"PAINTOVER PLEASE" - painted crits on demand - with Steven Stahlberg

#121

Interesting. I always assumed it’d be bad composition or incorrect values or something (although I assume you see plenty of that anyway). I did notice how you’ve flattened the contrasts and I was watching to see how far you’d take that. :smiley:

#122

I always assumed it’d be bad composition or incorrect values

Funny you should mention that, imo those are issues related to the overly contrasty issue. As I’ve discussed with you before, to me composition is basically how you distribute your focal points, the parts that attract the eye. Overly contrasty high frequency noise all over is like putting a million equal focal points evenly all over the image. It’s also an “incorrect value” issue, because parts that should not be focal points have both too dark and too bright values, thus becoming focal points.

But, I think I know what you mean by incorrect values, incerrectly capturing the play of shadow and light across objects? It’s true that is also a common issue, in many cases due to a lack of anatomical knowledge. Once you ‘know’ a form better you tend to apply the values more correctly.

#123

thewave - I’m not sure what’s going on here, is it possible that you’re using incandescence or self-illumination on all the textures? There seems to be no real shadows happening, or if there are they are muted almost invisible by the extremely strong textures. Especially at night, it’s important to realise that buildings are basically black, no matter what their color in the daytime, with only small pools of light cast by outside lights, and neon signs and lights from inside windows. I did some clumsy painting to show what I mean, but in reality it would be even darker than this.

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Dogway - I didn’t do much to this one, as it’s strongly stylized and paintovers aren’t very good for those. I tweaked a few anatomy and perspective issues though.

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Robert Ashley - can you describe more what you want the image to be when it’s finished? As it stands now, it’s a bit too sketchy for me, I could finish it for you but then it would be my painting not yours. :slight_smile: It’s also quite good, I can’t really find any anatomy issues to fix… Maybe you can work on it some more, then repost it?

mindofka -

todesco - again, an image that is stylized, polished and works well enough that I can’t find much to crit. I might get rid of Darth’s lightsaber, it makes things a bit unclear and busy over there, but that’s about it.

Gabe -

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Simon3d - it’s very hard to overpaint on neutrally posed, neutrally lit, untextured 3d geometry like this. I might want to move the corner of the mouth a few millimeters for instance, but if I try painting that it won’t be clear. So let me try verbally: the mouth corners seem a bit sharp and thin, get some good closeup reference and have a closer look at that. The nostrils I think need some more subtle shaping, again reference images (or even your own nose) will tell you more than my overpainting. The edge of the jaw also seems a bit sharp. Otherwise, a very good head!
I would recommend anyone with 3d geometry like this to post it in my other ‘advice’ thread, a sticky at the top of the Maya forum here.

#124

Hey stahlburg, GREAT work I have alot i would like help with but… this is one iv actualy finished in the past few months… somthing just doesnt seem right, perspective, the shadows maybe, but I think im starting to get anatomy a little better i hope. thanks for your help if you do, i know you will make it insanely better than mine id just like to see How. :wink:

#125

Hello Steven, I really love your work and have admired it for years. That’s why I don’t want to miss the chance to get some crits from you on my digital painting done in photoshop. I actually finished this quite some time ago, but still think it’s one of my best. That’s why i would love to learn how to improve it.

Thanks in advance,
Sebastian.

#126

Good morning! My, you work fast :slight_smile: I wanted to wait to post something until you had less than 4 in the queue, and luckily I wake up early enough to have found a spot, so here I go.

This image is almost done – actually it could be done - but, there is something missing I feel. I want to know what you think I could push further – I would love your feedback about what I am doing wrong and what I can work on — plus, how can I improve? What technical things do I need to work on? Give it to me, I can take it, please be as straight up honest as you possibly can - only truly objective eyes can give a crit and paint-over as to what I can push further.

As an aside - is it perhaps the lack of a person in the image that makes it feel incomplete? I feel almost like it is a background shot - there isn’t enough atmosphere…

#127

Alright–I think this is the proper time/place to post. I see three untreated artworks before me. Forgive me if somebody beats me to the fourth spot while I’m writing this! Sorry for jumping the gun before.

Coconut Postcard is for the cover of some sheet music of the same name. I’m happy with the overall sketchy-ness of it, but I feel like something is missing. I think I need to go somewhere with the bushes, but I’m not sure where–I’ve tried a few things but I just don’t have a sense of them.

#128

Hey Steven,

well, I am not sure how to setup my lighting for this scene.
It´s very difficult, because without the lighting I can´t really start do paint , the wrinkles of the suite, the shoes etc.
I thought about a scene playing on a street, where the character is hiding behind the front of a car, lit by police lights, blue and red ones.

#129

I muted the line work, moved the direction of the light, changed the color of the shadows and ground, and changed the cropping a bit.

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#130

i demand to know where this make good button is

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#131

The outstanding picture count looks to be quite a bit high so I’ll hold off. It sounds like this will keep going for awhile though right?

Thanks. :thumbsup:

#132

Yes it will. :slight_smile: I plan on keeping the thread going as long as people keep submitting good overpaint material… there may be interruptions for sickness or vacation or whatever temporary stuff like that.

#133

Wow what a difference, thank you.
This is a great eye opener for me.

I’m making a psd file with a bunch of before and afters, to keep as reference.

Great work man :thumbsup:

#134

The clouds are the only big problem I can see, which isn’t much… my suggestion:

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The coconut can stay yellow if you like, I just have to stay as close as I can to realism when I do paintovers because it’s the only objective standard we can apply. :slight_smile: (I think coconuts range from green to brown, correct me if I’m wrong)

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This one, I tried to be more strict with regards to realistic shadows and light:

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A lighting suggestion:

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.

#135

Wow this thread is a godsend, I hope its still going…

This is the my latest piece, about 90% complete,
Is there anything I can do to make the scene look more dramatic?, I feel the lighting got washed out along the way and looks too even. Also any pointers on making the armour look shiner, and the general composition / perspective and proportions is much appreciated.

Thanks

#136

Thank you Steven! :thumbsup:
See you in your thread in Maya forum.
Good Luck!

#137

Excelent thread!! I’ll try to post my next work here!!

Thanks for all this help Steven! :thumbsup:

Azabache

#138

Thanks a lot Steven!
Understood, I’m always afraid of pushing the light further, that’s really how I have it in mind.
And thanks for the suggestions, and tutorials on your site. They’re extremely useful, expecially for people like me that are in trouble with environments :wink:

Did I say thanks, again? :beer:

#139

Hello steven, this is a great thing your doing here! hope to learn some stuff from you. here’s mine. i’m really stuck on the design for the armor and a bunch of other stuff. thz in advance :slight_smile:

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#140

Wow, great thread.
I think, the most dramatic overpaint till now is the one with the cat and the dead fairy,
The difference is amazing :eek:

With this picture I want to show a tortured slave that was kept in this dark town in the background.
He starts his journey into freedom and a new live and so his sunlight face is full of joy and happiness.
Somehow i wanted to include some evil people or some kind of dark ghost like creatures from the town, which are crossing his path walking into the opposite direction looking evil at him…Its strange, the painting somehow looks finished but it doesnt feels like that.