[Bjornar]

This is something I'm eventually going to turn into a 3D scene. So I made this concept first. I've also added a couple sketches showing the work-progress.



Crits are welcome

[DeadbeaT]

Crits comming up! in a language that most people don't know!

for jeg er norsk! yay, osv. Uansett, liker nesten scketchen din bedre enn den ferdige versjonen, av to enkle grunner, en: i sketchen ser det ut som at han ser noe til h�yre side (h�yre for oss), det ville v�rt en mye mer logisk kampstilling, neste er bare pirk: sverdet er tiln�rmet rett, slik som en ninja-to ville v�rt, om dette er en katana, som jeg anntar ( ) s� kanskjed en burde ha litt mer svai, i og med at et katana er et "kurvet langsverd" okay, det er vel alts� som sl�r meg f�rst. la meg fortsette med � si at det er en helt fantastisk cg! om du orker �jobbe litt mer p� den s� ta ogs� et litte blikk p� den barken, det virker litt kjip i forhold til resten av tegningen, og sverdet litt matt. okay det var mine 50 �re, lykke til!
_________________
DeadbeaT was here

[Bjornar]

Thanks for the critique Deadbeat. I'll just reply in English, since I don't want to exclude most of the people, hope you don't mind. I speak too much Norwegian anyway, so I want to practice my English

You mentioned that you liked the sketch better since he was looking more to the right, I agree and changed that. I also agree with you that the sword should be more curved since it is a katana and not a ninja-to and that it needed a more metallic look to it. I fixed that, as you can see. I should have done more research, since I don't know too much about samurais. I still have to fix the bark of the trees, which is another thing you pointed out. I'll post an update asap.

[The Real Mark]

I feel as though there could be some more mist or maybe 'atmosphrere'. Not sure what to call it but it feels a bit clean to me... Either way it rocks! looks sweet!

[Ragnarok]

It looks good =)
I think I've seen katanas like that, maybe I'm wrong?
The background feels a bit empty. You could either fill it with some mist (it's snowign anyway) or with a more developed background.
The blade would look more metalic if we could see some more reflections. If you look at a simple water pipe in your kitchen or bathroom you'll see the whole room reflected =)
Also, I think some subtle shadow in the snow would help.
_________________
"Ever forward, my darling wind." -Master Yuppa
Seigetsu

[DeadbeaT]

[Ragnarok]

Ookay, let's discuss a bit more =)
Look at this, that looks pretty much like the katana bjornar painted and looks pretty straight.
Also a couple of corrections, it's wakizashi (and it was used also as a offense weapon) and hara-kiri doesn't exist as a japanese word. It's just a bad pronunciation of the seppuku word kanjis.

=)
_________________
"Ever forward, my darling wind." -Master Yuppa
Seigetsu

[Master Vigil]

Love the pic. I agree the background leaves alot to be desired.

About the sword, even katanas aren't supposed to be too curved. His looks quite fine. And the reason the sword was curved was because it cut better. The ninjas though were too poor (since they were farmers) to shape their steel, thus the straight edged ninja sword was made. It had nothing to do with silent kills. They were just poor.
_________________
http://www.dan-bernardo.com

[Impaler]

Haha, there were different schools of sword making, along with different types of curved-back single blade Japanese swords. They all had their own curvature, depending more on the swordmaker than the samurai.

The more important thing is that his hands are switched. His right hand should be next to the handguard, not his left, unless he somehow switched hands after he unsheathed his sword.

I like the mood and the coloring, though.

Edit: Oh yeah, one more thing. Part of the beauty of the samurai sword is the jagged division of the polished and matte surfaces that run along the length of the blade. It comes from the sharpening process. The keen edge should be shiny, and the back should be sort of dull. Look here to see what I mean.
_________________
QED, sort of.

[Japong]

I think you're trying to fore-shorten the scabbard, but really it looks like it's too small to fit the sword in...

And yeah, the samurai is great, but he needs a background worthy of him! The trees need to have trunks with some chips in the shape, right now they silhouette with straight vertical lines. They'd also be casting some serious shadows as well, with the branches casting on the snow underneath and lots of overlapping. The roots of the trees might displace more snow as well... the ground underneath a tree is usually quite bumpy.

[DeadbeaT]

I see some people disagree with my sword info, i guess were just experiencing a case of not corresponding sources, I bow down and shall head over to my nearest library to refresh my faulted knowledge,

oh and Bjornar, lokk at the link Ragnarok added, there you can see how the blade is, even more shiny and with "riffles" down the side, this i think is to improve the cut? (dont shoot me if im wrong) anyway, youve done pretty well with this one, slap in some mist and shit in the background and fix the trees and ill be all over this painting
_________________
DeadbeaT was here

[Bjornar]

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply. I've been away from the image until today, so looking upon it with a fresh eye also made me see things that needed change. I love how this tread turned out to give me lots of historical facts about samurais and ninjas, I'll put that knowledge to use in my project

Yeah DeadbeaT I listened to you because I found your criticism constructive. And I think more people should start listening to you, since you have and eye for correcting things

Ragnarok, I added reflections of the surrounding environment to the sword-surface. And Japong thanks for pointing out the scabbard and trees. And also thanks to you Impaler, Master Vigil and The Real Mark, your ideas where all put to use

Hope you like the result, I actually flipped the image in the beginning and forgot about the hands. I prefer it this way now after having flipped it back horisontally:

And here's a close-up

[DeadbeaT]

ooooo, big bad demon samurai. Now this is getting somewhere! Good work on adding the wind and mist and fixing the trunks!
_________________
DeadbeaT was here