Lake Brosno Monster - Critique Wanted

#1

This is a photoshop painting of my interpretation of the Lake Brosno Monster. It’s based in Eastern Russia and like many monster stories has been rumored to appear at times to attack animals and humans. Among the stories is that it supposedly attacked a German plane during WW2. The lake has Burbot and Perch living in it despite them both being salt water fish so I used the burbot as a slight inspirational reference along with some traditional dragon and sea serpent ideas.

Please give me any constructive critique you can. Anything at all… lighting/shadowing, movement, contrast, form, hierarchy, color (note that I definitely lost some bright orange color in the monster skin when I saved it as a jpg), etc. This is probably the best painting I’ve ever done to give you an idea of where I’m coming from.

Thank you!

#2

I think the biggest problem I see in this painting, is that you are using painterly brushwork to cover us a lack of solid structure and foundation. It seems like you are going by “feel” instead of “understanding.”

I don’t know how serious you are about becoming a better artist, but if you are indeed very serious about it, then start strengthening your visual art foundations. Do value studies. Do color studies. Do still life. Do master copies. Do life drawing. Learn to build your images from the ground up starting with a solid tonal composition at the thumbnail sketch level that has your basic values and colors and shapes fully worked out, without any details whatsoever, and then build on top of it.

When imparting brushstrokes, think about surface type. Don’t paint all surfaces the same way. How a reptile’s skin reflects light and its overall texture will be very different from how a treeline looks from far away, or how clouds look, and so on. Match brushwork to surface types. Also, the amount of specular highlight and their reflectivity on these different surfaces will be very different, yet in your painting, everything looks the same.

Don’t constantly blow out your highlights. Save them only for the hottest specular highlights at the very top end of your dynamic range. Everything else should be be blown out to white.

#3

Thank you! It’s an honor to be given such great advice from you Mr Chang. I will certainly take it to heart right away. :bowdown:

#4

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