help with wip image - centaur vs wolves

[kyliegirl]

hey, I have been doing this image for a few days, but I am somehow not pleased with the grass atm, I was aiming for an etchy grassy/leafy floor like you find in forests and woods, but I struggle to make it roughish and appealing as I am a realist artist, so i struggle with making things looking the way i see in my head, as i try to make everything realistic.

any crits on the grass and tips , ANY HELP whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. crits on the centaur is also welcome, but I will write down whats what so far to stop any confusion.

the centaur is attacking a pack of wolves , defending a female centaur who will be pinned up against the tree which will be placed in the huge blank area on the right, that is another problem as i want the tree to look real, yet not , dodgy, more.. reallish fake sort. The centaur isnt anywhere near done because I felt i had to do the background before any more of the centaur so i wont have to worry too much about redoing all of the centaur to fit with the lighting, when i get the bg right I will commence on him and the rest of the chars in the image. but for now I am trying to work on the bg to make it look right.

the trees in the background arent finished either as I am still trying to work out the flooring.


the image. sorry its size is too big, its in normal working size atm so you can give proper crits and help..

http://kylielangton.com/other/centaurs.jpg

any tutorials, tips, crits anything to help me atm would be totally appreciated

[dogfood]

Do you have any thumbnail drawings you made in order to work out the composition? I'm asking, because it looks like you're painting yourself into a corner.

The meadow is looking marvelous and I can tell you're using a reference, but (as much as it pains me to say) in comparison to the centaur, it looks like it could be a paintover in some areas (I say "some" because the lightsource is all over the place). The main reason is that from what there is of the anatomy, it looks highly irregular. The chest looks too large and the abdomen is really off. It looks even worse because the face also looks pretty good.

Boy that sounds like a really backhanded compliment. Sorry about that.

So here's my main point: by working each element to (near) completion, you're sacrificing continuity (lighting problems here) and potential compositional problems.

[kyliegirl]

yeah i used a referencs, i was aware of the sheer horriditity of the centaurs body :P , the bg isnt a paintover, I thought the lightsource was working but i guess in your opinion it isnt, so i might have to work on that again. unless your saying the lighting is irregular on the centaur? but i stopped doing anything of him when i realised i needed to find where my light source was coming from in the bgt, so i havent touched him since i have been doing the bg, thus why he has had not touchups etc.

I was trying to aim at the light coming through branches, as they would in real life.

i still dont feel happy with the floor, im gonna do a bit of experimenting . change the foreground grass where the centaur stands.


this is the thumbnail version of what i have been going through so far.. your lucky i have been saving pics as i went along :P

http://kylielangton.com/other/sofar.jpg

[HugeHarHar]

I suggest introuducting greens and blues into shading the centaur. Right now it's just darker skin tones, but there's the forest around, and shadows are cooler then higlights and such. Also the centaur has light behind him, so the shadow shouldnt just get dark and stay dark on his back. Part of his back should be a little lighter, not like his front, but should be lighter then the rest of the shadows.

I love how impressionistic the grass and the background feels, i wish you could use that in the figure as well.

[Beastmaster Fred]

I think his face is really, really well done and very impressive. His left eye (to our right) is a little high up compared to the other one but that´s easily fixable. When the rest of his body is finnished I´m sure it´ll look as good as the face, just make sure you don´t leave those man-boobs in ;) Oh and also his sword´s handle is touching the upper edge of the pic, which is a bit distracting.

Looking forward to seeing updated versions :)

[dogfood]

Well, I see tree shadows in different directions.

Very sweet feel on the meadow, then! And I'm a convert on your sketch. I think it has tremendous potential.

[kyliegirl]

ah i see what ya mean by the tree shadows, i will try to fix that up. it sorta looks like the sun is directly above with the way the shadows are going. I sorta like it, but i guess it looks unnatural as shadows go directly under trees when the suns right above :/

[dogfood]

Ah, I thought the sun was high on the left from the centaur's lighting, then I see all these trunk shadows heading left, right, and center. With so many braches, it's certainly easy to have a confusion of shadows and have it be right, but when you only have one identifiable shadow leave a tree and it seems to be the thickness of the trunk... well, it's going to seem like the trunck.