Sijun Forums :: View topic - still time to save this digital painting!

tdenmark · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 9:42 am

Working on this illustration for a client and it's due at the end of this week, so I still have some time to fix it. Comments, suggestions and critiques are welcome!

Thanks,

Loxley · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:17 am

The composition there simply rocks. You should post more.

NOXizMAD · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 12:32 pm

Beautiful work man... just few thingz actually:
on the monster, the light coming from the torch should hit him more frontally, less from his side, due to the distance between him and the girl. Same thing for the wall behind who shouldn't be as enlighted by the torch as it iz.
Still on the monster, his right harm seems to be too much enlighted by the back light (his thumb should be in the dark).
Maybe suggest even a begining of casted shadow on the ground in front of that hudge monster.
Also maybe the girl seems to be a little too big compared to the knights in front of the scene (or the knights too small). Possible solution: deacrease the distance beetween them.

But anyway, it's already a very interesting picture as it iz... the lights on the girl and the knight armor and harm are my prefered parts (maybe a lil' backlight on the knight would work great...)

Very nice work, and really impressive stuff on your site... keep it on, and that will be another great picture to put in...

Cheerz

nOx

Jabo · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 12:35 pm

For some days I've been playing Warcraft III like crazy and this really fits my current mood! I really really love it! Though I don't get the situation that is shown! At first I thought the big beast would be the enemy of those 3 heroes, but then I saw the paladin and the dwarf fighting each other. The woman's pose isn't that clear too, I don't get what's going on, well, as the pillar collapses, I think they will all die, so, who cares, actually?

Sumire-chan · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 12:43 pm

This is an excellent piece of work. The atmosphere in it is absolutely beautiful and I really liked the details you put in it^^ Is it done with Painter?

tdenmark · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 12:53 pm

Thanks for the comments.

Bob: yes, this is going to print on a board game.

NOXizMAD: great comments. The lighting is pretty funky, but I did calculate shadows for the girl and dwarf technically correct, everything else is pretty much just for the sake of mood and composition not because its "correct". Also I agree the knight is too small.

Jabo: The description given me was basically "adventurers find treasure in a cave and a troll breaks in on them, surprising them."

Sumire-chan: it's done in Photoshop 7

[ July 29, 2002: Message edited by: tdenmark ]

Jabo · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 1:07 pm

Uh, maybe some more contrast and light on the gold coins? I'm a n00b, but that would probably be a nice addition to the bright flame of that torch. Some highlights on the coins, a blurry brush or something like a lensflare (of course much smaller) would fit in there I think!

Frost · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 3:01 pm

tdenmark: Great work. I'd repeat what Nox said about the lighting. Very nice cinematic feel to it, possibly due to the fake lighting (Hollywood ALWAYS does that).

General Confusion · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 3:19 pm

I would suggest to heighten the atmosphere overall... right now to me the whole image seems to be lit to equally. Don't be afraid of losing some of the detail... (that will play up the cinematic quality of it) A good way to do it is add an adjustment layer above what you have done, that is either a darken or multiply and darken it overall. And since the main lighting in the cave is from the torch, you would in turn get cooler shadows from that, so when you do the adjustment layer color correction/darkening... (adding the shadows) you can initially darken the whole image.. then go back into the adjustment layer and erase what you dont want to be dark...

but I would play with how the light works in the pic to direct the viewers eye, and even if its going to print, you could provide some space for text real estate etc, etc...

but definitely by darkening it where the torch doesnt reach you could create a better realism.... and since its a cave as well add dust particles to it (making a haze in the cave) unless it's a newly swept cave, you would probably see alot of obscuring dust in the air..

but dont obliterate everything, add some motivational light here and there to identify or define areas that aren't important, so the viewer will be pulled into viewing it, while they're not aware why they are.. it wil make it more interesting and puzzling to the viewer, if you have them do some imagining..

Ian Jones · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 6:28 pm

I would definetely agree with a lot of the feedback you have gotten so far, great advice guys.

Great pic, very nice troll design! He looks pretty cool. The ppl are good, but I think you could probably work on the poses a little more in the future. The knight wouldn't have his sword and shield drawn if he had only just been surprised... he needs more of a frantic look to him, same with the dwarf. I think at least one of the characters needs to actually be kneelng down at the treasure, with greedy activity of stuffing coins into pockets etc. This would heigten the tension because immediately a viewer would sense the 'caught in the act' kind of atmosphere you want.

General Confusion had some great points about lighting. I think you shoud develop your lighting to heigthen the atmosphere and tension. So think practically about what this means. If I was going for tension I would use a strong lightsource and deep sharp edged shadows. Use the torch to greater effect, it would be the only lightsource inside a cave as general confusion already pointed out the lighting is much too even and diffuse. Accentuate the sense of surprise by making the troll appear as if out of total darkness only (suddenly) revealed through the dramatic lighting of the flaming torch.

Don't change it now, just suggestions for the future really... I think the best thing you can do now is work on the lighting a bit more and consider the poses and compostiion complete.

Great work overall!

Hope that helps.

VENiM · junior member Member # Joined: 31 Jan 2001 Posts: 46

the pic is great right now but i think it would be ten times better if it was given a sense of motion. right now the characters look like they are actually posing for a still shot.

elam · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 8:14 pm

Fucking sweet!

I love the lighting and the contasting cool and warm colors.
If there had been a goddamn dragon or unicorn bustin out instead of that cool-ass space creature looking thing, I wouldn't have liked it as much.

If it had been me though, I would have added a little more motion around the pillar where the monsters fist is smashing the column. It looks kind of static.

Is it being smashed or was it already down?

Awesome.

B0b · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:06 pm

is this going to print?

B0b · Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2002 2:53 am

just its very dark on shadows and midtones, but i'm sure they're sort that out when u supply the disk

Sumaleth · Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2002 6:31 am

Nice work.

Comments? The legs of the knight seem a bit un-naturally posed. And as someone said the red lighting on the monster should be more front-on.

And I think overall you could benefit from some strong highlights. It's all a bit dull at the moment, but if you popped some highlights out there it could look really good.

tdenmark · Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2002 9:58 am

quote:
Originally posted by B0b:
just its very dark on shadows and midtones, but i'm sure they're sort that out when u supply the disk

Just a note: you might want to check the brightness/contrast on your moniter. Most people are saying the lighting is too evenly lit everywhere. From my studio computer the image looks lighter, at my work computer it looks more dark and contrasty.

One thing I notice about digital paintings in general is that they tend to look much darker when printed. For example look at the Myth II video game box cover by Craig Mullins. On his site the image looks just right, on the actual box it looks really dark. I notice this also with Justin Sweet's (gorgeous) digital paintings.

tdenmark · Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2002 10:08 am

quote:
Originally posted by Ian Jones:
I would definetely agree with a lot of the feedback you have gotten so far, great advice guys.

I have to agree Ian. I can't believe how solid the advice has been. I'm gonna have to post stuff earlier in the process to fix the problems sooner!

quote:
Great pic, very nice troll design! He looks pretty cool. The ppl are good, but I think you could probably work on the poses a little more in the future. The knight wouldn't have his sword and shield drawn if he had only just been surprised... he needs more of a frantic look to him, same with the dwarf.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, it does help. I agree the poses could tell more story. They really should have been worked out better before I started painting. As for the dwarf his pose was very intentional. In fact, I used the exact same pose in every comp I sent to the publisher. Sort of a joke, no matter what's happening the dwarf has the same reaction: he just stands there dourly with axe and shield.

I'll post the final image when I finish correcting the problems that I can fix (mainly the lighting and proportion problems).

[ July 30, 2002: Message edited by: tdenmark ]