[S4Sb]

Hello

You might have seen an early stage of this pic in wip. Well, I spent lots of time on it and well, I don't really like how it turned out. If something looks wrong to your eye please drop me a line in this thread. Every comment/overpaint would be greatly appreciated, since this will be a piece for my portfolio. I am going to apply for an art school on thursday.

Thanks for your time.

[Jerry]

Well it's a great painting... but that guys arm looks a little thin compare to the body and it's great how you made wurm coming out of the forest since it's a green card but you can add more details to the wurm to make it stand out even more... and the snow looks great...

[hethebar]

That's great man. Keep working on your anatomy and characters and you will great. Reminds me of an outpost in Warcraft II when playing a snow map. Ya baby!

/hethe

[[666]Flat]

the face expression is indeed EXCELLENT

[Bilbo]

nice piece s4sb! i really like the archer guy and the intense expression on his face.. i think the worm needs some extra work- add some finer detail to the head and body, and make it more menacing...and perhaps put some destroyed buildings rather than just trees in the monster's path to increase the drama .

[[666]Flat]

quote:

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Originally posted by audacity10:
There seems to be too much wood which also hides the most interesting part(...)

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That made me laugh.

(OK, I know, I distorted it with ma quoting, but hey...)

[Bg]

My turn to reply There's definitely potential in that image and it's already really nice. My suggestions: Bring the foreground guy closer to the camera, kill the worm and replace it with huge approaching army (draw one detailed guy, copy it five times, select the five guys and copy it ten times, and select the group of 50 soldiers, and make group of ie. 200 with it and then use the groups of 200 guys to form army of 10000 men, and paint strokes over it to get variation), darken the environment...

And what would my post be without a repaint

[Tryzome]

Great image.
I think the anatomy of the archer is ok. The arm doesnt has to be stronger imho. He�s an archer not a barbarian.
The expression on his face is excellent!
And the action you captured him in is great!

You wanted some improvement ideas, well hard to find, but:

When I first saw the picture I thought the beast appeared out of the surface as there is no destroyed path of trees behind it...?
You might add a passage of wasted land behind the beast. This way it would look more menacing.

You might as well add some snow or ice on top of the cape of the archer.

Great work.
Good luck for your application.

(Kunst FOS or Universit�t ? )

[[Shizo]]

Maybe someone said this before, but here is what i think oculd be better:

The worms above trees really look like they were cut and pasted from elswhere, mainly because of fussy edges (maybe paint some wrecked ground and tripped up trees to show that the worm did it)

[Tarandon]

Bg: Your repaint bites my nutsack.

I like the original. The archer's jaw bugs me a bit, It looks like it fell down instead of pivoted (does that make sense?) I agree you should remove those logs in the front and finish the archer's legs. Great start, I think you still have a few hours ahead of you though.

Keep Going!

P.S. - Maybe those loggers should be running for their lives too, just a thought, it might add some atmosphere.

[ December 15, 2001: Message edited by: Tarandon ]

[Bodyrott]

The first thing I noticed was the difference in detail between the archer and the wood in front of him. Maybe add some grain and such?

[Ian Jones]

I like it, but yes there is some things that look a bit odd.

Take note of Bg's paintover, I think one of the most important aspects of his paintover is the composition. See how he has cropped the uneccesary part of the wooden platform. I think that is a great improvement, because in the original the archer seems kind of squashed into the upper part of the pic and he is being pushed by a part of the pic which isn't as important.

Another really important thing to note about Bg's paintover is the lighting. Disregarding details, just look at the overall values. See how he has brought attention to the archer with the contrast of the backround. And the darkness of the surrounding areas also gives it atmosphere. In the original you have used 'diffuse' lighting, where everything is lit at a very similar level. Bg's paintover has only one main area in the backgorund that is light, and it oozes atmosphere due to this. Think dynamic lighting!

I hope that helps. To me the composition and lighting of Bg's paintover really opened my eyes to what was 'wrong' in the pic. Otherwise I would have been kind of dumbfounded! THX BG!

[Malachi Maloney]

Great stuff. I love the atmosphere you've created here.
I like the idea of the original painting better, the monsters add a nice fantasy feel to the peace.
As stated before me, the anatomy of the archer needs some improvement.
Again, really nice painting. Makes me cold just looking at it.

Keep it up.

Malachi

[audacity10]

It has a nice loose look about it. I think you'd agree that the problem is actually how much of the character can be seen. There seems to be too much wood which also hides the most interesting part of the piece-the archer. Sorry if that sounds harsh.

[Flexible Elf]

that's sweet S4.. I love the expression on the archer.

-Flexible Elf

[S4Sb]

Wow, lots of helpful comments. Seems like a lot of work. But I will definetly continue tweaking it.

Jerry: thanks. Which arm? Right or left one?
Ok, I'll see what I can do about the wurm. I added this motion-blur filter to the worm. That took a lot from the details.

hethebar: hehehe...Thanks

audacity10: Thanks for the critique. I get your point, but I don't really know how to change that. I can't just remove the wood infront of him. I mean that would kinda ruin the function of a watchtower. Any suggestions?

Flex: Thanks! Hope to see ya in paintchat sometime

Flat: Thanks

Bilbo: Hey man, what's been up? Thanks for the comments. Those are some cool suggestions. I'll see what I can add till thursday.

Bg: Thanks a lot. I guess it's too late to change the whole atmosphere/colorscheme. That would mean that I had to start from scratch again. But I will definetly try the army-idea. I was in doubt about that worm as well. I like the repaint very much. Especially the landscape. Dang I wish I had time to start over again.

Tryzome: Thanks. Very good idea about the path of destruction. I will add that. I don't think that the archer needs snow on his cap... since he is in motion it fell off, if any snow covered his cap.

[Shizo]: Thanks comrade! Will definetly add a connection between the worm and the forest and a path of destruction, sir.

Tarandon: hehehe... You're right about the jaw. I noticed it when I mirrored the image. I dunno how to change it tho.
Well, if I remove the logs, the whole watchtower would be kinda worthless without any protection. Any ideas for that problem?
And I'll add some loggers running away. The 3 guys standing there are still in shock.

Bodyrott: Adding detail, sir

Ian Jones: Thanks a lot for your comments. Very useful and in depth!
At first I had the lower part of the tower cropped off as well. But some people told me that it didn't became clear then what the archer is standing on. Here's the example:

Any solutions to this problem?

About the lighting: I get your point. And I like Bg's atmosphere better as well. I first had lots of distance fog and such in it as well. But I had to remove that stuff, because the wurm would be nothing than a silhouette that way. The night setting is something I really like, but it's too late to add it now, since that would mean I had to start from scratch.

Malachi Maloney:
Thanks! Will work on it

[Satan]

It seems that you have already removed the logs on the left of the ladder,(judging from the top painting compared to the one above this reply)... if you were to lose two logs to the right of the ladder as well, it would allow some of the archer's lower body to be seen,without leaving him totally defenceless.

(edit) and perhaps extend the top of the ladder over the platform base if this leaves it looking a little plain.

Oh yeah - nearly forgot - it's looking good

[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: Satan ]

[Novacaptain]

If you moved the "tower-access ladder" to the right you could remove the logs in front and put more where the ladder had been previously...It wouldn't be centered though.

And while on the logs...what is it that keeps them bound together? Maybe there ought to be some rope. It seeems that they've been glued to the floorboard - In which case the archer wouldn't be able to lean against it on a slow day.

I like the worm idea better than the army unless, of course, you made a worm-army (maybe not).

It's a great painting...I hope that I, too, will someday reach such a level of ability.

[Lihamyrsky]

that would be one kickass card, heh. and a kickass painting, although i agree with most of the crits.

[Guy Spenzz]

all of those look cool but I think if you put the fist one and the last one together, you know the way the guy looks and have the worm.

[[Shizo]]

Actually, i think the cropped pic without the worm in it looks much better