Please Crit

[Deth Jester]

Hey

I was wondering if you could help me on a peice Im doing. This is the ref.

http://home.csumb.edu/p/palleschimichael/world/wip/xlia644l%252D24%252Ejpg.jpg

This is waht I got so far..

http://home.csumb.edu/p/palleschimichael/world/wip/merm3.JPG

Its not going anywhere.. I know the lighting is off.. and its just lacking something...

Any input would help... feel free to paintover etc...

thanks,

[R_M]

Hi Deth Jester,
I have been looking at your pic, and I like vey much the theme you choose.
If I had my Wacom with me I would paint a couple of comments, but still here is what I think:
The anatomy is allright, but her left arm is missing triceps muscles( I think that is the name), those are the ones opposite the biceps on the upperback of the arm. You can see them in the reference pic just below the girls shirt, they look like a small lump.
You could also try to play with the levels a bit,...give her a bit of contrast..
hope you find it usefull

[Deth Jester]

ahh I new something was wierd.. lol// cant beleive I fucked her arm up... oh well. guess I was worrying to much about her face.. hehe thanks for the reminder.. *fixing*

then bed..
thanks.

yeah its her tricep.. but I think its more the fat under her arm that is missing... or the back of her arm I should say.. :)

[Fisa]

i am not really good at anatomy so i can't really comment. however lighting wise i would suggest adding a layer of just highlight, pump it up even though it may look odd at first and then tone it down from there. reason being that i think you will be able to get a good emphasis of where you want to get the eye to go from doing this.
also a nice yet very minor secondary light source on the rear side might help seperate your subject from the depths of water behind her.

[Harmony Steel]

Good looking image so far :). My only critiques would be regarding her hair, which looks a bit stringy at the ends, and the setting which (to me anyway) feels ambiguous.. I'm not sure if she's meant to be underwater or in space. Other than that I think this is a lovely piece of work.

One small final suggestion.. if you wanted to make the image look more dynamic you could have her looking directly at the viewer rather than off the page. Hope that helps :)

[S13Drifter]

Good stuff so far. Your anatomy is pretty spot on. As for my crit punch out those values some more. Really describe for us where the light source is coming from. Give us some nice highlights, and remember your core shadows. That'll help give the character more volume. Contrast is a good thing, you should use it. That is unless you were going for particular mood. Maybe you wanted to ceep it kinda eerie and mysterious. If thats the case disregard what i just said about your values and keep it nice and turn up the murkyness. and add some depth to the piece by controlling your level of detail, things that are closer get more attention, let the values and contrast fade together for things that are farther way. Other than that i believe your on your way to a nice piece :D .