RanZ Cross, 1. I did do some photography, and it may have helped me a little with lighting. Though I didn’t do so very much of it… Studying anatomy, like for instance in Life Drawing class, bodybuilding magazines, and medical pictures etc, has really helped a lot.
2. I started at 3, so I was kind of self-learning for over 20 years, then I studied art formally for 3 years, then I practised as a professional illustrator for 10 years (which could also be seen as learning).
3. I’d like to work on a great movie project, like LOTR was. 
azmin, don’t join… my partner and me tried our best to start it up and get it going, but as of now, over a year later, there has been very little help from other industry leaders or the government, and attendance and interest is falling… I think we’re just about to give up on it, sorry.
Jose Pardo, 1. Good epic feeling. I think the hues in the background are too varied: purple, yellow, white, orange, red, all of them quite saturated… I’d tone the bottom half to be a bit more like that cool beige/yellow on the left. The purplish clouds are nice. The white should be toned down (to beige or peach), especially since it doesn’t seem to match the lighting in the scene: the light on the characters seems to come from our left. The lightning bolt acts as an arrow to lead our eyes out of the scene, try to mute the brightest part of it. On the left, the smoke rising from the vent could be made stronger, to lead the eye more upwards, instead now the eye follows the horizon out of the frame. The minotaur’s axe on our left is good, maybe even darker - the one on our right could catch a big highlight right across it, and become a secondary focal point, I think that would look nice composition wise, it would make sense lighting-wise, and also we would see right away that he’s holding 2 axes instead of 1, it took me a while… the castle battlements, if you make the ‘teeth’ along them smaller the castle will look bigger.
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Nice character study, her personality or attitude really shows. But she has some anatomy and lighting problems, like her left hand too small, neck too long, elbow too rounded and ‘bulgy’… spine seems quite long, and I’m not sure we’d actually see the butt cheek at all from this angle. I think you need reference for this, it’s VERY hard to do without it, I certainly wouldn’t like to try.
It can be as simple as a friend of yours in a rolled-up t-shirt, with a desklamp from the front, click. Done. I really recommend it, nothing beats reference you shoot yourself, and it’s quick, cheap, easy and fun. -
Cool idea, I really like the background, but the foreground is very ‘busy’ in terms of shadows and highlights and colors and forms, lots of contrast and complexity. See if you can simplify that a little, maybe put her more in silhouette, maybe only lit by those explosions behind her, and a bluish helmet light inside the helmet (like in “Outland” or “Aliens” or something - in fact I recommend buying or renting movies just for reference). That would improve the clarity, the compositon, and increase the drama.
InKraBid, good drawing, cool style, I like the color scheme and the composition… not sure what is going on though, maybe it’s designed to be viewed within some kind of context? Seems to be a perspective problem on the stone rim, at the bottom of the image. The black shadow in the face, while graphic and strong, seems a little out of place, maybe it should be slightly lighter, like a dark grey? Or else a black shadow from her body on the water and wall behind her. The direction of the light… if the face is in this much shadow, I think also the breasts and the skirt would throw more shadow downwards. And for some reason I’d like to increase that bright area at the top, not sure why. Widen it, make the whole wall brighter along the upper edge. This image inspires me, good job.
ArtisticVisions, 1. I’ve done no sculpting at all in art school, in fact none at all since I was a teen.
2. The 2d of the Fairy&Snake came first, it was always planned as a 3d, but I got carried away on the sketching stage…
Pvt. Jackson, tackar! Yes, I’m thinking about doing a DVD for Gnomon, I shall do my very best to get going on that.
DivineRAiN, 1. I think rigging the face is the easiest part. Knee, ankle, maybe elbow, also fairly easy, though the elbow is complicated by the extreme amount of twist the neighbouring joints have to be able to do. THe hardest is definitely the shoulder/biceproll, the hip comes in a distant second (not at all as mobile as the shoulder.
2. Oh yes, many times. Pretty much all of Linda’s work for instance, just to take an example close to home.
3. Because I spend so much time and effort on each piece, I usually feel about the same some months later. Also, I’ve learned to see more clearly, than I did say 20 years ago. Even 10 years ago.
anzibon, hehe, fun idea! Is that a tornado in the background? Is that what released the prisoner?
The light direction, I think the whole chest, stomach, and his right arm and leg (except maybe the foot), would all be in full shadow, as the suns rays would not be able to reach them. As I’ve mentioned before, I think some reference would be great here, mainly for the landscape, but also maybe some extreme bodybuilder images. If you look through enough of them, maybe you can even find one that has similar lighting and pose. The giant’s anatomy looks good so far, but it’s always better to have reference. Good luck with the challenge.
Jeremyi, thanks! 1. No, sorry, no classes here in Asia, and I don’t know any in Thailand.
2. About 11 years.
j/k
