Critique - Sorcha by the Sea


#1

Ok so I think this is my first post here ever. I’ve been a member for almost a year… and just kinda watch from the dark corners… lol.

I just finished this picture. The background is a little rushed compared to the rest… in my opinion. I haven’t had a lot of feedback on it yet from classmates, teachers or deviants and I am looking towards growth as an artist.

If I am making any mistakes I need to know! :slight_smile:

Edit: Thank you in advance for any words of advice! Also, I haven’t done much with digital painting. Especially humans, and landscapes. If anyone has any good tutorials or something to look at that may be helpful. I’ve been doing a lot of searching on deviant-art too.

My first attempt at clouds too…lol.

Here is a little blurb… about Sorcha.

[i]Sorcha, a child gifted with powers that no one could understand, not even herself. Powers that threaten to consume her. Shunned by her family and her people she is forced out onto her own, to survive against the odds.

Grown into a woman with nothing but the sea as her company, her solitary life is about to change. Evil enters the land and she will have to decide whether she will help those who once abandoned her or if she will watch them burn…[/i]


#2

Instead of looking for tutorials that demonstrate the technical stuff, you really should be studying the foundational knowledge instead–things like composition, perspective, lighting/values, color theory, anatomy/figure, clothing folds…etc. The technical stuff is a piece of cake compared to the critical foundations, and if your foundations are solid, it only takes a very short amount of time to become proficient technically.

Compositionally, this is probably a bit loose and could be tightened up a bit by making it a portrait aspect ratio instead of square. The scene itself doesn’t really need the extra space horizontally.

She is fairly attractive and her proportions are pretty good, so that’s plus.

The lighting is incoherent because you have your main light source back-lighting the subject, yet, the subject is very bright in the front, as if there’s another bright light source in front of her. To make the problem worse, that unexplained light source apears to be very diffused and coming from all directions, as if she’s in a photography studio with a bunch of photography lights all going off as once. In order to make your scenes credible and authentic, you must first decide on exactly what your light sources are and then stick to it.

She should have a clear rim light on her from the moon, but the rest of her should be much darker, pretty much a silhouette. If you want to illuminate her from the front, then you need to think of a credible light source–perhaps a torch light, a bonfire, or even magical light–anything but a nondescript diffused light.

Her hair looks too stuff, like dried hay. Taper your lines when you paint hair strands. Set your pen to vary brush size by pen pressure, and then practice drawing tapered lines–it makes all the difference in the world.

Her clothing doesn’t look credible because the lack of folds and wrinkles show you don’t know how to depict natural looking folds and wrinkles, but by skipping them, the clothing looks over simplified in contrast to the details we see in the rest of her.

This is one of the obvious drawbacks of using photo references as a crutch–whatever isn’t in the photo reference, you have a hard time painting out of your head, and it always looks less realistic/detailed/natural than the parts that did use photo reference.

The ocean looks too vague. The ripples and waves when backlit like that are actually very contrasty. Even if there’s fog/mist, it still wouldn’t look so smudgy. Instead, you should paint a contrasty ocean, then put a layer of fog/mist over it, instead just painting the ocean really vague and smudgy.


#3

Thank you very much. I definitely have a lot more to work on!


#4

Reading everything over several times, I want to thank you again. I was thinking of shelving this entire thing and starting over.

But I want to make it right. I want to see it right.

A few questions… Obviously my weaknesses are light hair, and clothing (as far as Sorcha the woman go). I’m ignoring the background. I’m probably going to scrap the entire ocean and redo it as suggested. The clouds look off to me too, but perhaps its just my insecurity with them as they are my first attempt with clouds.

The only references I used for her, was her eyes, and nose, necklace and the pose. The pose is from www.posemaniacs.com. >>> http://www.posemaniacs.com/archives/961 The skin and rendering is all by me.

After reading your critique I made the following notes for adjustment. I’d love your feedback to see if they are accurate.

First Lighting…

Obviously its a messy note. But basically a new light source for the front, because I didn’t want her to be totally a silhouette, would be a magically glowing in her hands… which I will have to figure out how to do in Photoshop. But I will worry about that later.

Next, the clothing… and creating folds.

As far as clothing goes, and folds to increase credibility…

I’m not sure if these are accurate… but just based on what I’ve seen this is where I’d put them. I am likely wrong… lol and I will go look up some more information on clothing and folds too.

Once I have accurate folds in, I’m having issues finding good tutorials on creating realistic textures. Do you know where I could look that will help me with that technical thing?

Last…

As far as new ocean… crisp… I didn’t use a photo reference on the last one, and it’s only my third ever landscape (bad idea I guess)… so I looked up a photo reference.

Full Moon over the Sea - Image on Shutterstock
Another Full Moon Over Sea - Image on Shutterstock

The ripples/waves, are dark in front and light behind. The reflections are crisp. I’ll try to incorporate more contrast, I may or may not have a mist layer. But this is good to know.

Again thank you for your time looking at these, and for your critique. I’m reading through the Art Techniques and Theories forum now too.

Thank you so much! :slight_smile:


#5

One of the moonlit-references you linked looks like a mediocre CG render to me, not a photo. Stick with the other one.

If you have her fists being the only light sources contributing to her front, she’s going to look like she’s got horror movie lighting on her–you know, the typical from below lighting. You could have her reach out one hand with palm facing up and a magical light is dancing on her palm–that way, it’ll be less severe of a hard-angled lighting. Also, off-camera lighting can be helpful too, such as a nearly torch or bonfire.

Clothing folds have specific laws governing them, following the rules of physics. The three main things to always keep in mind is that there are compression points (armpit, inner elbow, inner knee, crotch…etc), stress points (elbow, shoulder, breasts, knee…etc), and loose flabs (anything that stretches or hangs from the previously mentioned points. Study similar styled clothing for reference. Try searching for sites that sell Halloween costumes, or cosplay pictures.

The new composition is much better, although that moon is a bit too close to the corner. You can try moving it closer to the head, or even make it much bigger and actually have the head overlap a corner of the moon (classic composition trick).


#6

Awww right!

The whole flashlight under the chin look… gotcha. The open palm idea is fantastic! Now to execute it accurately. I will play with it. The only reason I’m staying away from any offscreen lighting like a bonfire, is because I want the composition to feel kinda lonely, slightly cold. She is a woman who has lead a solitary life by the ocean. She’s alone. The fire feels too warm to me.

I will see if I can find some photo references for the clothing.

Thanks!


#7

I know this still needs a lot… its just a quick thing to see if im in the right direction…

Your thoughts?

Is the shadow in front dark enough. Does the hand have to be higher? I dont want to loose too much face detail, but some shadow covering is ok. I was thinking about lightening the right side of the face more

EDIT: of course hair clothes and background sea are gonna be fixed. Hand needs work… it was really quick blob to see for placement. I think its a little big though.


#8

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