lizard thing

[Ben Mauro]

first attempt towards any sort of finish in a painting. photoshop CS.


http://www.artofben.com/qs/birdthing1.jpg

[jetpack42]

from what i can tell, the focus is the head. I'd recommend sharpening up that area, to bring it to a much stronger focus. those red tenticle things do a good job of leading the eye there, but with it kind of blurry like that the eye doesn't stay for long. I might sharpen up a few of the very front tip scales on the shoulder too. i like how on the back of the shoulder sort of fades to a really dark blue (the scales). maybe even pump a couple of those up a little. i'm a noob to painting though, so take this advice with a wheelbarrow full of salt.

5 hours till sketch night! yer goin, right????? wooooooooooooooootttt!!!!!!!!!11111

[Ben Mauro]

you know it, thanks for the suggestions, im really new to painting also.

[scottg]

Hey Ben,
I really like the colors in this piece. And I agree with Jetpact42 in respects to the sharpening. I'm not the best person to give advice, but something that I would do is exaggerate the creatures face a bit. Not so much that it looks cartoonish but just a bit. But that is something that has to do with style too. You may not want to do that.That' s you're call. Any way I think you're headed in the right direction. Keep it up.

later
scottg

[Elwell]

The basic concept looks OK, but it's hard to tell because of the extreme cropping. It looks like it's been cut out from a larger piece, and there's important stuff we're not seeing.

I like the brushstroke texture, but the color is weak. There's not enough variation in temperature and intensity, both between and within the different color areas. It looks like a black and white movie that's been "colorised".

[mikel]

I like your handling of the media (doesn't really feel digital). The shoulder is fighting dominance in the composition. My guess is you spent a lot of time focusing in on this spot which can sometimes lead you to neglect the rest of the piece (I have the same problem). Working on details is sometimes like sharpening the focus on a camera. Glazing the shoulder back should help.

Also darken the value on the negative space to the left and a bit more around the head near the edges where negative and postive elements meet. A little bit of work on face and you should be set.

[Imp Head]

Hey bro,

A pretty damn fine "beginning attempt". Youv'e got a good start at a rendering volume. You've definitely captured that "saurian" feel yet kept it anthropomorphic enough to suggest a modicum of intelligence, (As I was talking about at the sketch group a couple of weeks back.)

This is also a good piece to start really understanding the "psychology of art" I was going on about the other night. When you think about a lizard what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me it's a quick darting animal, vibrantly colored but with an air of foriegn deadliness. For those of you that haven't heard me talk about this stuff, people understand fur and teeth but freak out about anything that falls outside what we percieve as "normal". As an example, think about your reaction towards approaching or even picking up a snake or spider to that of picking up say a racoon or otter. Chances are the former will do you a far cry less damage but they're strange and so more scary to approach. However, to make something REALLY scary we have to also give it intelligence. Humans, being the self-centered and predictable creatures we are attribute the humanoid build (Upright, arms, legs, head, etc.) with intelligence, (hence, greys, the aliens, being the shape they are.) Mix the two together and not only do you have something that is scary because it's unfamilar, you now have something that is not easily outwitted, because it's percieved as smart. Look at the movie "Mimic". Bugs=scary. Bugs that walk upright= SUPER scary.

Like I said, the scaliness is there, the color and saurian feel are there, but when you portray a creature, especially a sentient creature looking down it's a sure sign of sadness, submissiveness, or lethergy. Definitely not one of power, and definitely not one of dangerous agression. This is severly limiting the psychological "POW" of this character portrait.

Try instead to bring the snout up so the tip creates an upwards diagonal (perfect horizontals and verticals are inherently stable and so hold no dynamic tension.) tilt the camera so that we're getting a slight worm's eye view of the creature. This will put the viewer at an automatic disadvantage putting them on more of an edge and giving the creature even more "psycological" power. Try pulling the head out from the body a bit to give the illusion of "snap", that at any moment, even if the creature isn't facing us, it could have our throats in it's jaws faster than the blink of an eye. Lastly, I would consider flipping the image horizontally so the creature is facing right rather than left. The reasoning behind this is that because we read from left to right we subconciously associate the left side of a page as "known" or in simpler terms "safe". So any character facing that side of the image is essentially more "docile" than a more "adventerous" one facing the left, or the "unkown". (edit: I just noticed that you did just this for your avatar. This is a good opportunity to see them side by side to see what I'm talking about in practice.)

For reference check out lizards. Stay away from things like chameleons and the like that move slow. Also take a long look at the American Godzilla from that movie that came out a few years ago. They did a really good job at capturing exactly what it is that this guy needs, (Though a poor one at getting the classic Godzilla.) Understand why he works and you'll understand what you need to change with this one.

Rock on dude!

[Ben Mauro]

http://www.artofben.com/qs/birdthing2.jpg

thanks for the suggestions everyone, i dont know how far im going to take this one, im still very new to this, maybe do another piece with this character, not sure. i did a brief fixup on it.

elwell- thanks alot, i feel i have little understanding in this area, im looking into it though, if you have anywhere you could point me to, thatd be great. i was thinking about the cropping too, thanks for the crits.

imp- thanks! ive been thinking a lot about what you said since the sketch meet, and its definetly helping. i hadnt thought about his position, and it being so submissive. dont know how far im going to take this, im trying to do as many 5-6 hour finishes as i can before august, which is the 'month of finishing' for shanes assignment. i want to get as much practice in as i can. afterwards i would love to revisit this, ill definetly take the comments to heart.

mikel, scottg- thanks guys, i adressed a few of those issues in the quick cleanup. definetly taking the rest to heart.