amateur seeking critique...

[Zaptruder]

Hello, new here. Have been to many art forums in the last few years, as an on off thing, and was directed to conceptart not too long ago... but the level of skill here is so intimidating it disuaded me from posting for a while... I realise now that this is the best place to come to get some help to advance my skills a little, so don't go easy.

supporting character concept (http://members.iinet.net.au/~ejykong/kanoute.jpg).

night elf portrait (http://members.iinet.net.au/~ejykong/nightelf5.jpg)

The first is one of 9 characters that I've been working on for a game concept; The weapons are changable, but the default weapons are relatively plain katanas, not shown... critique on the design would be awesome too ^^;

The second is the first 'fully rendered' picture of any type I've done... every other time I've relied heavily on black lines to create form in my color work and I decided to try blend the dark lines and take emphasis away from them. The previous versions are numbered 1 to 4 in the URL.
I know it lacks depth... but I'm not quite sure how to fix it...

Thanks for the time.

[Wolfgang]

Hi there:

These are great and I hope you keep it up.

I'm just another amateur starting out like you, but for what it's worth:

I think the "flatness" you're observing might be because it's hard to read the forms of her face. The hair is working very well and it might be interesting to give the face and neck areas a similar range of values, stronger shadow versus highlight areas and so on, maybe render (softly) the muscles and the pit of her neck.

Might be a good idea to make head/neck studies with a reference so you can be familiar with their forms.

- Wolfgang.

[Storyboard Dave]

Watch the right hand on the elf character. The hand/ arm grabbing the sword just doesn't look right. The twisting in the arm just looks awkward and the hand doesn't look as though it's actually gripping the handle with any sense of authority.

Beyond that, i think you've got a great start here. Don't stop and whatever you do, don't be intimidated by the people here... or anywhere for that matter. Just keep drawing.

[emily g]

I agree with the critiques already given. I think you did a pretty good job for your first "fully rendered" piece. The hair looks very nice. One thing you're missing is the volume of the neck. The neck is round like a cylinder, but your painting doesn't reflect this. The neck just looks flat. If the shadow curved around the neck, it would help show that it is 3D.

Keep it up and keep posting!
emily

[the black frog]

Hey, I go with what has been said so far, the elf arms need some anatomical fix up check how the muscles are on your arm on front of the miror, prtty good feel of the character overall he's there allright, you might want to make his clothes a bit more personal though, something special... that would make your character recognisable and unique. - look at the other characters for video game what makes them memorable -

About the rendering for a first one I must say I rather impressed, you've got some good qualities in there, even if the drawing could be better the rendering makes her very "delicate", very fragile, I like the flower touch, not too big just what you need to make it cute and not vulgar.

get your friends to pose for you (they love that) so you can get some good bases for girl faces.

I am not a big fan of the pointy chin ... too painful

Keep posting
We're around

[dcloud]

Hello Zaptruder,

These are excellent pieces. The supporting character looks great, and I love the boots. Your shading is also pretty good (muscle tone, etc.). The hand grasping the sword didn't really throw me off, but if you want to improve upon aspects such as those then I suggest studying people who are doing similar things with their hands. A quick check on Google for Lord of the Rings and you should have plenty of people gripping their swords to study.

The colors on the night elf are great - makes the whole image jump off the page. Especially the hair; great job on the hair. Only two points I want to point out - 1) The ears stick out too far (in my own opinion). Perhaps have them lean back farther along the skull. 2) The chin line is too prominent; usually the chin line is subtle, a faint hint of a line, mostly made noticeable by shadows.

Otherwise excellent work - and welcome to the forum :)

- dc