[Sumaleth]

I posted this in the Draw Club thread but since you don't tend to get much in the way of good feedback in those long threads I have posted it here too. This also lets me post a larger version.



I spent about 3 hours on this all together, and it's about 98% original. I used a figure drawing book for help with parts of the pose and a bodybuilding magazine to help get the muscles closer to "right". Plus the lighting for the head was taken from Micke's green-head study from a while back (I love that head, I've used it a few times to help with lighting ).

Critiqing welcome.

(and no, thats not a bowling ball)

Row.

[Superbug]

Nice pic,a bit too dark though, but I guess it lends to the atmosphere

[Frost]

Hey Suma!

That image looks real nice, but it's kind of hard to make things out due to high contrast and small size... perhaps a link to a large version would be handy.

However, if I can mention a few comments on it, I think the lighting on the muscle above his left knee needs to be toned down, as it's too sharp, while the kneepad and knee itself is very obscure and undefined. The ambiant color looks very dim judging from his costume (even the green elbowpads) which makes his face stand out a little too much in value yet lacks the bright specular on the left side. The specular level on his right side seems a bit incoherant from place to place in intensity.

Damn, maybe Boomstick is right about my comments and my pointing out of issues... I've turned into a b*tching monster... sorry Sumaleth... you know I have lots of respect for you and your work. My paintings have way more mistakes than yours I'm sure, so I'm not any better. =)

cheers!

ps - Love the bowling ball!

[Anthony]

Does he have a mouthpiece? Otherwise it's pretty nicely rendered.

------------------
-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[tyron]

Hi great picture man!
I really like the ball...
Although, there is one thing that i do not like, it looks like he's got the same kind of teethprotection that boxers have (damn, i suck at expressing myself in engelish). The area around the mouth seems to stick out a bit and his smile is a bit wide..
Those are my oppinions...
see you.

[Sumaleth]

Thanks for the comments!

The teeth;
I had added highlights to the bottom teeth but when it was zoomed down to size it didn't look right. Fixed.

The muscle above his left knee;
Yep, a bit odd there too. Fixed.

Brightness;
This is really hard for me to guage. I have a problem with my monitor - even at it's absolute darkest setting it's still about 20% brighter than a typical setup. This is VERY annoying because I'm forever painting stuff too dark. So I usually paint what looks right on there, then at the last minute view it on my other machine and play with the brightness before considering it "final".

With this image I also set out to make it quite dark. I wanted my superhero to be one that sneaks around in the shadows - not one that wears flouro-colored spandex - and I was interested in trying to give him shape more from the highlights than anything else. Maybe a bad aim from a visual point of view?

Anyway, here's a tweaked version;



This version has had the brightness increased by a LOT and I never really intended the shadowy areas to be this visible. But it still kinda works.

I also don't usually post images this big. I do paint them quite large (this is 37%), but I paint them to a very specific size - ie. I keep working on them until that size (usually 25%) looks how I want it to look and then stop. So this much larger version shows things I usually wouldn't like to show.

Oh well, I guess it's much more interesting from an artistic point of view.

Further comments welcome.

Row.

[DizGruntled]

The coloring and lighting is great! Nice image. I sort of get the impression he's going to throw that spiked ball at me, but his pose is a bit awkward. Not dynamic enough. However, looking at it again, since he's smiling, it appears he could be holding up the ball like a trophy. Whatever he's doing, and because he's a superhero, the character looks like he's struggling a bit. I don't know, just my 2 cents.

[Sumaleth]

He's not smile damnit, it's supposed to look like he's grimancing. Or at least a bit annoyed.

The pose is simple because I really struggle at doing figures. The only way I would have got a dynamic "superhero" style pose would be if I copied one and I wasn't too keen on that (even though the arms ended up being taken from a book..).

C'est la vie.

Row.

[Kyri]

Sumaleth, your pic looks very nice. The lighting is great and really brings it out, colours are really nice also. It looks like
it could do with a bit of tightening up in places, just a tad blurry, and that face man...it looks too much like Immi and is scaring me man, heh, heh, joking...
Overall great work.