[faB]

hi, I'm not sure where I'm heading with this one, I'm looking for some feedback, curious about how people feel about the colors and such.

Pose & subject is based on a photo, I might changer her face into an grin of some sort since she's supposed to look like she smother the teddy.

The brownish skin tone is supposed to be the midtones, so I might lighten it up some more , I think the picture is too dark ?

The colorific background is because I've been struck by an art book from Simon Bisley lately.

The face is giving me headaches.. particularly with this lighting.

I think the bottom half is better, I lost the freshness while working on the top part..

what do you think ?



[ July 20, 2002: Message edited by: faB ]

[Pat]

Your colors clash. Specifically the background blue. Try making it more complementary to the orange/yellow and violets you've chosen. Whichever color you chose, you can also draw more attention to the central figure if the color were also more desaturated than it is now.

-Pat

[mitch]

The overall tone of the whole thing is the same. I think if you took a black and white photo of it, It would almost all look like the same shade of gray. Add contrast by either darkening the backround or lightening it in relationship to the girl. The teddy and the girl are also too close in tone. It just feels muddy when everthing is this close on the tone scale. That type of lighting is hard to pull off. I think the major problems in the face are that the mouth is too close to the nose(i think because the nose is too long) and your missing the shape of the eyebrow ridge. On her left eye you painted it flat, which only occurs on quazi modo. I think the hair sits to high too, making her overall head feel too tall. I think you might be guessing on the hips to leg where the skin is showing, it doesnt quite look right, you nailed her left side, but the right looks wrong. Other than that i like it a lot.

[faB]

Thank you all very much.

I agree pretty much with everything said.

And thanks for encouragement dogfood, I think I'll start a second pic and switch between both to keep a fresh eye while I work on it. I hear some artists do that with success, others don't.

[dogfood]

Those are fantastic critiques! I think it can be a very strong piece if you take them to heart.

What I see is the incongruities in the shading. Her upper left arm has a very strong shading on the top, but does not affect the face. In general, I think you should completely desaturate the pic and look at the values and how they relate to each other. Discover what forms you're trying to bring out and make certain they are allowed to affect one another properly (cast shadows, reflected light, etc.).

As far as the color choice, the vibrance of the blue is taking away from the subject. It overpowers the eye. If you could wash it down like you've done on the left side, perhaps with some lower intensity colors, I think it would work better.

As a note from someone with very little color experience, I would limit the number of colors to a couple analogus and a complimentary. A lot many spices makes the soup too salty.

Please keep working on this. It will be worth it.

[faB]

Thank you all!
I'm soooooo sick of working on this pic
This is the last run to finish, about 90% done now

How's the new colors?
I'm posting a preview of an idea : the spider in the fog.. it can explain the poor teddy's expression I'm just wondering, does it work composition-wise ?

[NeoFun]

SO MUCH BETTER
I am amazed-- Now the only thing would be to add more contrast in your lighting. See how soft your cuts are? Also, shouldn't that red light be bouncing more upon her skin? Especialy against the bottom of her arm? Try using poser and seeing how the lighting comes up.