Project Rain Storm

#1

This is my latest Project tentatively titled Rain Storm. My inspiration is the song Lightning Strike by Snow Patrol. Basically I just want to capture the image of a young girl / woman (still working on the face) reaching out to the viewer to take her hand and run with her into the encroaching storm.

I still have a long way to go, anatomy isn’t quite where I want it, her face needs work (instert - emotion), the hair isn’t done, mountains, etc. etc. I just wanted to get some opinions so far so fire away!

edit - Larger Version Found Here

#2

It’s a nice motif. I really love the dark sky, although you should work at it a little more. Especially the bolt seems set arbitrarily.

Take photo references for your background. Watch attentivly how colour and contrast change the farther the “objects” are. The mountains are never that blue at that distance! The tree doesn’t satisfy.

I strongly recommend to use a reference for the women. There’s everything wrong on her!

If don’t have much stamina, you should better just draw ONE thing in ONE picture. For example you could first concentrate on mountains, instead of painting mountains, trees AND women! It’s easier to paint things you have alrready drawn/painted/studied before!

#3

Thanks for the comments. Although the one thing I don’t fully understand is that you say that everything is wrong with the woman. Could you or someone else be more specific? I know there are problems with the chest area that I am still working out and the face isn’t complete.

But otherwise I wouldn’t go as far as to say that everything is wrong with her. I need something more specific for the critique to be beneficial.

#4

Well, imagine her sceleton! Then take a look at her shoulder, her arms and hands, her face! I can’t describe it in words, you really have to SEE it.

Of course, there isn’t everything wrong at her. I can identify your painting as a woman. But what quality do you await for your finished work? Are you fine with it when you can identify mountains, trees and a woman? In this case, you’re already done.

Here’s a raw sketch (not quite correct) to show you what I mean.

#5

Im still not certain what your getting at. Her body is turned which is why her right shoulder is not as pronounced as her left shoulder.

I can see where maybe some of the proportions are a little off but again, I just don’t see anything glaringly wrong with her body or shape.

As I said before, this is the WIP forum and her body is nowhere near finished so more work is still to be done. I’m just not sure what the problem is still.

#6

You have good start but I also strongly suggest you get a reference or a model because the only thing that cues me in that she is a woman is her chest area. I really like the idea for this picture and I like the background a lot. It has a lot of potential but the woman needs work.
You wanted specifics so here’s what I see:
Her shoulders are misshapen. They go up too high and are too rounded.
Her body is not turned in the direction that her face and arm are so it looks unnatural.
She doesn’t have any waist or hips. She’s a woman so she needs curves. In general she looks too thick.
Her arms are too short. I think you are trying to portray foreshortening but you can’t tell. Foreshortening is a really hard concept to master. Most artists have difficulty with it, myself included. To capture it correctly, get someone to pose for you or imitate the position yourself so you can see what the arms would look like. I’m sure with some work you can get it to look great.
That is my humble opinion and I hope it helps.
Good luck!

#7

Thank you that is all very helpful and all of the things you pointed out are things that I have been working on.

I will post an update soon with some changes. THANKS!!!

#8

Here is a (admittedly) quick reshaping of her body and arms. Please let me know if I’m heading in the right direction. I had my wife pose for me but am still having difficulty with some of the angles.

ALSO her bust area needs some work, its sticking to far to the left, I need to reign it in a bit and focus on getting that left shoulder corrected.

Please let me know what you think.

#9

I see that you have changed the waist and it looks better. However, I think there are too many things to fix and redraw so it probably would be easier to just restart the woman from scratch and redo her the second time from a photo ref. But it is ultimately your call.
Good luck!

#10

Hi

MBoheman is correct, it would probably be easier to start the figure fresh. This site has lots and lots of photoref for artists and I’m sure you could find something close to what you want: http://characterdesigns.com/index.php?sitepage=photosets

Cheers

D’Arcy

#11

Thanks for that link! Great references on there.

SO, I figured that I would give the current figure one more shot and try to get this right after having my wife pose for me a few times. I think this new shape is a definite improvement. Overall the entire upper body was re-worked. ITS NOT PERFECT at all.

Also, the lighting is just slapped on as well as the right side shoulder where I haven’t worked on the lighting yet and am still working on the shape of the right shoulder.

Let me know what you think.

#12

hi,im Mic here,after awhile looking at the piece,i kinda visualize it in my head and it has a potential to be a great art work,perhaps fine tuning it would be a lil tough and i kinda agreed with what Mboehman said about reworking it as the character’s proportion is off.maybe i can offer a few tips,i usually draft it out with some rough outlines,wont shade it until im satisfied with the characters proportion,face and the overal composition.after when im done with the sketch,ill then shade it with grey tones to get the contrast and value,also not forgetting where the light coming from,the highlights and shadows.then only i start playing with the palettes and color schemes by applying an overall ambient tone ontop of it and bare in mind that the grey scale piece will left untouch,but u can always paint over on to it with a new layer.u can always play with the ‘‘new fill and adjustment layer’’,i always play around with the color balance,curves,brightness and contrast to get the results i want,also the layer blending mode comes in pretty handy as well.

perhaps ill do a quick tutorial for ya,ill post it here if you dont mind,my intention is souly on helping you out to make this a better piece:)

#13

I figured I would just keep plugging away with my current model form. I have also worked a bit on the foreground and the tree along with the lighting on the figure and dress.

If you think its coming along well, please let me know, I’m getting a bit discouraged. Also, please let me know what still sucks so I can fix it! Lol…

#14

don’t be discouraged. You are getting very important feedback here on your work. Sometimes it’s hard to get criticism from complete strangers.

The trick is not to be too precious about your art. What I mean is don’t be afraid to start over. I would guess that this is the most fundamental fear to get over as an artist. When studying animation we had a sign up in our class with the ‘Nike’ symbol and the text “Just REDO it”. hehe.

If you are faced with starting a figure over from scratch don’t think of the time you’ve spent up to this point as a ‘waste’, you are learning. You have an opportunity to improve your understanding of the human figure and make your painting stronger than you ever imagined. So stick with it even if the comments and advise hurt a bit, k?

So, put the background to the side for a while and focus on the figure.

I agree with the criticism you’ve had so far on it. There are several issues with the figure that are distracting. Reference is an often overlooked aspect of starting a painting. Folks starting out often think the ‘master’ just paints out of their head. In fact, they are using reference you don’t see. And in the case where the ‘master’ does paint from their head, they are relying on years and years of using reference to the point where it’s become muscle memory.

You have some homework. Sketch out the woman using primative shapes. Cylinders for her arms, spheres, cubes … leave the clothing and all the details out of the figure and focus on how all the parts of her body are posed. Post that and we can help you along.

I’m regularly in awe of the talent on these forums - you are among true masters here. Just be patient and never be afraid to start over as part of the learning experience.

#15

sammy is right.u dont have to feel discourage at all,i do get harsh feedbacks and comments at works too when dealing with some projects.i read it somewhere where artists are considered egoistic when being critisize ,however,those feedbacks makes us grow.:slight_smile:
i did a small tutorial base on your painting with some notes along each and every progress i have made.i hope this will help improve your painting:)sorry for my english for its not my main language

#16

I’ve followed the progress of the painting and it’s great to see other artists helping to bring an art peice to its full potential. I find one of my biggest issues is I hate to erase my babies= being it a face or hand that I spent forever on- but in the end it makes us grow as artists- but oh so hard to do. Micheals post has been so helpful. It’s great to see the process of how other artists work. I look forward to seeing how this evolves. I’m excited about how helpful everyone has been- looks like a great community. Rluto You have a great concept and it’s coming along. Im exciting to see how you use the advise you’ve been given.

#17

I definitely can take advice, I’m here to learn :slight_smile: and I have tried making a few adjustments to the figure but in all honesty I feel no reason to ditch the current figure and start it again simply because I made many changes after having my wife pose and that is pretty much exactly how she looked so if it is not proportionally correct you may want to take that up with her! :stuck_out_tongue: lol.

Anyway, it is a portrait of her, for her, so if her body doesn’t look right, oh well, thats the way it really is…

I have been working on her dress a little, and the foreground / background but have been pretty sick lately and haven’t had much time. I’ll get cracking on this again soon and should have another update by tomorrow or friday.

#18

You may have made changes but really, there are still anatomy issues here - I used to think when I drew from life it was just going to be correct but in truth any picture is only as good as your hand’s abilities to capture the model and it’s really hard to see your own mistakes :hmm:.
I would strongly suggest taking a picture of her and posting it as your reference so we can help you with the subtle corrections. If you aren’t willing to do that, at least sketch her underlying anatomy over top of your painting so we can see what you think is there and help you adjust it.

Cheers

D.

#19

This pic is not the exact one I used but is very close. Only difference is that in this pic her shoulders are turned a bit more than the one I used.

If you guys and gals can point out exactly whats wrong so I can correct it and be done with the anatomy side of this pic I would GREATLY appreciate it and I REALLY appreciate all the help so far, you people are the best!

#20

I took a little time to draw over your image. There’s plenty of problems.
Firstly, that dress is wide, it looks like she’s bending he knees quite a bit.
Secondly, the approximate height is 7 -8, you’ve got 5 in there, and I doubt that another two are out of the picture.
The slope to the breast makes her look… wierd.
The breasts and stuff make her look triangular. Like a buff hunk, rather than the usual hourglass of a woman. You might have gone off of your wife, but the picture shows a woman considerably younger. A little bit of consideration of age and it’s effects on the body might be useful.

One comparison shows the reference interposed overthe actual image. It’s quite different. So hard to position right.

The other is just what I noticedin rainbow ink.