Spiders - First Attempt at Painting in PS

[Cybrex]

Hello everyone, very long time no see. I decided I wanted to attempt to pain in Photoshop today. I have a project in Sculpting class that we are to draw pictures of an animal we plan on sculpting, mine will be a spider killing a cricket. I have attempted to paint the spiders and would love some feed back on improving painting.

I tried following this tutorial http://www.steeldolphin-forums.com/htmltuts/painting_steps.html but I realized it was for those who have attempted to paint and have a general knowledge in painting PS. I did what I could, and what I could figure out, and, for the most part I like the looks of the spiders.

I plan on doing the same for my cricket, but would like feed back (if possible) so that I can improve on them.

Thanks everyone!

[N D Hill]

use the image attachment manager.

[Cybrex]

use the image attachment manager.

got it figured out, file was too big. lol.

[TheDirtSyndicate]

you're posting in the wrong section, try the critique center.
more than likely someone will move your thread for you, so dont worry about it right now.
just dont freak out when it happens.

i think you've got a good start here
i'd like to see what you can do with a hard edge only.
try that for a bit, lay down your colors like you're doing, but without relying on photoshop's blurry brush edges to create your gradations
also, i'd like to see more colors, like bring some blues (complimentary to the other colors) into your shadows.
not only that, but think about your background too. where does this spider exist? is it on a branch? a leaf? a web? what time is it? day? afternoon? night?
all these things effect the colors and bring in more light: reflected light. if the spider is on a leaf for example, the reflected light would be green, see where im going with this?
your spider cant really be rendered out by itself, it needs an environment to complete the effect, even if you dont have the environment there in the final piece. by that i mean you can use a photo in the background for your lighting, then you can turn off the photo layer and have your spider sitting on a white page, his colors and lighting will be more believable that way than if you just painted it on a white page with no lighting and environment in mind.
does that make any sense?
i feel like im babbling...
anyway, good luck, keep at it.

[Cybrex]

Hey Syndicate,

Ya, I must have missed that forum when I was looking to where to post this. Tried to find a option to move it, but I dont see one so hopefully someone else will for me :D

I have talked to a couple of friends and they all say the same thing, use a hard edge. That was something else I had completely forgot to do, blue in the shadows. I've never been a fan of painting, but lately I have been getting an itch for it, so I decided to start out in Photoshop till I can get the supplies I need.

Background idea completely slipped my mind, i'll remember that when I start my crickets today. The final project is going to be a 3d sculpture of a spider killing a cricket, so just getting some good idea's to how the insects look.

Thanks for all the help!