Franky Cosmo cover

[Leopoldo]

Hi folks,

Here's a cover I've been working on.

Enjoy,
Leopoldo

www.fabpics.com


http://www.abcmedia.se/fabpics/ca/dragon.jpg

[pol]

Wow Leo, great mood and incredible clouds... you don't stop.

It's nice to see that you are very versatile, this is very different from the work i've seen from you.

Pablo.

[Fozzybar]

great work as always...

The subject is awesome and very interesting, but the composition doesn't measure up to the excitement...

The 3 main figures (dragon and 2 biplanes) are in different levels but have nearly the same size, this brakes the whole tension...you also could give the piece more depth by playing with sharpness/details, which differ in this 3 objects...

You said you're working on, so i suppose some areas like the dragons fire breath aren't finished, but i made a quick paint over to show you what i mean with the composition thingy and also added my interpretation of the dragon-fire, which also pushes the composition...i hope you don't mind...

http://www.beyce.com/ca/pover/dragon_leopoldo_fozzybar.jpg

These are some small changes, but if you can do this over the whole place i think your awesome piece would get tighter and more attention from the viewer...

[Anemos the Storm]

I like it. I do agree with Fozzy about tightening up a bit. the bright flare on the left pulls the eye. if its an exploding plane on the ground you may want to emphasize a little black smoke to disapate it a bit. Overall nice piece

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Leo,

compared to your Portfolio in Amsterdam this piece is a total improvement by 100%. Rad!

Marko

[talmir]

I like the combination of WW1 and fantasy you have there.. I like both your apporach and fozzys..

overall good piece

[Molly]

Hey Leo,

This is a cool pic!
Nice colours used, tho, they blend together a bit...
Fozzybars take is good, but i find the blurred plane on the left in the foreground a little distracting...

Keep it up mate!

Mollyx;)

[S.C. Watson]

*THAT* is an awsome picture. Of course, I love dragons, so you can guess who I'm rooting for :D

Um... did they have tracer bullets in WWI? My history is a little vague on that particular detail.

Cheers,
~Oreg.

[Fabrys]

Really nice piece (and as it has been said, very good idea to mix fantasy and WW1).

I would say that the little explosion on the left is a bit too much. It makes the eyes look there, away from the main action, don't you think ? (is it just an opinion of course).

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, that explosion on the ground keeps tugging at my eye away from the main action in the scene. Maybe work the intensity down or even change it into smoke or something akin to after the crash. Right now it's the same intensity as the firestream in the main action and your eye gets stuck between the two and bounces back and forth uncontrollably. Great job though Leopoldo, the colors are delicious, definitely a new direction from what I saw of your portfolio in Amsterdam.

[Leopoldo]

Wow! Thx for all the great crits!!!

I figure that I must post this with it's logo layout so you guys get the feeling for it -

http://www.abcmedia.se/fabpics/ca/dragon_logo.jpg

Pablo! Dude! Thx man! That warm this old nordic heart! I wanna see more of your sci fi stuff!!

Blackhawk, Anemos the Storm and Fabrys - Thx. The little explosion in there is for stopping your eye whilst you are scanning the shelves of pocket books. The theory being that the dragon fire isn't enough to catch your eye in a bookshelf and a busy pocket book store shelf. It's also in there to pull your eye to the train on the ground.

Oregano - THX! Would you buy the book?

No, they didn't have tracer bullets in WW1, especially not in the airplanes. But they did have dragons! :rock:
Just kidding! Seriously, I was considering not having the tracer bullets they are a really good visual trick to pull some more depth into the piece. But then again I can sometimes feel that the wrong blend of elements can destroy the illusion of the reality in it (if you get what I mean).

Do you guys feel the tracer bullets breaks the reality of the situation in the piece because they (might) not be period? I say "might" because it's all up to the viewer of the piece and in relationship to their knowledge or idea of WW1. Therefore I don't really care if they did or didn't have them. Do they work for you?


Molly - Thx! Yeah, I agree about the colors blending. I've tried to go more realistic in the colors, desaturating them, trying also to get in a non-photoshop painting style (going for an acrylic kind a feel). As soon as I mute the palette (desaturateing it) to create "reality", the palette gets tighter and tighter, more restrictive and therefore blend more.
I sure will keep it up!

Fozzybear - I certainly don't mind. Thx for taking the time to do that.
I posted the logo thingy here mostly for you to get to see the more of the whole assigment. I agree that I could push it further as you say but there are certain needs of the cover that I chose to push instead.

DISCLAIMER
This is in no way meant to be a defence against your crits but as a look into my brain on how I was reasoning as I created the piece.

1) Some people (read clients) dont like it when things in the picture are cut off, therefore all elements had to be inside the page.

2) Blur, motion blur etc all scream "name that filter" and destroy the painterly style of the piece. The more descreet I am with my filters and other Photoshop unique "tools" the more I can actually paint. That's a painted cover and not a photoshop cover. It could just as easiely been done traditionally.

3) Blur effect, which I guess you are using to simulate the shallow focus of the camera, really doesn't do that good of a job, especially not in illustrations. It's better in say animation , like in Rustboy. It looks fake to me in illustrations.

4) the blur also creates the wrong scale feeling. To me it feels like it's a model which only makes the dragon feel smaller.

5) The fire - It all depends on "when you take your snapshot". I want the action of the fire. Your fire is a bit late. The more smoke that is developing the later it is in the burning. I feel there's more action in my burning, that's why my fire has less billowing.

Talmir - Thx!!

Marko - Dude! THX! How's it going with the thousand faces? really looking forward to it and I loved the first 100!
Yeah, the workshop did some sick sh*t to my head and worked wonders! :electric:
Next time we meet up (Prague yeah?) there'll be some serious drinks on me as a big, fat THANK YOU for the A'Dam 'shop!!! :beer:

Bon travail y'all!!!
Leopoldo

www.fabpics.com

[Fabrys]

Leopoldo > this version is great.
You are right about the little explosion :)

Hope to see more work of you here !!

[Summer Pudding]

Leopoldo,

This is dynamite.

I prefer the compromise between Fozzybar's and your own placement of the bi-plane on the left.

[treeshark]

I think this is great really well conceived and executed . I have only one small crit and that is the dragon's body seems slightly stiff abit more sinuous might help.

[riq]

Wow this painting is gorgeousj! I agree with Leopold on the blur issue..

My only problem is with the design and not the painting. The final cover when you squint Mergest into gray with only the dragonfire and the explosion standing. out.

I'm not sure if you knew the final layout of the cover, but you have have use the smoke to set up a nice contrat with the text; making it much Darker, almost black as it reache the top.

And for a cover design, it would have been nice if the dragon and the two planes jumped out more compositionally.

But as a standalone painting this is too cool.

riq.

[Layil]

wow! another one! I agree with marko, BIG improvement since amsterdam. somethings clicked in you hasnt it?

[Aerythes]

Wonderful painting! I'm also not partial excessive DOF blurring using photoshop blur tools. But maybe a little will help, like how PuddnHead does it in his Ram Demon painting.

Don't really like the tracer rounds; somehow I feel it cheapens the painting. It's something often seen in amateur stuff where the artist like to paint all the bullet paths in an effort to heighten the sense of excitement.

[Leopoldo]

riq - I totally agree, the values/contrast is indeed week and could be much stronger, especially with regards to the titles. Thx.

Layil - Yeah, Jason color session clicked and Androids value session clicked. A'Dam was really good for me. :)

Aerythes - Yeah, that Ram painting is so sick :rock: The blur certainly works on that painting. To get that nice extiting battle feel without the tracer bullets, do you have any cool ideas for a good replacement? Maybe just regular bullets flying past the camera?

/L

[Aerythes]

Eh, not sure if real bullets can be seen at that size and lighting. Hmm, perhaps you can add some muzzle flare to the plane's machineguns, and how about some blood bursting forth from the dragon's neck (by assuming the bullets hit it), or some broken pieces from its left wing.

[Leopoldo]

Coooool! Not that I'll be redoing it or anything but those are some good ideas, especially the muzzel flares, I can't believe I missed those!!! Thx. I might actually add those.

/L

[sonofangron]

whoa, this is awesome! Composition, colors, rendering,....

kinda reminds me of that Dragonlance novel "Legend of Huma" :)