Queen of the snow

#1

Hello everyone! This is my last drawing that I did in Photoshop. I wanted to experiment a bit with camera angle. As in here the camera should be looking not strait at her, but slightly upwards. This is snow world that has these ci-fi structures that looks like huge arcs. I still need to work on the background and that little device that she holds (should be some sort of hologram map or radar- haven’t decided yet) I think I’m pretty much done with the girl. But maybe there are some mistakes that I can’t see.

The reason I’m posting it here is because I’m hoping to get some feedback. My last 2 works that I posted in cgtalk gallery don’t relieve any comment at all, not even the bad once :(. By posting this image here I was hoping that somebody can put me in the right direction and say what might be wrong with it. So I really like to get some crits please even if it is a harsh one.

#2

Nice work there in Reykjavik! I like her face, her hands and the styling of her outfit.

Some feedback and ideas:

  • A basic issue is a bit the concept (mentioning more concerning your future work). “What do you want to tell?” would be probably the wrong question here, seeing that you simply want to show a good looking girl as your ice queen, but basically not bad to ask that when starting a project. Even if you don’t want to tell a particular story, there should be some feeling clearly visible in a picture (the artist always has some, needing only to become aware of them to be able to accent that in a work)

But still reasonable to ask “What’s happening on the picture?”, seeing a somewhat unconcerned girl with a highly interesting tool in her hand. Perhaps not much correctable anymore, but more emotion or/and interest on the lady would have been a good idea when drawing her.

  • An other (still correctable) issue is the composition in my eyes. Her right hand is very close to the frame while there’s a lot of space above her head. Also the pose of the legs isn’t well readable at the moment, looking like the hip was turned to the viewer but not her left thigh. An overall colour concept doesn’t seem to exist, the bold colours on the sky don’t really correspond with the nicely chosen colours on her.

And a few more technical crits:
-The ice in the background could be sharper regarding the foreground, but

  • be careful with that stuff roughly sketched on the sky and seemingly coming out of her head. Better to not get the background too busy around the head.
  • The light on her face seems to be different than on the rest of the body, having too much fill light there.
  • The loincloth-like fabric could have some folds, the material looking also rather thick now.

Looking forward to see you working on the piece.

Keep it up!

#3

Hi thank you for the response!

You are totally right about the concept. Honestly this image started simply as the face study. But then I wanted to do something more with it and eventually it grew into this. What I did wanted to show was her looking into the infinity as she has a road ahead of her and she is holding something like a “compass” that will help her in her journey. I will try to fix it by putting more emotions into her eyes.

About the composition I did had less space above her head in the beginning. But when I started to color the background the image became too busy. Background and the girl started to compare. I wanted to keep the structures so I blurred the background and lowered her a bit down but maybe in this particular image it is not such a good idea. I try to remove them to see what happens.

You totally right about anatomy, particular the hip. I was struggling with it a lot couse I didn’t really wanted to use a references but I will definitely try to work on it some more.

Thank you for the crits!

#4

In case you’re going to work on the character:
Forgot to mention a more minor issue with the pose around the shoulders. They seem to be more turned away from the viewer than the ribcage around the breasts, as shown here (the boxes just quickly drawn and far from being precise).

And here some rough editing to illustrate what i mean concerning the hips and the shoulders, plus the suggested space under the right hand. (note that the torso is much shorter and the center of the belt is more narrow because more turned away.

It’s a helpful and commonly used method to draw the body parts as boxes first, the torso divided into neck, shoulders, breasts, waist, and hip to have an overview of the bendings in the perspective.

It’s a beautiful face btw - almost a pity to change, but her expression shows either an interest for the compass, nor for the landscape, like when looking for a route - it’s more a thoughtful expression. An idea for the background could be some mysterious polar light.

Cheers

#5

I had some school project this week so I apologize that I was not posting anything.
This is an update. I had to go back to the basics in order to fix her pose. This time I used some fotoref for her shoulders and legs position. Maybe it’s just me, but even after using the reference the shoulders looks kind of odd :)… hop it isn’t’ so. I removed the background with structures and decided to give more space to the sky. By the way I love the Idea of the polar light, thanks for the hint Zokana :slight_smile:

Yesterday, like 3 o’clock in the morning I was doodling around and came up with this idea, what do you guys think?

#6

Good corrections! :thumbsup: must have been a lot of work.

Some more feedback, according to the favourite saying of one of my teachers “The one who says A, must also say B” (and i say it with pleasure, if useful):

It’s an interesting solution of all problems with the compass. :smiley: The picture is getting more a simple portrait, so the thoughtful expression is ok. Much better her left arm now with the graceful pose. I guess she’s touching her heart, the warm (or maybe icy) heart of a Snow Queen, and not because of freezing - the reason why i don’t like the 3 AM version, making her look like having cold in the snow storm.(and the jewellery isn’t really in relation with the pose, looking more like a last minute addition :wink: )

And here a few suggestions concerning mainly her right arm.

Keep it up!

#7

Hi Zokana! Thank you for the feedback!
That right arm is a killer. I was thinking to lower it like hundreds times over but then I keep telling to myself “Stick with the photo”, “Stick to the photo”. I guess it was a bad idea after all :slight_smile:
Try to work on it tomorrow.

#8

haha, don’t forget that many (if not most) people have tensed up shoulders, but not a Snow Queen of course.

#9

Small nitpick - you have great detail all over the body, but the string hanging off her hand is fuzzy. It’s jarring. I’d make that a small, precise line, with shading, instead, and sharpen up the object hanging from it. The level of focus and detail around it don’t fit the fuzziness of how you’ve drawn it.

I like where the background is headed - own it! Go for it! It needs to be bolder, stronger, more of a statement. She’s the queen of winter, after all - make it epic. The arcs also lead the eye back to the figure, it works very well compositionally. Have fun with it, push it as far as you can, it will add more mystery and intrigue. Blow the borealis out, make them strong, huge swathes of color. Your figure is strong enough to juxtapos off of a very strong background.

#10

Well, I think this is pretty much done. The girl and the background both are refined. Maybe there are some mistakes but I have been looking at the image for so long that I can’t see it any more.

#11

Thanks for showing the final image! :slight_smile: Very good corrections and the ice in the back is superb!

Also the polar light is much better, even if personally i don’t like that much the strong green in the sky, but that’s probably more a subjective opinion. Perhaps the overall brightness could get somewhat improved and maybe the eye area lightened up a bit. I’d also change the saturation of the yellow on the skin, regarding the strong reflections of the snow (here a quick editing). But all in all cool work! :thumbsup:

Keep it up!

#12

You have really good eye for this kind a things! It does look much better with correction you suggested. So now I’m thinking to tweak the image just a bit more :slight_smile:
Thank you for all your feedback! I really appreciated. The image looked much deferent now if it wasn’t for your help!

#13

I like it, it’s very reminiscent of Michael Whalen’s work.

#14

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