Plague Valkyrie *updated again*

[Foxglove]

Hi all,
Working on my painting ability, I'd love some C&C on this WIP:
http://www.rsad.edu/~lsmith1/Dailysketch/valkyrie3.jpg
Thank you!

[Danilo]

You better work on your drawing ability, cose you paint pretty well, but this pic need more precise drawing.

[Johannes]

Looking good so far. I especially like the white cloth anf the funky shield. :D
I never thought I´d hear myself say this, but the breastplates needs to be somewhat bigger and maybe have ornaments on them. This is because I never realised it was a girl until I read the title, I thought it was a young prince (I get this alot too - theres hard to depict a woman in a manly setting without everyone at once assuming its a man). :)

An overall problem is that the image shows use of the selection tool, some parts is uber-sharp, it looks weird.
I imagine this because its the technique I used to use, but I´m now abandoning it more and more for brushes alone. :)

My advice is, flatten the layer with the girl and go over it with brushes set to 50% on those areas, perhaps that will improve it.
Also I would like tha flag in the backgrounf a little more shine-through, the little sword also, aswell as less sharp in the contours (its further away - it shoyuld be more unclear) and the sticks (flagspear, ravenstick) thinner and more unclear. The raven a tad bit smaller and also a little more unclear.

A long list, but I think it would be worth it. :D

Looking forward to update. :D

[Foxglove]

Updated reworking, still a WIP:
http://www.rsad.edu/~lsmith1/Dailysketch/090103.jpg
Johannes, what do you mean by "shine-through"?
Thank you both for your comments!

[Johannes]

Hi there - face is looking better - grimmer.

I think the word is opacity?

Keep it up :D

[fukifino]

Much better! The face is much improved as are the edges of most of the armor plates. Much less flat looking in a lot of places.

The only thing that bothers me is the curved gem dealy at her waist (the sort of belt she's got). All of her body posture seems to indicate she's standing at something like a three quarter view to us, but that belt is drawn from a head on perspective. It's probably a little late to fix it, but it does kind of make her waist look a little funny.

I would like to see a bit more color used in the shadows and highlights though. I little blue in the shadow of her red armor and such. I suck hardcore at color theory, so I can't really give you any concrete advice, but I do know that the sort of solid color scheme with black shadows isn't helping the picture much.

Still, lookin' good. Keep refining it. :D

[Foxglove]

More refinining, more c&c please? Thank you for all your help so far. ^_^
http://www.rsad.edu/~lsmith1/Dailysketch/090503.jpg

[Deadsprite]

ok, after looking it over and over, i would have to say you should address the hair and face. her hair looks like a cutout and her face is very blank in comparison to the rest of the image. very dull looking. i would incorperate some warmer darks in her face as well as make it more receptive to the darks.

[fukifino]

Hmm, a little more than I had intended. Here's a quick example of what I was talking about. (These are really horrible as I'm at work and am trying to use the Gimp with a mouse..blah).

http://forestzachman.com/tmp/shading.jpg

All three started with the same flat red...

A. Shaded with a deep blue on low opacity and highlighted with a bit of yellow.
B. Shaded with black on low opacity and highlighted with white.
C. Shaded and highlighted with the burn/dodge tool (a bit over the top...couldn't get gimp to reduce the effect...)

If you take A by itself you don't immediately recognize that it's shaded with blue (although it's obvious next to the others)...the reason shadows in an outdoor environment are spotted with blue is because of the sky. (Note, I'm stealing, from memory, from some other articles I read by much better artists than me). The sun illuminates most objects and a decent amount of reflected light occurs, but a lot of the light you see in shadow (and there IS light there, otherwise it would be pitch black) is caused by light reflecting off our atmosphere (which is what the blue of the sky is). Since the sky pretty much stretches from horizon to horizon, it manages to light a lot of areas you wouldn't think it could. And because this light is blue, most shadows outside are tinted with it in the same way.

What you've got there looks more like a reflection of something blue below her. No need to be quite so blatant about it. But a bluish tint to your shadows will help spice it up and make it seem less flat. The easiest way I know to do this on the computer is just using a low opacity setting and build it up over the red...this will keep it from being too obviously blue and help create a blue tinted red. And value wise you still want to go darker, so stick with a darker blue.

And since she's probably lit by the sun, her highlights will have tints of yellow in them, as their own color will be picking up some of the color of the light being shone on them.

Hope that helps some. I've probably done a bad job explaining it. :/

[Johannes]

The blood on the skirt is a nice effect. :)
The skirt and shield and shoulder/upperarmplate are my favourite areas. face is coming along too - expression is much better - kind of "tired of the inhuman warscenes".
I still think most of my old c&c´s is valid for the background. ;)
It is unfortunate that the sky is going in the same colors as the girls armour, it steals alot of impact and effect from the painting. Personally I always try to be careful with the red, it is such a powerful color that easily overtakes everything.
I get a feleng of lighting trouble, but as I am not good at it myself I cant pinpoint it.
however the girl is so light and bright and shiny, that it is hard to understand how the ground just a few meters away is blue-purplishly dark. Then at the horizon things are yellowish light - I cant say exactly something dont match up.
Again I also must say that there is to much sense of the use of layers or masks, some areas dont match up, theres no fading or unsharpness, just razorsharp edges, especially on her left side, those should be a little more blurry.

The reason Im on your back so much is that I have something going on that is kind of like this, girl with sword and armour, difficult lighting, mine got no sky though, its an interior, but it reminds me alot of that piece of mine that Im struggling with right now - so this gives me a lot to, actively looking and commenting your piece. :D

Good luck - I see progress, Ur getting there :D

Oh, I almost forgot - fukifino - good tutorial, I appreciated it :D