girl,fish,ship- advice on proceeding

[ghobii]

Hi all. I haven't done alot of digital painting so I have yet to achieve a good flow or process. I mostly use photoshop, doing alot of smudging, dodging and burning once the basic shapes are blocked in.

Now I'm at the stage where I want to start adding color and detail but Am still trying to come up with the best tools for the job. I also have painter but tend not to use it cause I don't know it very well.
In the past when I got to this stage I have tended to add color on other layers and then merge them down when I need to blend more with the base layer. It's pretty hit and miss and very slow.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/izstudios/art/fish6wip.jpg

[ghobii]

Am I worse then I thought? Is the subject just too weird? Too much work to answer?(I feel that way sometimes)

[sin]

my suggestions are...
add more contrast to the ship in the background, it looks unfinished...
also your perspective between the cockpit and the open door seems off
more contrast on the girl too, make her stand out like that weird fish does. overall i really like the piece, just needs to be finished up.

hope i helped.

[theognis]

i like it.the fish looks cool. thats how some the fish evolved into amphibians right?

[Johannes]

When finished, I think this will rock!
I have somme comments crits that hopefullly willl be of some help:
Anyway, Im also a slow colorist... And I know I used to use the burn tool alot, but no-one fast seems to even want to touch that tool, so Ive laid it away for some years (except for extreme situations, hehe). Instead I use the airbrush on say 10-20-50% preassure, gives much the same effect, but its "instant" instead of first painting, then burning.

If I can crit a bit, I think this pice needs a bit more space to our right, behinf the girls back, a few centimeters, Its a bit "crowded" and id like a line fromupper right corner through knee, foot and to lower right corner, kinda.

I would like the sea to be darker further out (more dark there) and the sky to be darker further away too (hmmm, tht seems weird, is that really the rule???, Id like a disclaimer on that...).

try to loose more of the black lines in the fish
maybelighten up her hair a bit, more reflection in the hair.
Heavier shadow on the ship.

Id like too see this one finished, Its not piece one sees regularly, this "old school" sci-fi stuff! keep up the good work! :D

[ghobii]

Hey thanks for the comments Johannes!
I think your right about alittle more breathing room on the right, I was wondering about that and so a second opinion was all I needed to convince me.
As far as darker in the distance though...I was going on the idea that things further away tend to get lighter (haze) and more sky colored. I'm guessing it will look alot better with some actual color :rolleyes:
I am also planning on losing the heavy lines on the fish, that just is how the sketch started before I developed the scene.
I'm glad you like the subject. Old school? yeah I guess so, I grew up on Aasimov, Clark and that type of stuff.
I'll finish it eventually, unfortunately I have a whole bunch of things vying for my time...

[S13Drifter]

Everythings coming along fine. Yea i know it takes a little bit to get used to digital painting and using a tablet. But keep at it and you'll get used to it

as for my crit, i find this painting is fairly flat looking. Theres a very even application of detail throughout the whole piece. I'd suggest you pick and area of focus, and up the contrast and detail on that specific point. and lower the contrast on other things that are not as relevent as primary figures. Also to add a sense of depth really define your foreground, midground, and background with varied levels of detail. High contrast on foreground objects, and lesser detail as you get further back in space.

I hope this helps you, and again great effort so far.