Grand Space Opera 2D Entry: Elizabeth Campbell

#75

Liz! This is Dustin, your work is amazing! I can’t critique someone better than me, so just let me throw a few ideas at you that have helped my in the past:


The vertical bar on teh left shows your coloring easier. There isn’t much contrast there. And really not a definite way to pull the depth out of the image via colors.


Here are your highlights. Some of them seem to be off a little bit, but they look ok in the colored photo, so if its not worth the work, I wouldn’t worry about them too much.


On this one I just brightened up the highlights (I have a real problem with contrast in most of my work so I am used to doing this test early on). If you like it this way, go for it!


This one I did because nothing really seamed to overlapi in your art. Also the shaded sides of my added leaves, defined my viewing angle better. Bonus: I could now be coming out of thick foliage like that seen accross the opening of the girl.

The only other thing that caught me was that the tree next to the girl is tall, but the foliage accross from the opening doesn’t seem to be so tall, which means (a, the tree is old and therefore taller; b, its a different type of tree; c, more perspective needs to be added to the ground in the opening to show that the trees are further in the distance).

Liz, I dont even want to enter my work because of how great everyone else’s work is. Keep it up and you’ll be famous enough to forget about us little people you know on a day-to-day basis.

#76

I was looking at your piece and it hit me. The girl becomes the immediate focal point because of her contrast. It also throws the depth off a little, because the frog and the foreground should have a higher value range, kinda like what BlindXP has in his last example. While the entire foreground shouldn’t be too contrasting (like only darkest darks and lightest lights), there should be a lot more darks. I think if you made certain parts in the foreground as dark as the girl is, and then lightened the girl (but removing some of the details), that would change the direction of focus, and provide a better sense of depth.

It’s looking good! :slight_smile:

#77

i see you used a lot of masking you may need to alow your self more freedom.Im an airbrush artist by profession and i think the idea of masking is cool but limmiting try using different brushes to add details and textures alot of it is to soft . take a look at some photos if you have to get a feel of all kinds of textures you’ll see alot is not so soft . all good advice you kinda have the style i started out with just want to see you progress.

my space opera

#78

Ok well it still has a lot of problems but I also feel that it’s come a long way. A lot of these problems should have been fixed a while ago in the color and contrast sketches. I think the more I mess with it the worse some of the issues get. I am going to make these few last changes then I have to call it good. I’ve learned a lot so thank you for all your comments. After I finish this next round I will be submitting it. So I tried to show more of a scale and increased the size of some of the foliage around the frog. I still will lessen the contrast in the girl (it hasn’t been done yet) any last minute comments are still appreciated.

#79

Hello Elizabeth. About lights and focal points I think like Nathaniel. The girl carries the action in this image so she must be the focal attention point. In your final post, that was the first I saw, I was thinking for a moment it was a giant frog looking at a girl. Then I realize there was something not working there. She is in a clear space and she take all the moon light. The frog in first place must be half in the dark with just some metal flares around and some reflects from the ground. As you said “…we must lose our fear of being wrong” so in this cases I use to take the layers and darken, lighten, contrast it a lot without thinking to much, losing the fear (finally we have the magic undo). There some interesting things should appear. Also the trees behind the girls could be a little more dark close to the ground enphasizing the light in the leaves above.

I like your atmosphere. It has some poetry sense of wonder that you can improve with some adjusts. Your are almost there! Keep going! Good work!

#80

Ok well I darkened up the frogs area and I hope he still doesn’t look like attack of the 20 foot frog anymore. I added larger foliage around him and got rid of the old front leaves (I really hated them) Im finally trying to make the girl look like the focal point now. Ok so I know im learning a lot but I am very frustrated with this thing.

#81

You’re very frustrated with this, and you’ve learned a lot. You might want to put this one aside and use what you’ve learned to do another painting. You’ll feel more refreshed by working on something new rather than frustrating yourself with old problems. Just a suggestion.

#82

So here are two different ones with the foreground dark. Personally I like the lighter one. I need other opinions.

#83

the lighter one looks good to me

#84

Hello there!!
You have made a lot of progress since I peaked last.:thumbsup:
I concur the Blue the lighter is the better version, I think the frog looks great, I just want to know more about the girl, she is the central figure in the piece which leads you deeper in to the work, use her, put some warmth into her skin with some warm colors, everything that you have made in this work seems to be built from the cold hue side using blues, try selecting the hot pinks oranges, and greens, that would in my opinion bring her to life. The leaves are excellent leads into the frame as well.
-D-

I got to get busy my scanner will be here on friday.:bounce:

#85

I will try using some warmer colors. Thanks Impenetrable. Thanks nate

#86

Well this is it. My final coloring has arrived. It’s not perfect but it is far better then what it started off being. Thank you for all who commented on my thread. Everyone was very helpful. I look forward to the next challenge. If you notice problems please still comment. I may still try to fix it but I will be submitting my final one next week.

#87

I took some of the color back out of the girl. I thought there was too much that I put back in. I will be submitting my final on Wednesday. Everyone is so talented in this website and contest. My hopes are that I can step up a notch with my art. This contest was very helpful to me. :slight_smile:

#88

I think the picture looks good overall. The warm color on the leaves in the foreground was a great improvement.

#89

I tried tweaking the color of the girl again but came back to my last submission. I think the girls color is just right. First I added too much color back into her. I prefer last submission were I took most of it back out.

I will be submitting my final on Wednesday so any last minute comment or suggestions are still appreciated.
:bounce: :buttrock: :bounce:

#90

Thanks Mats G.

#91

I think your done blue…:thumbsup:
Looks great the way it is:applause:
Infinity and Beyond…
-D-

#92

Well here it is. My complete Grand Space Opera Theme! Well in all honesty it may not fit as well as I thought it fit the theme when I started it. I don’t expect to place but I wanted to try out this site. I’m a new member since last October when a friend told me about this site. I found the challenge lots of fun and very hard. It’s been a while since I’ve taken on a challenge of this size and where the other artists are so talented. Thank you to those who posted on my thread. I found all of your suggestions to be very helpful. I am walking away from this contest with a great portfolio piece. I hope to see everyone at the next challenge. I think I will also find out more about sketching thread. (Now that I have time!)

#93

Congratulations, Elizabeth! It came out great, and you are fully justified in being proud! Enjoy the rest, and hope we’ll get to see more of your work up on the boards.

-mike

#94

You did a gret job using the critiques you’ve recieved. I love the piece now. I can’t wait to see your next challenge piece, hopefully I can enter that one and try to give you some competition.

:thumbsup: