Water Elemental (Updated 12/11/08)

[IanLlanas]

Hi everyone!

I just joined here recently and I'm finally getting around to posting some work. There are some really amazing artists here! Intimidating even!

First piece is of a water elemental attacking some warriors in a swamp. About 40 hours in Photoshop including concepting. I'd love to hear what you think!

Thanks,
Ian

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[FourTonMantis]

Really awesome. Your rendering of the water is spectacular. The elemental's left hand looks a little small but other than that it's sick.

How do you beat a water elemental?

[Duman]

I will agree that the water looks pretty fantastic. Looks very accurate, and with the amount of movement and detail presented, thats quite an accomplishment. I also like the background, but the rays of light might break up the background a little too much. Just having one or two really defined beams might look better.

[IanLlanas]

Thanks FourTonMantis! I don't know how you could defeat it. Fire, lightening, cold, a towel???

Duman - Thanks, appreciate it! The water was difficult to get right, most of the time was spent just observing water until I understood it's nature well. I will mess with the background in the next few days to see if I can improve the image. I want to make the warriors gel a little better too. Probably tweak their colors a bit.

[Hookswords]

Wow. That's a really nice piece you have going there. The water effects are stunning. Both the body of water and elemental look really nice. To be honest the light rays didnt jump at me at first, but after being pointed out they do seem a little strong. I like them but maybe just tone em down a bit. What struck me was the warriors. A few things. They seem very vibrant. Too vibrant. It DOES pose them as the outsiders of the setting, but I dunno....too orange maybe? Also, I have a question about the bow of the warrior closest to the viewer. Are their bows really shorter on top or is that foreshortening? I am no expert on native american bows. If it is foreshortening, I'm not getting that sensation from it. I love the skulls. They were warned and now they're paying the price. Over all a very nice piece.

[IanLlanas]

Hookswords - Thanks! I've seen some recurve bows that are asymmetrical, maybe not as much as this one is. But it isn't supposed to be foreshortened, it's nearly parallel to the camera plane.

I've made a few changes based on everyones suggestions: I desaturated the warriors and pushed them a bit to a purple hue, added some depth of field effects and toned down the lighting effects in the background as well as some of the light blooms. Hopefully it looks a little better. Let me know what you all think. Thanks!

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[Bai Fan]

Japanese bows are asymmetrical, but the long end usually points up.

The first thing I thought was "man are they screwed"

[Duman]

Ahh, the update works well. The characters do indeed look a little more human. And the tweaked light beams help maintain the backgrounds continuity.

[P-WAF]

But it isn't supposed to be foreshortened, it's nearly parallel to the camera plane.
538949

Why is the bow parallel to the viewer? The elemental clearly is not.

[IanLlanas]

Bai Fan - Yeah, Japanese long bows are asymmetrical but they are about 8 feet tall. They are definitely screwed!

Duman - Thanks for the input, I think that the changes make it a much better piece.

P-WAF - I guess parallel needs a little more clarification when we are talking about a 3D object in 3 space, I meant that the long axis of the bow is nearly parallel to the camera plane. But now that I take a closer look it doesn't really look like the bow is pointing at the elemental. Is that what you meant?

[P-WAF]

Pretty much, yeah.