Nemesis

[CybrGfx]

Girl be rockin' some heavy-duty hair gel, for sure!

Beautiful anatomy, lousy composition.
The lighting is inconsistent in direction and strength, the same with the shadows.
The head looks to be from a different photo than the body.
The red sparks near the ground just add to the overall confusion of looking at this piece...
Basically, everything except the nude and the sword is distracting and somewhat silly looking.

~C

[Exyder]

I try some different variants of a composition. What is better? :shrug:

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2387/hair2hw1.th.jpg (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hair2hw1.jpg)http://img205.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

[Exyder]

next variants

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/2508/hair3nu6.th.jpg (http://img380.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hair3nu6.jpg)http://img380.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

[Exyder]

and next variants

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7078/hair5qq4.th.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hair5qq4.jpg)http://img523.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

[voltageme5]

imageshack won't load the image. :(

[Exyder]

yes, its stange, but imageshack really dont work :shrug:
this is or original version:

[voltageme5]

What did you use to make this?

I really like the detail in the work. I can tell you spent a lot of time working on this which I appreciate as the viewer. It always says a lot about the artist when you do.

I really like her skin tone, you did a good job with that.

Is that the head of Zeus behind her? I honestly have no idea what is going on here. haha

But that's just because I'm retarded when it comes to finding concepts in works sometimes. ;)

Good job

Jesse

[Exyder]

Thanks, Jesse!
Im use only Photoshop CS3, Wacom and my hand.
That is head of Colossus behind her, i think.. but im not sure :rolleyes:

[Exyder]

I make some changes of composition. Is it better now?

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9679/nemesisju9.jpg

[EndoTouch]

Very nice. focuses on the girl much more now because of the mountains. Much Improved IMHO.

[Evicted]

Yes, the composition is way better. :) This was actually helpful for me to see progress since I'm quite terrible with composition myself.
I think the only thing bugging me is that she's basically pointing off the page, which confuses me, especially when there's the conglomeration of red to her right. In general it's a little confusing, though i like the surreal nature of it.
I see you were inching her more to the right. I think this might look okay if you cropped out or got rid of the red. Not completely certain but you're on the right track!

[Exyder]

Updating:
I have a little bit changed a pose of the woman, made hair softer, traced some details and added falling meteorites on the sky.
Thank you, EndoTouch and Evicted.
I want to achieve effect of some apokaliptical wave falling from right to left side on background.

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/2262/nemesis800jf3.jpg

[danielh68]

I dig the giant severed head. At first, I thought it was a head from a statue and she was just posing in front of it. But, now, I realize it's probably some sort of rock-like creature she destroyed. Very cool work.

Some crits:

-In my opinion, the hair doesn't gel well with the rest of the piece. It's very graphic and stylized while the rest of the piece is grounded in realism or is striving towards it. It just seems a little odd.

-I like nudes, but in the context of a narrative, I don't quite understand her nakedness.

- The placement of her feet seem very awkward and unnatural.

[wo0lF]

All i don't like are hair. Rest is good for me :)

[Exyder]

Thank you, wo0lF!
Thank you, danielh68!
You consider, that hair which are before a stone head is worse and more unrealistic, than hair which are behind a head in the top part of a picture?
Now realistic hair, it is the biggest problem for me. I have already tried set of different variants, but is ineffectual.. Anybody can explain to me, what can make them better? :shrug:

[danielh68]

...well, I don't really have a precise answer for you. Her hair just seems too stylized for the piece albeit nicely rendered. Perhaps, you can infuse other stylized elements to balance it out better? Perhaps, create clouds that mimic that same spiraling wispy locks of her hair? Or, ditch the atmospheric background and replace it with something more flat and graphic? These are only suggestions. I would just experiment and have fun with the process while trying to attain a visual harmony.

Also, it would be great to see some other element of the creature: his body in the background or his hand in the foreground or maybe just some rubble to indicate that his head was chopped off. Otherwise, one could argue (albeit silly) that she was fighting a floating head. It just improves the visual logic of the piece to add something.

Anyhow, good luck and keep painting :)

[Exyder]

Thank you, danielh68!
Uptade:
I just make hair motion blured, added a scar and details on a stone head, fragments on the ground and a fog on the background.

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4055/nemesis800av1.jpg

[EndoTouch]

Hey I think it would look even greater if you adjusted the overall color balance. What really strikes me is the white highlight on the girl and the head. Just scale it down with color balance, but more than that there's a lot to be achieved with the color balance here. Shifting it around will maintain the dynamic you've created but give you a chance to perfect things. Another quick improvement would be too use a faint texture over the highlights on the skin to really bring out the fleshyness.

[Exyder]

Thank you, EndoTouch!

Update: Basically color and hair..

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/2321/nemesis800yp7.jpg

[EndoTouch]

Nice improvement! I'm glad I could help.

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