Two Dark Concepts C/C :)

#1

Hello everyone :slight_smile:

I would really appreciate if you could come with some awesome critics, good or bad in these two concepts.

Thanks, appreciate your time!

Direct links
1
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr85/Nellin_bucket/crowman.jpg

2
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr85/Nellin_bucket/skelettar_raw2.jpg

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2

#2

Can you please tell us who these characters are, what the premise of the story is, what the symbols and environment in them mean in the context of the narrative, and what you wanted to express/convey in with these concepts?

#3

The idea I had for both is that they are very emotionally distant, and sort of where they walk chaos follows, which I tried to convey through the fallen brick house. I haven’t thought that they necessarily are from the same world. You can imagine they are disfigured behind the masks.

One being more of a strong warrior the other more of a shadow priest with long hanging sleeves and with symbols from an unknown culture and language. Maybe from another planet, to add mystic around this character. I also choose to close his eyes to further add to this. I wanted to give the feeling that when you saw one of these characters in the woods or invading your village you would now that this is the end and that they are so frightening in their appearance that the they have the ability to cause paralyzing fear with just a look, and maybe they could also disappear where there are shadows. Their long robes make them seem like they float on water when they walk. My idea is also that they have very few weaknesses maybe the classic elements of fire and for crossing water.

Thank you Lunatique for asking these questions. I love describing my ideas like this. I could go on for days! :smiley: It would be interesting to hear what your idea of them is.

#4

My ideas for them really isn’t what’s important. What’s important is your ideas for them.

The reason I asked you those questions is because it’s extremely common to see people drawing and painting stuff without any purpose and don’t have a clear idea what they wanted to convey with their artwork. Visual art is about communicating visual ideas, moods, emotions, and narratives, but too many people don’t realize that a good artist can be so much more than just someone who makes pretty pictures–he could be a visual storyteller, communicate sociopolitical ideas, express personal emotions, and so on.

Now that we know what you’re going for, we can assess your images in the right context.

One thing that’s obvious is you make your figures too short, as if their legs are about 40% shorter than normal legs. When you depict figures, regardless if they are covered by clothes or armor or cape, you have to “draw through” and make sure the structural integrity of the figure is there, before you put the clothes and armors on the body. This is true in sculpting and 3D modeling as well–you must first do the naked figure first, and then put all the stuff on the figure.

The priest’s hands are a bit big. The average hand’s length from wrist to finger tip will stretch from the chin to the middle of the forehead. His left forearm is way too short. The length of the forearm with the elbow bend and measuring from the inside, is exactly one hand long.

You’ll need to study anatomy to learn this basic proportion stuff, and you must learn it if you want your figures to look credible and not misshapen.

The second image’s composition has some problems. The middle tree forms this distracting tangent with the figure’s head, and it’s also placed right in the middle of the image’s width–a really bad idea for natural looking composition.

You need to make his sword hand clearly readable. Don’t be lazy with this stuff–show the hand, or else the sword doesn’t look properly connected to the figure. Also, the hand appears to be placed too high. If you try to draw through the whole arm with the hand and how they are attached to the torso, you’ll see it’s problematic.

If those are supposed to be feathers on his cloak, you need to make them look more natural. Don’t place dark values/line around each feather like that. The feathers must conform to the lighting scheme in your scene, and their cast shadows must match the direction of the light source.

Your lighting seems a bit confused. You have the cast shadow of the figure going one direction, yet your background and the trees look as if they are back-lit. That’s a big contradiction. Decide where your light sources are and be consistent about it.

#5

Thanks Lunatique! Thats what I call critique. I agree on almost everything and now I have some things to fix. Was it anything you did Like about them? Because that is also important to know what to keep. Thanks again! :smiley:

#6

Usually, I just mention the problems I see because fixing those are first priority if the artist wants to improve the work. If I didn’t mention other aspects, that means I didn’t see anything bad enough to warrant mentioning. And if I see something I especially like, I’d mention it.

#7

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