Predator Image - crit is welcome

#1

Hi Everyone,

Well, my pride is a little damaged today after getting this image rejected from the 2D gallery. I’m starting to think I’m losing my grasp on what constitutes good digital art lately as I was pretty pleased with this and I have been less and less impressed with what makes into the Choice Gallery.

Sorry to sound bitter :slight_smile: I sincerely welcome any critique or comments.

This is a painting I just “finished” showing a weak predator being outcast and marked as unworthy (title “Unworthy”).

Thanks for your help and thanks for looking.

#2

Hmmm…

I’m assuming you mean it didn’t even get into the showcase gallery? Did they give you any reasons (I’m aware that they often don’t due to the volume of submissions).

I’ll be honest I would have personally put this through into the showcase gallery, simply because there’s some really nice work in there and there are definitely some pieces in there that aren’t as good. But I’m guessing you want opinions on whats wrong with it. Firstly, whilst I love the smaller predator on the right, the one on the left looks a little flat. The background implies that there’s a big light on the top right of the image but that doesn’t seem to be having any effect on the lighting of the characters, and whilst you get away with fairly central lighting on the smaller guy, it isn’t working as well on the big one. It’d be nice to see some of that light on the front of him to give him more shape.

Secondly I think the composition could do with a little tweaking. It feels a touch close in and it might have been cool if the bigger guy was lower down with his arm more outstretched. At the moment, and again in contrast to the smaller fella, he looks a little awkward or stiff (not sure if I’m explaining that very well!).

With regards to the quality required to get through to the Choice gallery, I don’t think this quite gets there, but having looked at your portfolio its not your strongest piece, and I’m frankly a bit surprised that you don’t already have an award. The ‘Do Not Cross’ image is really cool. You’re obviously a super talented guy and a place in the choice gallery is well within your reach.

Again though, not sure why this didn’t get into the showcase gallery.

#3

Thanks so much for the feedback. Great thoughts and I’ll play around with the image a bit.

I really appreciate your kind words about my other work. Getting an image into the choice gallery has been a goal of mine for years and I hope to one day achieve it.

Just to be clear though, this image did not even make it into the regular (non choice) gallery! It was just flat out rejected. While I agree that it is not my strongest piece, I would have thought it was professional enough to make into the 2D stills category. I’m obviously missing something with this one, but I’ve seen some pretty amateur looking pieces admitted to the 2D stills gallery before, so I was especially saddened to hear that this was deemed to fall short of even that mark. I think your comments are a great starting point and I’ll definitely revisit this one.

Sorry, I’m venting again! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Happy painting!

#4

Yup flat. It’s detailed but the flatness is so predominant. Your portfolio says you can do much better.

#5

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