Eagle Rider

[Jeremy Ruiz]

30x40" painting that I finished over the holiday. Mixed media on cold press illustration board. It will be up on my website later today. Hope everyone enjoys! :yum:

[el coro]

i think from a basic technical painting perspective, this piece is more or less successful..i think theres a tad too much contrast in your volumes, ie the eagles head could be simplified a bit in value which would help it to read more volumetrically. i also feel like her hands feel a liottle hard edged too. volume wise, i think her pants read the best for me. also the pic is way too dark.

i guess my biggest crit about this painting is the overall composition, and her pose/expression and how it helps to sell the entire piece.

for a picture like this, its important to pick the right moment, or else all that rendering an be something of a wasted effort. to me, honestly, she feels way too casual, her pose doesnt suggest shes riding on the back of an eagle flying through fire rain. if that were the case, id imagine shed be leaning more forward, which not only makes more sense, but helps to make a more dynamic image. like how one would ride a motorcycle for example... the lighting also doesnt make much sense, as its night, and shes well lit with white studio lighting. also, what is she looking at? see, the way the pic is set up, the elements in the picture arent helping eachother as much as they could. more attention spent in the initial stages of composing and drawing would have helped immensely.

honestly, and i dont wanna come off too harsh, but it looks almost like a comedy or parody piece, since it kind of looks to me from her expression and where shes looking like she just flew through another giant eagle's fart trail....

do yourself a favor and look at some of the heavy hitters who have tackled subject matter similar to this. i beleive james gurney did a few dinotopia paintings with folks riding flying dinos for instance that are extremely succesful. instead of looking at how they render things, look at how they compose objects in a scene.

for me this piece is a textbook example of why pretty painted passages wont help a picture if the elements of the painting are mis-composed.

but the good news is that you know how to paint and draw well, so the hard part is out of the way :)

my advice overall would be to spend more time on the beginning stages of your illustration before charging right into the painting.

good luck dude. hope to see more!

c36

[Uli]

While El Coro has a point about the posture and contrast, I still like the colours and overall effect. What media did you mix?

[Elwell]

i think from a basic technical painting perspective, this piece is more or less successful..i think theres a tad too much contrast in your volumes, ie the eagles head could be simplified a bit in value which would help it to read more volumetrically. i also feel like her hands feel a liottle hard edged too. volume wise, i think her pants read the best for me. also the pic is way too dark.

i guess my biggest crit about this painting is the overall composition, and her pose/expression and how it helps to sell the entire piece.

for a picture like this, its important to pick the right moment, or else all that rendering an be something of a wasted effort. to me, honestly, she feels way too casual, her pose doesnt suggest shes riding on the back of an eagle flying through fire rain. if that were the case, id imagine shed be leaning more forward, which not only makes more sense, but helps to make a more dynamic image. like how one would ride a motorcycle for example... the lighting also doesnt make much sense, as its night, and shes well lit with white studio lighting. also, what is she looking at? see, the way the pic is set up, the elements in the picture arent helping eachother as much as they could. more attention spent in the initial stages of composing and drawing would have helped immensely.

honestly, and i dont wanna come off too harsh, but it looks almost like a comedy or parody piece, since it kind of looks to me from her expression and where shes looking like she just flew through another giant eagle's fart trail....

do yourself a favor and look at some of the heavy hitters who have tackled subject matter similar to this. i beleive james gurney did a few dinotopia paintings with folks riding flying dinos for instance that are extremely succesful. instead of looking at how they render things, look at how they compose objects in a scene.

for me this piece is a textbook example of why pretty painted passages wont help a picture if the elements of the painting are mis-composed.

but the good news is that you know how to paint and draw well, so the hard part is out of the way :)

my advice overall would be to spend more time on the beginning stages of your illustration before charging right into the painting.

good luck dude. hope to see more!

c36

This :up:

Coro, you should post more!

[Venger]

Not much to add really, all the important stuff is above :)

I'm not reading the illustrative here?
Admittedly it looks very dark but I think that's a monitor/gamma problem.
Having lightened it up I can see that the houses are on fire below, why?
Dragon's perhaps? maybe you could fit in one burning things in the background? that way we can figure out the story.
The diagonal line the fires create acts as a brake to the picture, so do all the vertical smoke plumes, they make my eye stop, when it should flow (lots of tangents on the spear haft). (you refed the eagle, you refed the girl but you didn't ref burning buildings and it's dragging it down, JMO)

[Jeremy Ruiz]

Thanks guys for the input, A lot of good advise. I will keep working at it and post again soon, hopefully minus the eagle farts.

Uli: Its a mix and Oil and Acyrlic.