[kad]

Something i was working on tonight. I originally wanted to do trees in the background but then i got distracted by the swirly things that seem to have taken over the background.

Anyways tear it apart and tell me what you think i should do.



[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: kad ]

[dogfood]

I hope I'm not stuffing my foot in up to the knee, but the "camera" angle and compostition aren't very interesting. The king is sitting level with us, right in the middle of our view. <stifling yawn>, sorry. What emotion do you want to convey? Should we be looking up at his greatness or down at his despair? Are most of his troubles mounting behind him, or is the space in front of him more interesting (even though it could be empty). Do a bunch of thumbnails, with very little detail on him, just a figure in a big chair, then whip the camera around and play with angles and maybe even perspective. Throw some light and shadow in as well, to break up the fore, middle and backgrounds.

[Torstein Nordstrand]

Just to get you going, I think the background is more attractive than the king on his throne. That's not good, is it? I think this is because the background is more alive with saturated colurs, while the seated king lacks colour intensity. That chair could use some lights too... and I agree with the previous post, why are we looking straight at him? Who is watching him from this angle? Be bold, resketch him from another angle, then we'll get back to pick apart and push those difficult perspective issues. Come on! Get going!

[kad]

Thanks for the comments, I do agree that it seems a little boring of an angle. I had originally invisioned it to be a very symetrical painting, but then i put in the tree which ruined that idea. I will probably play around with this a little longer and then redo it with another angle.

Thanks again!

[specialbrew]

I think the first thing that struck me was that everything (background, throne, King) was on the same plane, pretty much, and I think that's because you really need to be sure where the major light source is coming from.

In my adapted version of your picture, I've determined on a very overhead kind of light to make things more three dimensional. The more depth there is, the more there is to interest and 'pull in' the eye... and I think it's a good idea to work though the pose/anatomy before painting, just so the figure sits right.



sb

[ January 24, 2002: Message edited by: specialbrew ]

[kad]

alright, been reworking it a bit. I think i got a much better starting point here. the background is darker making the front stand out alot. also i added a crystal ball type thing to the right to make it more symmetrical. I added the downwards lightsource and stretched out the throne a bit to give more of a feel i was going for.

tell me what you think, again



oh and as a side thing, my friend really wanted me to finish up the original pencil so heers an update on that. ( i wish now i had used better quality paper and drawn it larger. plus my scanner sucks for getting a good pencil color)


[ January 24, 2002: Message edited by: kad ]

[specialbrew]

Okay, I think the revised image is far better, but don't be afraid to add very deep color values for the shadows. I'd have to say though that at this stage I prefer the original pencil sketch, simply because it's got a feeling and tonal range which somehow has been lost in the painted versions. To some extent, I'm not sure that whatever brush you're using is helping; you need something that allows greater opacity and feeling, something that allows you to 'draw in color'...

sb