nice work and composition:thumbsup:
Abduction, Steven Hägg-Ståhlberg (2D)
jramauri
#22
Well, I’m your long time fan, and of course I’m amazed with this new piece. Extremally good. mainly the characters expressions, extremally convincing.
There two things though that bugged me a little:
-
The 3d water. When I looked at this picture for the first time, I realized imediately that this water was 3d. For some reason it doesn’t seem to fit perfectly with the water that’s on the bathtub. It seems that the water you painted has a more irregular and believable behavior than the 3d part. But I don’t know, maybe it could be just me.
-
The little water drops on the scene. They are looking, IMO, as if they were lying over a same plane, the plane of the image. Mainly the ones over the girl’s legs. I believe some variation of size would add more depth to them.
Those are just my opinions, and of course you know what you doing much better than me 
Anyway for all the topics I followed from you I know you like to hear crits that help you to go even closer to perfection…
AUMAKUA
#23
Well, FRENZIEDmind, I think we’ve not thought of how hot this girl is, the poor droplets cannot stay in liquid state
flyingP
#24
yeah doesn’t seem to fit “100%” the 3d is perhaps a bit too crisp in comparison to the 2d :shrug:…and ‘if’ one is going to get picky the lack of wetness on the girl struck me pretty fast too…is a cool image though with a nice sense of fun 
Stahlberg
#25
Thanks,
jramauri, I agree with your comments, and also with the other comment about the lack of water drops on the girl. A few things for me to polish in the near future.
BGHart
#26
Exiting concept. The facial expressions are fantastic and the water looks most realistic. :applause: Simply a breathtaking work! ***** Britta
SeifoSid
#27
yeah i really like the idea, and you’ve executed it well, doesn’t look too 2-D but i guess it is.
microspot
#28
WOW. Beautiful picture both in excecution and story wise.
I don’t mind the 3d droplets at all, but I do agree that some water on the girl woudn’t hurt.
excellent work
rawgon
#29
[left]great ideia & very hot girl! great job on the anatomy & face expressions! the overall looks very volumetric( but yeah some drops in the girl would look even better).
wow, no 3d base for the characters, very impressive!
[/left]
Intervain
#30
I really like how you did the light and water on his face and chest! Great! The only thing that’s bugging me is the emptyness around her… .somehow feels like there’s somehting missing… Then again I couldn’t paint anything similar so I’ll shut up
Chupacabra
#33
Hi Steven,
I'll be harsh to you. But the good way, don't worry:)
The use of reference to do paintovers is actually a very bad thing similar to those "painting by numbers" books. It lacks originality and it limits the range of design.
In these days, there's nothing special about a painting that has been generated over a photo, despite the fact that it does take a certain amount of skills to do it properly.
Using reference for a traditional, "real" painting is something else, since translating proportions and colors to canvas as well as dealing with the REAL paint is a process of artistic surgery.
In this piece, the idea is truly great and it has been executed very well, so don't take me wrong: i love it! I also used tracing or reference for some illustrations of mine (see my CG Portfolio).
But i'm just terribly angry about the fact that paintovers gained so much popularity.
I respect you and your work very much and know, you could do it without any ref as well.
But i think you just got too lazy one day and stopped sweating about it..
I hope you'll take this as a constructional crit and not as offense.
Best regards and big respect,
Stahlberg
#34
you could do it without any ref as well.
Sure, and this is what it looked like without reference (on the left):
I don’t know about you, but I prefer the one on the right.
i think you just got too lazy one day and stopped sweating about it…
I’ve always been lazy. I see no honor or intrinsic value in doing drudgery work that does not show up in the final product. All I see is wasted time, time I could have spent thinking up new images or whatever.
But quite apart from that, I don’t think I acted particularly lazy in this case.
Here are some different tests I did for the leg, before I settled for the one in the final image. The bent leg was done without photo reference, which you can easily tell by the ‘broken ankle’ look.
Not to mention that I researched and hired a pro photographer and model for this shoot, and directed them (for hours). It was fun but exhausting, and very sweaty.
I hope you'll take this as a constructional crit and not as offense.
I take it as neither. Of course I know you mean well, but it’s not constructive because your philosophy is different from mine and I will never agree with you, and so I will never paint the way you suggest.
I don’t care if people use references, in fact I encourage it among my students. What annoys me is artists who obviously use reference, and don’t post their references, perhaps even try to specifically claim they used no refences whatsoever. (And this is more common than you may think.) So I make a point of being upfront about it.
snowkiwi
#35
Really love the girl figure, she has a sexy-beautiful figure. This is my other favorite idea in the Journey Begins. I’m glad you decided to touch this up. Your colors and spirit have leaped forward a great deal.
rblitz7
#36
Oh man! so happy you finished this one, I really loved the idea when you first posted it. It looks great! love the water and the expressions.
snowkiwi
#38
Hey I agree with you about the ref thing. I really figured that it’s okay either way. Before I would love to show that I didn’t use any ref, but I find out most people can do it to - so it didn’t seem too special anymore.
But I was always inspired by Michaelangelo’s plain pencil drawings and his firm grasp of anatomy. To me, even though I think he used some ref to research the figure, I think he mostly worked from his imagination. To me he is still one of the top best artists in history. To one day have the taste of being a giant, I think we have to learn from the giants.
I also liked Adolphe William Bouguereau, who mostly used ref, but I think there is a certain creativity and free joy and a better sense of accomplishment when I do paint it completely without ref.
Now I use ref for areas I’m not too certain about, instead of winging, because I found I still have a lot to learn. I was just blown away by how another artist, zhuzhu, who excelled so rapidly. So I do it for the learning experience.
Before I wanted purely the ability to render anatomy close to the way Michaelangelo did. It really tests the artist’s knowledge, and how much an artist really knows.
I mean people can draw about 3 times better with ref, than without it. So for the act of judging the ability of another artist, I think that is what the ref thing is all about.
And to me I find almost anybody can draw from a photograph, and to me it doesn’t require much skill. Just copy what you see. That also gets quite tedious, and doesn’t require much imagination. I think anyone almost can go out and shoot a nice picture, and copy it by hand. So it’s like a computer, or a blank sleight. Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important that knowledge,” or to create is more important than the fact, or drawing from fact, or drawing from reality.
It really shows the ability, or it really shows skill, when an artist can draw a realistic figure without using a photograph. Or completely imagine and create a final product purely on one’s own. When talking about a woman: when one can choose the eyes an artist wants, the hair color, the skin tone, the skin glow, what pose she’s in, what atmosphere she’s in, the expression on her face, and etc., the imagination is set free and the pure expression of the soul is relayed, without having to be shackled by details.
But in the end, to serve other people and not only yourself, it’s also about the final product.
We’ve all heard it’s about the journey and it’s not only about the destination. So it’s really how satisfied one feels with oneself and the artwork one accomplishes and feels in the process of accomplishing. As well as, the satisfaction it brings to others. One’s own satisfaction is usually determined by where one wants to go or be in the end, and whether or not s/he plays through with that plan.
So a greater satisfaction is won when we have the freedom to create purely from our imaginations, and another is given to the other when the final product is presented. It’s not just about me, it’s about us.
So I think on both counts it’s okay, depending on the satisfaction you get from doing it, and the sense of accomplishment when making a good painting . . . as well as how much it serves other people.
Well I don’t know about you, but that’s my beef. I didn’t exactly proofread everything, so I hope it makes sense. Cheers Steven. ( I probably won’t be back, so you don’t have to comment. You can always email-me if you need to say anything more, zillionwater@yahoo.com. But at this time I don’t recommend it.)