"PAINTOVER PLEASE" - painted crits on demand - with Steven Stahlberg

#101

Good job Stahlberg. In the picture that I posted (meeting alien-human), I was thinking about put the character in a shadow of some element. Maybe it would be a good element to add more colors to the alien-human “characters”. So I will try this :slight_smile:

I think that you are so good, but, Are you learning with this activity? We (all people) will be learning along all our lives. And I think that if someone are good in his job, maybe it will be always new things to learn. What do you think?

I will post a new image that I have working on it.

(Sorry about my english… I wish I could to say more things, and better… xDDD)

#102

Thank you very much indeed!

I really apreciate this kind of comments.

#103

Janek and Gawain - nice sketches. But I’m not sure what to do with them. Janek, you say you want mood, which mood is that? Gawain, please tell me more about your image, what you want to communicate with it. Is it just a cool character for a game? Or is it a sad elf? Or an angry warrior? etc

Also, as I mentioned in the beginning I only want to accept finished images, or images that are almost finished but that you are ‘stuck’ with… no sketches. I think it’s easier for me, then, to know what you are trying to do, and I also think you learn more from that.

Go ahead and work some more on those images, add some colors, and for the woman maybe some background, then by all means, if you’re not happy with them, submit them here and I’ll see what I can do to help.

#104

hello steven,great stuff you’ve got here :applause:
Well I know that you often work on values before colours but lastly I tried the same and I’m completely lost concerning colors. Can’t really decide which color mood I should choose.

It would be great if you could give me your advice, and if something’s missing in the composition too,feel free to talk about it…

#105

Are you learning with this activity?

Oh, yes most definitely. Every paint stroke we do is practise. And this forces me to perhaps do more paint strokes in one day than I would otherwise do. :smiley:

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#106

Steven

You’re right. I think I was too much in hurry for having your precious feedback and forgot to gave some infos :slight_smile:

It is a concept for a 3D pitch pilot. She is a rogue. Born in a small village, Vivian left her home when she was just a young girl because she is “different” (in fact she is a were-creature and cannot control very well the shapeshifting). Vivian wanted a different, simple happy life. She thinks life is crude and quite meaningless, but the more she knows humans the more she appreciate the time in wereform.
What I try to capture (and actually cannot) is her melanchonic attitude suspended between the two worlds she lives in. Also i think she has to be more stylized (or cartoonish), to best suite her 3D form.
I’ll be very grateful if you could give me some hints in this stage of the picture but I understand what you mean and I will go on and try to finish her anyway, and re-submit the result.

Thank You very very much!
G.

#107

It is extremely cool of you to demonstrate ways to make work better. It is a very fulfilling exercise and makes the artist think of what they aren’t doing…and that is typically where we go wrong. I will take a poke at this. Here is an old 3D city image I built. It was to be an environment only (no characters)…but it seemed rather flat to me, and it never really reached the level of quality which I typically seek to achieve (by using inspiration from artists as qualified as yourself). If you have time and select this one…great, if not, I understand and thank you…I have learned what seperates the pros from the rookies in developing quality imagery.

This is some way old stuff…so have fun with this if you choose it.

Benjamin

#108

Hi steven- just wondering, what’s the most common mistake you’ve come across so far while doing this?

#109

Hello Steven I have seen your works, and really love every piece you make. I think everybody appreciate infinitely the support you do to the community and specially the artists. Im astounded for the speed you have for painting and its quality, the speed painting look is my weak point and cannot get a good “sketchy” look only with few strokes. Anyways I hope you can help me to improve this illustration I made some time ago, but still cannot see the mistakes (if theres anyone,and I think many). Its just soft brushes but. Still not sure about anatomy, illumination, compo, cloth…THANKS

PD as you see, it has a little “comic” style

#110

Thanks Steven for your time! I’ll take a look at this masterpiece :thumbsup:

I don’t want to bother you, but…I always had the impresion that is something wrong in this painting, but my skills are not as good as I want. Any ideas?

Anyway, thanks a lot for your feedback Steven, truly helpful!

#111


Here is mine (though its not finished, just wanted to see where you would change)

#112

Hi Steven!
This is actually one of the most helpful topics and threads I ever found. I always think that strokes help better than words, but words are always appreciated :wink:
Actually I have a lot of stuff that is freezed, for two reasons, time and uncapacity of finding the right solution with the technique to achieve the result I have in mind.
I usually work tone on tone, the style of bringing out light and shadows from middle tones, but usually this is the death to atmosphere when I switch on something else that isn’t a portrait.
Thank you in general for your time, and compliments for your amazing art (I adore your works)
ana

I’m stuck on this one, for the precise reason I’m not sure about the composition and cut.
The idea is of a humid cave, with two light holes, one in the back, the other on the girl. Stalagmites and such. But you can change anything you like, the cut expecially.( I already made a few changes by suggestions, but I’m not satisfied)
And yes… he’s a ghost :smiley: :wink: (what a kitch…)

#113

hey steven

once again many thanks for taking the time to do this for the community…

my piece (i hope it qualifies) is very much a WIP but i would love your comments on lighting and composition

many thanks indeed

#114

Hi Steven

Here is my baby…
i didn’t have much time to work the lighting in this scene hehe

#115

This one I did last night needs help.

It’s Akira from Virtua Fighter.

I’m trying to make the skin look more realistic, but it’s just not working.

A semi intense mood would be fine. I hadn’t thought of that yet, but it fits.

Like he’s watching his opponent walk up to him.

(Edit) I updated the image

#116

Here’s two more overpaints:

POP23.jpg566x800

This one, I simply removed the colorful parts, and the melting watch (and added some more towers in the distance). See how much nicer it is… well I think so anyway. :slight_smile: The deleted stuff was distracting, overshadowing the other very nice parts of your image, and now it has a cool thoughtful feeling to it.

POP24.jpg900x906

Gawain - as you can see I’ve been swamped with images lately, and I’m going to bed now. I’ll try to get to yours later, meanwhile you can also work on it.

paperclip, the most common problem seems to be distracting “noise” - high contrast patterns or details, extending past the foreground and middleground, into the farthest depth of the image. As you may have noticed, I tend to flatten the contrasts more and more the further back in the image I go. Another thing that doesn’t work very well in backgrounds is highly saturated colors.

PereBalsach - that’s a very cool image. I can’t find much ‘meat’ to tweak in paint, so I’ll try with words this time. The outlines of the skull are a bit soft, compared to all the other sharp outlines. The far shoulder seems brighter than the near shoulder, which flattens the perspective because it then seems closer to us than the near one.

bearfoot - same with you, very good image, not much to paint-crit. Maybe you could try angling the view so the platform in the foreground is more prominent, and leading more to the left. If you then make sure it’s brighter near the character it should work as an ‘arrow’ to lead the eye from the lower left corner swoosh to the main focus

As for you other guys, paints coming up tomorrow

Good night

.

#117

Hello Steven! :applause:
I create Night Elf Girl from Warcraft. And no one like she`s face.
How to make she face more Sexy?
It would be great if you could give me your advice, and if something’s missing in the face anatomy. Paintover please.

#118

Sorry guys–jumped the gun there–moving the artwork to a proper block of four.

Hi Steven,

I've enjoyed your artwork for years now--it's really cool to have an opportunity to engage you (and all of the artists on CG Talk for constructive feedback).  Thank you!

Coconut Postcard is for the cover of some sheet music of the same name.  I'm happy with the overall sketchy-ness of it, but I feel like something is missing.  I think I need to go somewhere with the bushes, but I'm not sure where--I've tried a few things but I just don't have a sense of them.

Thanks for looking man!

Ian
#119

A lot of thanks! :smiley: It´s good to see how can be a painting on a more advanced process of painting. I always need more smoothed surfaces, but I can´t do it because the “way of think” about painting. I wish I could communicate what I try to say xDDDD So… Seeing how to do over my sketch give me a lot of ideas and a lot of ways to work on it. I´ve been painting over my picture and now I can do it better.

Thanks and Good night!! :slight_smile:

#120

hey guys slow down the requests and count.

he said 4 at a time. don’t bog the guy down. yes everybody is excited but…