The Knight vs The Swamp Monster

[VegasMike]

This took @ 8 hrs using all the things I've learned about digital painting in the past year. Sketched, scanned, PS7, Wacom. Crit so I may learn more, please.

http://img17.photobucket.com/albums/v52/Vegasmike/Knight-Vs.jpg

Visit my gallery: http://vegasmike.deviantart.com/gallery/

[Gaussian3d]

Tahts' great man, I love the texture, the values work, it's nicely stylized. The only crit I have is the knight's left arm... if he slashed that things hand then it should be foreshortened I think... not fully extended, which in my opinion flattens. (you could prob use photoshop to copy/past and use perspective to distort it. Then paint a bit over in painter.
Anyways, that's my only crit... great work man!

[Erik]

It's nice, just i miss some color variation. The pice now has almost only warmish colors making it seem a little monochrome. Some cools in the shadows might work (in my opinion) to make it even better

Good painting, style and subject !

E.

[Denart]

awesome composition and values

the monster design is cool and i love the knight's head

1 crit, the monster doesn't look really that hurt. I mean, yeah he's screaming, but I think having his head jerking back would be better

[mackdknife]

I really like this- it reminds me of Bill Peet's Children's books. My critique would be to have him double handed- swinging the sword to give it more action. I agree with the comment about the monster rearing back, right now he is a bit static. With the colors, I believe you could maintain your monochromatic palette but juxtipose warm against cooler colors to make it pop. Great work.

[343guiltyspark]

Great pic, but i hope the swamp monster wins, i mean first off the knight looks evil, and even if he isnt the swamp monster was probbly minding its own business(what ever swamp monsters do in a swamp allday) and the asshole knight attacks him, i mean he was probably sleeping or whatever and out of no-where WHAMO :btu:

[jca]

you guys are so picky.. nubs

[Dementist]

Just.... wow. You blow me away, my friend. I love all the anatomical distortions on both characters. Only thing worth mentioning is the carnage coming from the monster's right hand. At first it looked like it was holding a piece of wood. Maybe use a different color or make it look more fluid next time.

[BlueMech]

Very cool. Sword looks a little stretched that or the arm and neck pull make it look off. Go swamp monster!

[Somnio]

Very nice. This piece goes down like a glass of ice cold recreational beverage :beer: . Before I critique keep in mind that at this point I can quite honestly say that this is a piece of work well beyond my current ability. The critique I have is the positioning of the Knights' swing arc. It seems too me that the blade doesn't line up with the angle of the wounds on Swamp Monsters severed fingers. The fact that the broad side of the blade seems to be angled slightly towards forground and his arm positioned fully extended to the rear lead the viewer to believe that he's slashing towards his own back when, in order to sever the fingers, he should be slashing more outwards towards the background. Also, I would assume that in order to sever flesh and bone you would need a really sharp blade. Perhaps, if you added a little bright gleam to the very edge of the sword it would help convey that this is one kickbutt sword that can cut off huge monster fingers. :cool: Again these are tiny critiques comming from someone with clearly far inferior skills :bow: but perhaps you'll find them interesting. Overall I love this piece and look forward to more!

[ElvisMcVegas]

awww man...I was expecting a knight fighting the ACTUAL swamp thing, but hey, this is still good, although the monster looks a little un-realistic, but maybe you where going for that.

[VegasMike]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

Gaussian3d...I see what your saying about the arm, it should have way more foreshortening. When I sketched this out I was thinking more about the composition and leading the eye through the scene...I'll go back and make the adjustments later, I'm sick of working on this one!

Erik... I tried something different with color on this one. I rendered the whole scene in greyscale and applied color layers over it. I've never really tried it before so it was a learning experience. I saw a tutorial from this guy... http://www.marctaro.com/ I used layers set on color to do most of it. Does anyone know more effective layer styles/techniques to add color to a greyscale image?

Denart/mackdknife...I guess I was thinking he would be more surprised at that moment. Like it had just happened and the pain hadn't really hit yet. I tried to add some slime hanging off that looked like he was moving or startled.

Guiltyspark...The knight is supposed to be crossing a path that I never really put in...a path through the swamp, but along comes Swampy, like the troll under the bridge and the billygoats thing. I could have made the story less ambiguous with the path.

Dementist...Maybe some brighter blood and a lil motion blur...

Blue Mech...Its all stylized but I could have rendered the neck a bit more to round it off.

Somnio...Nice insight, I made a slash towards my computer screen (the fingers) and realized how far off the arch is. Ill make the adjustments later...