Well my friends, the author picked #9, so that’s the name of the game. Today I spent most of my time dredging up references and starting to work on composition. In that light, what do you think of the current use of space? How would you improve it?
Gisaiagami: Interesting.
csgirl: Me too. But I do understand the reasoning for not putting it on the cover.
Today I’ve worked mostly on the two front characters, trying to clean up lines and anatomy. Speaking of anatomy this perspective thing is giving me a headache. I’d appreciate any critiques you could give me on it.
So I guess I should share a little of what is going on: These characters, the “Time Warriors” are in dungeon of trial-like rooms. In this room they stand over a glass floor. Below it they see scenes from their past. The guy clutching his chest under bullet fire is a dead comrade. The glass floor will have cracks radiating from the two main guys.
With the dead guy it isn’t completely clear what’s going on with him.
First is the contrast in the way the shot guy is clutching his chest while having a calm face. Is he hurt or not? Not too sure yet. Well I also see the blood stains, but I’m still not sure if it’s his blood. There’s not so much blood that it’s dripping over his hand that would seem to be covering his wound, so the lack of dripping blood puts how fresh the wound is into question.
Foreshortening doesn’t look bad to me. With the guy’s arm stretching back, it isn’t clear what it’s communicating completely yet. Is he warning the girl to stay back? Or swatting her away? I guess it can read that way because it has a good feel of movement to it, so it’s not really a stiff “stop” motion but a more loose “go away pesky fly” motion. I think that could be cleared up with the girls facial expression, whether she looks annoyed at being swatted back or concerned about why he’s throwing his arm back.
The front character also seem to have his right leg lifted up a bit, since the feet aren’t touching. That might come off looking weird to some people since it would be expected that he’d have both his feet on the ground. Not that you shouldn’t go with it, but it will be something that needs to be made clear in the rendering.
Lines look great so far. I’ll try to follow this one better!
A quick update before I run off to do some errands. I worked namely on the back figures today. I also did my solid blocks of color behind each character (very helpful when I go to add color). The gray is just to help differentiate between the floor and background, not anything permanent.
TimonQ: I hope some of the issues you brought up are addressed in this update. As for the guy. He has been shot in an obviously fatal spot, but is not dead yet. (I'm not dead yet!) I'd say his body has gone numb and he's about ready to slump forward. He has appeared before the kneeling guy to give him a message....so he's a vision of sorts.
:applause: Oh, I like the colour choice! I’m not sure about the legs on the girl to the right. Somehow it gives the impression her legs are much farther apart than they really are. I guess that would be the perspective part giving you the headache! 
Great start!
Different kind of composition that you’re working with here. I’m curious to see if you pull it off successfully. 
Couple of questions…
Why doesn’t the reflected left leg resting on the “glass” match the right leg of the boy (front character) on the surface?
Given that you’ve got some forced perspective going on in your scene, why is the far foot of the girl on the right the same size as the boy on the left? I would think he would be at least a third smaller in size. Review some of your foreshortening and perspective studies…I’ve included a couple of links, too, as a refresher:
http://www.fineart.sk/photos/figure/032.JPG
http://www.fineart.sk/photos/figure/031.JPG
http://www.fineart.sk/photos/figure/016.JPG
http://www.fineart.sk/photos/figure/017.JPG
http://www.fineart.sk/photos/figure/020.JPG
The girl on the right, you have some extreme perspective going on from her hips down, but little to no change in her torso and upwards. And really very little forced perspective going on with the two people on the left, although I wouldn’t expect as much with the guy since he’s perpendicular (x/y) and not on the z axis.
Might be helpful for you to do volumetric shapes (cubes, cylinders, etc) of the positions of your characters in the poses that you currently have them so that you can fix their perspective issues so they work with the layout you want.
I do like the start of your color palette.
t
oh my, his arm is way weird… to long and skinny and it’s twisted in a odd way too… but otherwise,it’s really nice! your paintings allways have this christmas card feeling to them=)
this one is somewhat similar to you pose, maybe it’ll help
I love the colors. As usual your palette is incredible.
The woman on the right has got a knee (her left one) out of perspective. You should shift it a little to the ground in order to follow you persp. lines.
Check also the left arm of the foreground man. If I’ve understood the pose that you want to describe, his forearm is too long and I also suggest you to ‘cut’ his thumb’s line when it meets the forearm’s one cause now it describes a strange rotation of the hand.
Looking forwards for updates,
Serena.
LOVE the colors! I think the left arm of the man in the back is a little short. But ya, i’m really digging the color choice!
Well I did a good amount of perspective grid work. I seriously get an instant headache if someone so much as mentions the word to me 
Then when I got the characters to the relative sizes I thought they should be (and added a few more tiny Time Warriors in the BG), I worked on condensing and grouping the layers so that the coloring would be easier. After that I got a few hours in on coloring and “rendering” the front guy. Still much to do in that department. Yes, the clouds are part of a photo right now. I do intend to hand paint them when I start neatening up the background.
Damselfly: Hope I’ve fixed the leg issue. Glad you like the color.
tatiana: Thank you for calling me out on the perspective. I love the fact I can’t get away with anything sloppy around here That said I’ve tried to address all of the issues you’ve brought up as best as I can. If you see more (or persisting) problems, please let me know.
ChristinaRH: I think it was the angle and thinness of the arm that was the issue, as it actually wasn’t quite long enough.
CyborgJA: Colors are fun =) See the picture below. Have I fixed the arm issue?
csgirl: Thanks for pointing it out.
Ohhh yes it’s PERFECT now. You have fixed it all. Good work woman !
There’s only 1 more thing (please let go down the knife 
). His left-hand’s fingers are quite long if compared to right-hand ones and to his face. But of course, I don’t know if you want to add a focus on this part (as Michelangelo did with David).
See you soon,
Serena.
A lot of work, Laura…I know I go shrieking at the thought of perspective grids. Very nice work so far.
Cris
Great choice in lightning and colors; My only critique is that the bg characters seem to be ‘floating’. Other than that, great work.
How about some reflections for the background characters? The foreground character has plenty, I’d expect it to carry through to the others in the rear since they’re standing on the same surface.
Worked mainly on the upside-down guy. I think his face may need another pass. Any thoughts? I also started “cleaning up” the background.
CyborgJA: Well they both read as rather long fingered hands now…
Cris-Palomino: Indeed. Thanks!
slickgreekgeo: You’re right.
peachstapler: The foreground character has zero reflection. The guy beneath him is a vision (of a friend). But I do expect to add some vague color block reflections to help ground the others.
Laura,
I think the vertical streaks on the cheeks of the “upsidedown guy” look rather intense, much more so than the shadows on the arms, for example. If they’re intended to be shadows, you might consider making them much less dark.
Lots of work on the background characters today. Let me know if anything about them bugs you.
Selden: They’re supposed to be indicators of his cheek bones, mostly. Though I think the problem may be a bit of a shading issue.
You are doing a pretty awesome job in here Laura.
Some crits: Those breaking lines have to get smaller the more they will be in the background.
The background isn’t working for me, it’s too empty imo. The characters in the background are still like they are floating, cause of no reflection/shadow on the ice/mirror.
Also his front right hand is looking realy good, but it’s reflection could get some work and also his upper left hand could get some work.
Oh and one last thing to crit about, I think those 2 characters in the back are a bit too far away.
Okay now you deserved the compliments as well: I realy like the color pallette and the idea of the reflection of the main character. I also find you have done a great job executing it. You also did a good job on his shoes and on the folds in his clothes.
Keep it up!
Wonderful palette here Laura. I love the light effects!
Hmm, I think a little bit of the upside-down guy’s foot should be seen.
