Mounted Lancer

[ejwize]

http://tdemelle.home.mindspring.com/Cavalry_wip_6.jpg

I've been working on this a bit at a time in hopes to get *something* to submit to Spectrum this year.

I'd appreciate any feedback I might be able to work with over the next few days before the axe drops. :D

[Romulus]

damn that is the sexiest thing ive ever seen comming out of war...NICE job man. :D

[Sketch]

Wow! Your composition skills are amazing. I love the use of barbwire for your foreground. This just reaks of atmosphere. I freakin love it!!!

[Wart]

Woha... love this.
I realy don't have any crits.

Yeah. Woha.

[Main Loop]

other than the horse looking a bit unfinished id say great job... the legs and torso need either a bit more definition or less.. having the brushstrokes show doesnt help in this case, at least in my opinion

[Davey Jones]

Wow!
This is seriously sweet! How long did this take you?
I'm very impressed, do you have more stuff? Who's your employer?

again, great work, this is the best piece I've seen in a while

[Lost Dragon]

This is great!

Maybe I'm too picky, but I do seriously wonder why the guys are wearing gas masks when the horses aren't. If that was intended, then ok, but if it wasn't...

You can view a horse gas masks from WW2 in the URL below. This site even has one mounted on a horse manikin:

http://www.gasmasks.net/events/mots/mots.htm

I don't know how practical they would have been in use.

Cheers.
:chug:

[I.was.ink]

I like how this turned out.I followed your process in the wip thread.

Crit: I say that it still needs some more refinining in the main character and the horse. Also, I think the clouds could have a few detailed parts(possibly texture), and on a last note, I think it would help a lot if the main char. and horse were more saturated than the rest , that way they stand out as your main subject.

iwasink

[Lad]

First of all WOW this is awsome.

Second is the background looks bare as if you need to add something into the sky behind the gas mask guy. Like clouds, smoke rising from far behind him, something...

Third, WOW.

[Matt Dixon]

Superb.

I don't agree with any of the crits here - I think it's perfectly balanced just how it is. The 'empty' background creates a wonderfully desolate atmosphere which is very fitting to the subject and there's more than enough contrast between the horse and sky to sufficiently define your main subject.

[talmir]

No crit from me.. I really like this piece.

[marc-pierre]

i like the contrast u generate, between the terrible topic of this picture - represented by the foreground - and the romantic mood the background mediates.

really a picture with great feelings.

(hope this was understandable somehow :rolleyes: )

[Seraph]

Gawd damn, man, that is jaw-droppingly awesome.

[DRESDEN]

WOW!!!

Really nice piece, it's got a WWI feel to it. It's fine the way it is, if you want to change anything, i would suggest to add a bit of a highlight from the sun on the soldier, other than that it's perfect.

:chug:

[Rusty Red Robot]

BEAUTIFUL. I love the composition and the colors! My only crit is that the main guy looks a little flat against the background. But still, it's a beautiful piece.

[amphex]

Wow now this is just awesome :)
I agree with I.was.ink's crit, but the loose rendering of much of the piece seems to add more to the great atmosphere...and I'm not quite sure what refining parts of it would do to that

but whatev yo its early..so lets just leave it at I love this :D

[Muttonhead]

I agree with everyone that this is a really nice piece.

The only thing I would do different would be to (as was said before) define the horse a bit more, but even moreso, I would make the darkest areas of the horse even darker. It almost looks like the horse was cut out of another piece and pasted on top of this one.

Really nice stuff though man. Keep it up!

[Phuzion]

I really like the color choices in the piece. I agree with Muttonhead that the horse needs more contrast... it does feel a little cut out. Also, try staggaring the legs a little more. Push one of the hind legs back farther, just to break up the "too regular" feel of the stance. Really really nice work though. Can't wait to see more. Peace

[ejwize]

Thanks for the kind words and the crits.

I agree the horse does feel a little unrefined and pasted on. I have been shamefully working without finding very good reference... which gets harder and harder the more detail you try to get in there. I've also been intentionally trying to keep this loose feeling since my work has traditionally been rendered too uptightly. Anyway, here's a stab at working the horse to the point where he doesn't feel out of place.



Thanks for the link Lost Dragon. The inspiration for this painting actually came from an old WWI photo I found a while ago that shows a guy in a gasmask on a horse that is not wearing one. Pretty clearly posed. I gave the idea of putting a gasmask on the horse a thought (knowing that someone would pick it out :P) and decided it was going to be a little more wacky looking than I wanted this to be.

Davey, I work for Turbine. *waves at muttonhead*

Some other good directions to explore in this feedback... Main Loop, I.was.ink, Lad, DRESDEN, Rusty Red Robot, Phuzion. I'm in that place right now where I don't want to noodle with it too much since I'm pretty happy with it and I don't know if I'll have enough time to follow through on and work out incorporating all these ideas before the Spectrum deadline.

Thanks again for the positive feedback, Romulus, Sketch, Wart, Matt *wave*, talmir, marc-pierre (I get what you mean, and am glad that tension works for you... I was a bit afraid it would appear too romantic!), Seraph, amphex!

There, I listed all your names. :P
http://tdemelle.home.mindspring.com/Cavalry_wip_7.jpg

[Joachim]

Hi, just want to say I like the picture very much.
First thing I noticed was the horse. I think the angle etc is ok, but sine the focus of the picture is the horse and guy I think you should work bit more on the horse. The legs are a bit short, and bent inward which makes him a bit like a cute pony :) And the head a little big. This exaggerations are ofc. ok, but in such a picture like this I think you should exaggerate the other way, meaning longer legs smaller head bigger neck, to make the horse more powerful. Acutally, it's often easy to make the horses head a bit too big, but in reality the neck and head rarely goes higher than the man sitting on top. I brushed over a quick silhoutte to show you what I mean. The horses silhouette is very important in this picture I think.
http://www.joachimart.com/forum/Cavalry_horsefix.jpg

Except for that its a great picture. I would maybe consider removing the red in the sun, and keep it yeallow and green, or maybe make it more subtle, since the picture is rather monochromic, like an old picture, that red bleed becomes a little too "digital". Atleast don't add any more color in my opinion.

[Ant4d]

wow. this is really cool looking painting! I liked the 1st ver. better.post more

[ejwize]

I mailed this thing off today, but that is some great feedback, Joachim. You're making me look at the possibilities of that horse in a whole new light. I can see where you're going with it.

Hrm. Maybe I should do a second one with this subject...