[Socar J. MYLES]

"I watched two barn swallows from the window of my room. They flew together like two lost souls of lovers who had finally found each other after centuries of searching. I watched them for five whole minutes waiting for something to go wrong. Because something always goes wrong in carefree situations like that. Nothing happened and I watched them disappear into the setting sun like a mirage."

It is an illustration for Summer Threlkeld's personal trade-paperback project, the details of which you can see in her Live Journal here: http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=izebhel&itemid=269#cutid1 . I think she is still looking for illustrations, so anyone who is interested in her project should write to her.

I love painting happy scenes like this, and I think my figure-drawing is finally improving a bit, too. My father already mentioned that I still must work on hands, though.

[Sumaleth]

Very nice, but perhaps just a little unfeminine in the area between the eyes? :}

[Leeloo]

I think her face looks a little flat....i think it has something to do with the nose..reminds me of a dogs...i hope that's not insulting... grrrrreat work though : )

[ October 28, 2002: Message edited by: Leeloo ]

[ebrian]

Good autumn sunset.
One thing, can her left hand be more refined?

BTW: Socar, do you know what's wrong with epiolgue these days? Why I can't visit it excepet the index page?

[Max]

I love your art so much.

This image is excellent !

I have to agree with your father and ebrian.
But that doesn't change my point of view.

I love it !!!

[Socar J. MYLES]

Thanks for the crits, guys! To be honest, though, these aren't quite the kinds of crits I was looking for. I should have made this clear initially--it is my fault, not yours.

The thing is, if I wanted the anatomy to be perfectly realistic, I would trace a photograph. Better yet, I'd TAKE a photograph. However, realism isn't that important to me, nor is having every feature be perfectly beautiful. Truth be told, I don't even mind the "man hands"--I only mentioned them because I KNEW people would comment.

Personally, I think the WORST thing about the hands isn't their ungraceful plumpness, but the awkward way they are connected to the body. I muffed up those wrists but baaaad.

What IS important to me is trying to get my figures to look less...stiff. I try very hard to make my poses look natural, like in all those old masters' paintings you see, where the figures all look perfectly relaxed, perfectly at ease in their surroundings. Things like the nose vaguely resembling that of a dog, or the area between the eyes looking unfeminine...well, in my book, it adds character. Nobody's face is perfect. Hell, one of my eyes is higher than the other. So...yeah...I don't really care about these details...more about overall feel and composition, and the total effect of the figure.

That said, though, I do appreciate the comments. I apologize if I sound ungrateful. I will not be changing the face because I like it...sorry....

ebrian - I have no idea--Epilogue works fine for me...you've got me there. I think it could be a cache problem, though--they just did a total overhaul on their site--give it a couple of days and maybe it will start working.

Sumaleth - Thanks for pointing that out...I DO appreciate your doing so--please don't be offended by what I said above!

Leeloo - I'm not insulted--don't worry about it. I should have made it clear what type of crits I was looking for from the outset.

Max - Thank you! And I will make sure no man-hands appear on my next figure painting.

[Gimbal8]

You shouldn't watch things disapear into the setting sun. You can burn out your retinas.

For a less stiff look I'd keep an eye on the shoulders. In this pic it seems like her shoulders aren't relaxed, like she has them up or pulled in. It could be the proportions as far as shoulder width or maybe the apparent distance of her shoulders to her head that makes it look so. Also the arm length proportions look different. That might suggest foreshortening that conflicts with the perspective given by the shoulder girdle.

I don't know if any of that is helpful or not but I figured I'd try.

It's still a very nice paiting.

[Socar J. MYLES]

YESSSSS, Gimbal, that's EXACTLY the kind of thing I was looking for! Thank you so much--I had missed that problem entirely. I think I will get someone to pose for me next time I do some figure drawing--the shoulder region always seems to be a problem for me. I sent a sketch of the LAST figure I did to a friend, and that was the area he gave me crits on as well.

I shall also pass on the point about staring into the setting sun to the author.

[Awetopsy]

but she still looks so sad..

I think she needs a smile.

[winjer]

I think the face and hands look a little off because they seem to be painted differently than the rest of the picture. The rest of it is a lot looser and soft edged.

but thats just my two cents.

[B]

unfortunately i think it nearly impossible to not be stiff in that particular pose,.

rest her arms to the side (at least on of them) let the shoulders drop a tad (or twist a little) and i believe it will have a looser flow to the image,..

and the hads would look a lot better if the forearm were a hands length shorter.

i would draw an example, but it'd take me a week

[Matt Ryan]

great work as usual, but i highly agree with awetopsy. If you were going for a happy picture (dont be offended), but i think you are compeletly off the mark. To me it seems like this woman is defeated... looking off into space with out any hope. She has no ambition, and feels worthless. Her pose very much reflects this as well, slighlty hunched over looking off the page. her eyebrows are pointed up adding to the sadness. also in terms of composition her eyes lead you right of the page even adding more to the feeling of dread. just becuase you have warm colors does not make it a happy picture... in fact the warm colors make it even more eerie. I would suggest (if you want happy) redoing most of the woman. have her looking to the left side of the page, chin tilited slightly upwards so u get a 3/4 view and for god sakes make her smile, hehehe . well keep up the good work.

[Socar J. MYLES]

I gave it some changes based on crits I got here and elsewhere--the pose at least should look more natural now. Probably too late to make it PERFECT, but I can try for more perfection next time, eh?

Awetopsy - She is supposed to look a little sad. The birds are happy, not her. No smile! One year! (Sorry...Seinfeld moment.)

winjer - Good point...the hands ARE actually pretty soft-edged when you see them at full-res...the face IS a little harder than the rest of the image, though.

B - Thanks for the advice--I did end up dropping the shoulders a bit, and footering with the forearm. Not sure it's quite short enough. Next time I have to use some reference, or a model.

Matt Ryan - I'm not offended. As I said to Awetopsy, maybe the title is misleading...the BIRDS are supposed to be happy, but the girl is not sharing their mood. She is supposed to be more melancholy. Thanks, though.

[Matthew]

I think that you are using the colors in a magical way. I was thinking about the girl, she looks like the singer and keyboard player in The Wannadies, is it her?...hehe
Magical stuff

take it easy
Matthew alias Billy the kid

[ October 30, 2002: Message edited by: Matthew ]

[Socar J. MYLES]

Thanks, Matthew...sorry, I have no clue what the Wannabies is, though.

Guess I must be getting old or something.

[synj]

greetings! i would like to lend a big fat retarded plump hand with the crits you spoke of wanting.

if you want your character to feel less stiff, I'd suggest a slight rotation in the shoulders. Right now she's almost perfectly horizontal in that area, yet she's supposed to be relaxed. Slight shifts in the shoulders can make big differences in the character's attitude. you can make them look like they are shy, gangster murderers, hardasses, mommies or daddies if you rotate them properly. my nuts make me lean too.

hope that helps

[Gimbal8]

Yay! I always worry that I'm of no help to people who can paint better than me to begin with. I guess that isn't true all the time.