Fantasy Illustrations

[Jason Juta]

Hi everyone, I've been working to improve my illustration technique in order to improve my portfolio to attract more clients, and would love some critiques and thoughts on the following images painted in Photoshop. Thanks,
Jason

[Volatile]

Theres some really nice framing on the figure in the first image, not too sure i like the mountains in the background though , the looseness of them doesnt quite sit correctly with the rest of the image but its still nice, the 2nd image is really good i really like it ^^ .

[Jason Juta]

Thanks, funny thing is I deliberated for ages over the mountains, and eventually I think I simply forgot to make a decision - shows how easy it is miss something when you work on it for a while. I think I'll refine them.

[Leggraphics]

Looks great.

The dragons neck doesnt really look like it belongs to the head in proportion. I think the neck could get away with being a little more slender which might open up those mountains a bit more to. I really love the colours you used. That purple glow looks stunning, especially around the eyes

[ScribbleHEAD]

Overall, quite nice work.....there's some nasty inconsistencies in the dragons neck and inside the throat, it looks way off from where i'm sitting.

The background is also kinda lost, and slightly sloppy and makes it seem as if you rushed to finish the piece :)

[Jason Juta]

Good call on the neck, I'll think about that. I also wasn't sure if the scale of the scales (har har) on the neck was too large in relation to the head detail...not sure I want to repaint them though!!

[Jason Juta]

Overall, quite nice work.....there's some nasty inconsistencies in the dragons neck and inside the throat, it looks way off from where i'm sitting.

The background is also kinda lost, and slightly sloppy and makes it seem as if you rushed to finish the piece :)

Do you mean the belly itself doesn't line up with the throat correctly?

Thanks for the crit. I didn't rush the piece, but did treat it like a realistic job which didn't necessarily require overworking of the background (eg interior rpg illustration, there is a limit to time spent vs money earned) - although I do think I need to tighten up the mountains slightly.

[Noah Bradley]

Love the colors on the second one, but it's kinda bothering me that they don't really seem to be looking at one another. Just a thought.

Also, the inside of the dragon's mouth really seems to be flattening out to me. Something to take a look at.

But overall good work. Keep at it!

[Dahami]

The scales on the dragon's neck are a bit too large, as compared with those on the nearby coil of its body. I also think its scales are too large in general, although there are certain tree snakes such as the mamba and the boomslang, that do have fairly large scales relative to body size/thickness. In the case of the dragon I guess the scales are a form of armor. If they were a bit smaller, however, that would yield greater flexibility and maneuverability.

As far as the man staring down the dragon, I think the outline of his head could be sharpened or delineated better. I'm not saying to go for a cartoon-like outline, but he should stand out against the background as well as the stalactites behind him do. He is such a central part of the action in the scene, but his edges against the sky are not sufficiently defined, and the sky right behind him is not smooth enough. Is he supposed to be emanating some sort of magical glow or did he just not "get along" with the sky during the painting process? There are things you could do with layers in Photoshop to help sharpen some of those edges, and smooth out that background.

The dragon's left eye (the one further from the viewer and closer to the man on screen) could possibly be just a hair larger. The other painting perhaps has fewer issues, but is also less interesting to me.

"I've been working to improve my illustration technique in order to improve my portfolio to attract more clients..."

Is that the only reason? How about just doing it for yourself? :)

[joshua labello]

The Dragon:

I love the layout on this one! The others are right on with their criticisms of the neck and mountains in the dragon illustration. Additionally, there are some problems with the perspective in the dragons face. The center line of the top and bottom of his skull don't line up - his bottom jaw is pointing at us, but the top is skewed toward the man. Breaking the face down to the manikin level would help you see it.

Flip this illustration horizontally and all will be revealed! In fact, I recommend that you flip EVERY drawing, painting, and thumbnail sketch that you do - it'll make you improve over night - trust me!

The second illustration is beautiful! Looking at the wizards face, I have no idea what he's thinking though. He's a little too stoic for being in mid-battle for my tastes. The Wizard and the Wraiths focuses are misaligned - shooting past each other.

Those are my knit-picky points. All around, great job and please show us more!

[Jason Juta]

Thanks everyone. I'm starting to feel sorry for myself, I think I may have to practically do the dragon from scratch....argh...;)

Dahami - I wish I could say it was for myself, but I'm a fulltime freelancer and a stay-home dad, so I have no free time; at the moment everything I do therefore needs to be geared toward bringing in desperately needed cash. Luckily I do work for great clients like Wizards of the Coast, but there's always the danger of getting complacent....

To general comments about the second image's eyeline, thanks, that's a tricky one I guess I failed on, it's the old 'superheroes fighting but need to face the viewer at the same time' conundrum....lol. I'll give it some thought.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

I think you rushed the dragon peice but that second peice is great, really wicked poses and staff magic going on there.
:D

[Jason Juta]

Thanks for everyone's input, here is an updated version of the dragon painting...

[Jason Juta]

Just a subtle update to this one, tilted the wizard's head back and redid his pupils (admittedly you can't see the difference too well at this size) and add pupils to the wraith/lich...hope that helps the eyeline issue a little?

[OmenSpirits]

His hands need work. His left wrist looks broken.

The flow of his lower body's not carried through the waist/torso.

Something about the whole composition doesn't feel right. Maybe if the staff was positioned in a more defensive position instead of like it's coming upwards towards the shadow.

Loved the color pallette. :D

[corspufo]

I love the 2nd image with the wizard and death. Great colors and composition. Also your update for the Dragon piece is much improved. The crit i have is the Dragon's mouth. Where the throat starts looks like it's too high. I could be wrong though. but overall, I like the work. If you put together 4 or 5 more pieces like this, you'd have something pretty solid to present to Wizards of the Coast for some freelance work.

[the_jos]

Hey Jason,

I hope you don't mind me (a beginner) having some comments on your dragon. I like the concept and mood, but there are some things that are off.
Part of the problem was already explained by joshua, but I think there is more to say.

The spikes above the eyes:
- The left one seems to curve downwards, the right one curves upwards.
Furthermore, when following the lines of the right one you get to the right-most 'horn' on the dragon's head. When doing the same on the left side you will end up far left of the left-most horn on the head.
- The first spike counted from the nose is not at the same place. The left one is at the start of the eye. The right one is positioned about halfway on the eye.

The neck:
- I tried to figure out what's wrong with the mouth, as corspufo pointed out.
So I tried to follow the neck.
From what I've tried to draw, it's impossible to have that much neck visible.
I'll get back on that.

The part behind the eyes (not 100% sure on this one):
- From what it looks like the left part behind the eyes is sticking out. On the right side it's more or less flat.

The general problem is that the dragon's upper face is pointed at two directions at once. When I follow the left part of the face it's positioned at the character standing. When I follow the right part of the face it's positioned at the viewer.
This creates the problem with the neck and mouth. When taking the left side of the face the neck is bent inwards a little too much for the position of the head, but that's minor. This would move the start of the throat to the left. When looking at the right side of the face the neck curves too much inward.
When drawing from this angle the start of the throat would be more to the right.

My surgestion: put a piece of paper over half the face of the dragon.
You will see that both sides are good. It's just that the combination of both perspectives is off.

[TheShock]

WOW! nice technique and colors. a bit textured too and that is very good.sorry for my english but keep it working