Just another day at work for a dragon

[Joey-b]

well im kinda stuck with this piece.. .. its my first black n white cg ever.. so that i learn to play with contrast more
here's what i have so far
the sketch :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/joeyb/Dragonandscenery.jpg

then the dragon was done a little:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/joeyb/Dragonandscenery2.jpg

the pic looked boring so i thought i'd add a knight
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/joeyb/Dragonandscenery3.jpg

and now im here.. but uh any idea's crits flames.. all is welcome
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/joeyb/Dragonandscenery4.jpg
plz crit.. i dont get to many comments :(

[dogfood]

Your plea has born fruit. This is much better than most of the things I've seen you post. I'm hoping this shows the importance of values (because that's all it is), as opposed to relying on colors to solve the problems.

I like several things in this. The sly look and one gripping claw bely the dragon's outward appearance of clam (nice). The values are pretty good and the textures around the head, tree, and the armor are all pretty nice.

A couple things are a little off. The compostion isn't bad, but the elements aren't working together. Here is where it is so helpful to toss down some thumbnail sketches to work out the compostition. Even after you'd laid in the dragon (shot 2), and felt you wanted more, a few sketches would've helped. The knight, for instance, is cutting himself off from the scene with the hard lines (shield and sword) directly across the action flow (we're looking from him to the dragon and get stopped short). The tree is helping us make the transition across the hard boundry of the cave, but the rest of its shape seems to mirror the left side, upper left corner and most of the top of the piece.
The perspective on the chest is off. Our eye line seems to be just above the kinghts eyes, so we should see the top of the chest.
The mountain construction around the cliff makes it seem like a garage add-on. Caves don't really work like that and there doesn't seem to be much room for the dragon.
Instead of adding flame, I would concentrate on the ground around the cave mouth. Right now it looks like a concrete slab where some has left a couple rocks.

Not bad.

[Joey-b]

wow thats a really usefull crit
- as for the weapons.. how do u mean hard.. hmm i dont really understand how i could make them more soft.. do u mean less contrast

as for the mirroring.. u mean that it all looks alike?? hmm ill c if i can fix that

the chestplate.. yeah ur right.. i added it in the update

and the ground.. i always have trouble texturing that.. can u help me on that.. or any tips and advice??

i also removed the sky.. so that the cave looks like cave in a mountain and not like a stand-alone cave

i did some adjusting on the helmet.. and did the tree a bit nicer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/joeyb/Dragonandscenery5.jpg


thx allot for ur help!

[dogfood]

The yellow line represents what the eye motion is like (at least for me). The green line is highlighting the elements which are blocking that motion. The red lines show how similar the edge and tree line are. The blue line is outlining the treasure chest (sorry about the confusion).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/dogfood411/Dragonandscenery5.jpg

Go to the Loomis books or just about any good landscape book and study the compostion sections. It's unbelievable how much more pleasant well designed art is in comparison to that which doesn't follow good composition guidleines.

[Darrell Bowman]

the dragon seems awfull relaxed for a enemy so close to him.
of course if it the donkey shrek he likes him.
good work
maybe kill the cave see more dragon and move the cave into the middle distance as a background.

[Joey-b]

thx allot for ur help.. i hope i got it a bit better now.. here's the result in colors now..im not gonna do anything about this pic anymore.. time to move one :).. (i think ?)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/joeyb/Braveknight.jpg

[Joey-b]

n e one? :).. i just like this.. so i wanna hear what u think

[Spartan]

Its definitly much improved. The sword and branch now both point to the dragon. Next time I would try to focus on correctly constructing your perspective and aligning the lements of the picture in such a way that they convey solidity and a good sense of mass.

[Joey-b]

thx.. im not xactly sure what u mean.. but i think it has to do with that everything looks like a loose part of the drawing?.. if thats it.. yeah im tryinhg to work on that.. thx for ur comment