too much overlapping on the girl's figure.

5. Around the girl's head the fabric of the shirt and the metal of teh sword behind her are brighter than the face, right now they are fighting each other for attention.

6. If you decide to keep the horse as it is just cheat some cast diffuse shadow behind and in from of the girl to separate her from the horse.

7. feet position the girl's lower body is turned left, it seems that she's going to bump into the horse on her next step.

8. Shoulders: The left hand is on the saddle and the left shoulder is turned back, I would expect the right arm & shoulder to be pushed foward, but right now it's parallel almost pushed back as well, in general the torso does not have as much volume as the rest of the body.

9. the righ arm: the elbow is pointing outwards, I would expect a bit more of foreshortening and the cross section of the armband to be more round.

I just worte down the things I noticed, as you said when you keep staring at something for too long... I can suggest you a trick when you think you're doen put the painting away and don't look at it for several days... then you'll face the thruth between what it actually looks like and what you think it looks like.

Anyway I repeat again great work! IMHO it just needs some more tweaking to make it something you won't be ashamed in few years.

Ewan

:applause:

[Lapsus]

Amazing and beautiful job...:applause: :applause: :applause: :drool:

[Man]

really nice piece!!!i gotta learn how to use photoshop or something.......kinda reminda me of tenchu:airguitar

[Deleted Vertex]

Ewan lee;
really love your painting but there are a couple of things you could do to make it better, I overlayed some notes over your work, I hope you don't mind.


Ah! Good analysis there my good man! No artwork can survive the way you dissect it. Very interesting points you made there, I'll keep these things
in mind if I put more time into it, & for future works... Haven't done 2D for so long...

The focal point issues of the painting came up a few time in the post, meanwhile I did planing on the things needed(perspective lines, tone of color ...etc), U know I came from oil/pencil background, with most of my admired masters were pre Post-Impressionists all the way to the Greek PARTHENON MARBLES
creators(except a few new guys like Dali). Anyway I'm into the basic & fundamental things. And I am glad so many of you guys look for these things when viewing artworks. While I do want to have a focus, but I also try to give viewers more to see... without going on at length to explain, I'll tell you I actually pause for a period of time to think on this subject...

As for loosing the guy without a helmet, why? I know he's no Mel Gibson but he ain't that bad & certainly shouldn't be deleted, I based him on the good old Terra Cotta look, if you are a warlord or a king you will find him extremely attractive because he can do business... Not to mention U have an ugly guy in there would make our heroine look better.

You mentioned things like the old guy's face need to zoom in to be seen, that's because as I said in the first post, this painting is not this tiny 1024x768 JPG you see here. Its huge, the original image is almost 30Megs, that's one picture only. You see brush strokes in the original, its for hi-res print out and hang on the wall...

Knoxville;
...kinda reminda me of tenchu
Sorry man! No offence to the Tenchu team or any MK or MK wanna be products, in there major inaccuracy in the costume designs, but its fine coz its just a game. I got a kick out of the "Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom" game cover, where the heck did he come up with that big sleeve robe & pigtail combination. Well then again you got Jeeps in movies taking place before 1942 and so on...
BTW I'm sure one day your PhotoShop skill will kickass

[LaoDong]

very nice !!!

I guess this is a story about HuaMulan(A Chinese heroine),haha.

Critique:

the girl's head is a little bigger.



HuaMulan

[goodlag]

Beautifull work! I love it:drool: :applause:

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