Character Illustration II WIP

#1

This is my second piece that I’d like to post on this forum. My concept is to shine my devil character in a holy light. I’m not too sure whether I’d like to add god rays because it seems a bit clich’e. But so far, I love the grungy, rough look of him in relation to the background.

Backstory:

Devi (the one in the picture) is half-human half-demon. His father was the guardian of the Underworld whereas his mother is a human. One day in France, Satan was attracted to the beauty and innocence of the nun, and impregnated her. When she gave birth to a baby, the mother nun was shocked to see her baby who has dark-red skin with horns on his head. Feeling guilty of herself, the nun decided to go to the river to drown the baby. While she was hesitating, the father Satan rose from the river and told her not to fear him or their child. When Satan saw kindness and serenity in his son’s eyes, he told her to give all the love to the child named Devi so that she becomes stronger; when he grows up he will be her strength and her guidance. As the mother took care of the devil, she eventually learns that her son was not as evil as she would’ve thought, despite how the people around her avoided the devil and the mother. Years later, all grown-up, Devi took care of his mother and migrate to a different place where the community would accept him and his mother.

I hope you guys enjoy watching the process, and I appreciate if you drop in constructive comments and critiques!

#2


This next iteration starts to clarify the form and shape. I’ll be flipping back and forth to make sure that the proportions are consistent.

#3

I played around more with values so that his form contrasts to the light.

#4

Adjustments to muscle proportions and lighting. Stronger contrast and more clarification with the reflected light.

#5

Allrighty, this is my final iteration because I think that is as far as I can go before the painting looks more stiff. I kinda like the movement the brush strokes present, especially how the subject is meant to be still.

#6

If this is meant to be a finished painting, I think you can tighten it up a bit more. There’s no reason to have vague edges on important areas that need to read clearly, such as his nose. The contour of his lips can be better defined too. There are a variety of different edge types (sharp, firm, soft, and lost), and you need to understand why you are obscuring edges and why you are making them clear. Contours silhouettes usually need to read clearly, especially when they’re mostly back-lit.

His deltoid muscle looks too long and isn’t positioned properly (the bottom tip should connect to the bicep), and his elbow is positioned a bit too low. His mid-torso also seems a bit long.

#7

Anatomical inconsistencies to one side, your lighting seems all over the place.
It looks like the light source is coming in from the top left, yet there are highlights on what should be the front of his body, and just on one side at that, which makes him look like he is made up of distinct chunks, rather than a whole. You need to break it down into planes and get the lighting / shade sorted from that before refining it.
It’s all a bit mono-tone as well, though maybe that’s the idea, in which case why are the horns a different colour ? The horns probably need a bit more definition as well so they sit in place. Currently they look a bit ‘floaty’.

#8

Thank you for the critique, Lunatique. I’ll try to re-visit my work if I have the time. I’ll definitely need to find some references for this kind of lighting.

#9

Thank you for your critique, NikLG. Now that I’ve noticed the flaws in my work, I’ll see what I can do to re-adjust it.

#10

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