Sister of the Hedge <<<Now With More Flower Power>>>

[deschamps]

Hey everyone. Here is a piece I painted recently.
The story it illustrates is basically an adult fairytale. I'd love to know what people think.
-Eric

OLD VERSION (http://www.ericdeschamps.com/Clients/Realms/Sister-Hedge-FORUM.jpg)

http://www.ericdeschamps.com/Clients/Realms/Sister-Hedge-FORUM2.jpg

[Recursive_End]

Beautiful!
No crits, it looks really nice :)

[Sems]

very nice indeed

[Gilead]

I like the way the moonlight comes through the branches. That was not an easy lighting choice to make, but you pulled it off pretty well.
I wish I got more of a sense of what's going on. Not to the extent of spoiling the story, but just some feel for the relationship between the characters. Is she causing this or indifferent or oblivious? I can't tell.
Also the usual questions: What medium was it painted in, how big etc.?

[bhanu]

Could have with a bit more blood and more flowers would have added some kind of irony,but no real crits from me so its job well done
champs da man

[saa]

that's really nice! the only thing that bothers me is the hard edged brush you used on the nose, but that's only a small thing

[dogfood]

Man, I love how all the elements work so well together...

I actually like the lack of emotion on her face. With her positioning and the already stated thrust that that isn't just a guy (making him "man", full of suffering), she fits very nicely as "nature" (uncaring and a bitch on clothing).

So very, very sweet.

[mwillustration]

very nice piece!
i love the colors. you captured the night really well.
also, i really like the guy's hair and beard.

the woman in the foreground does look a bit less rendered though than the man, which is a little distracting.
looks like her nostrils could be a little darker and the cropping below her lips is a bit awkward. i think it'd work better if the crop was down a bit farther, below her chin instead of her lip.

great detail though on the vines and scratches!
i agree with some comments before that mention some more flowers would be nice. particularly in the foreground i think.
i actually didn't notice them at first glance.

beautiful work!

[deschamps]

Recursive_End: Thank you

Sems: Thanks I appreciate it.

Mullet: :teeth:

MIKECORRIERO: Thanks Mike. I had a bunch of flowers at one point and thought it totally changed the atmosphere of the piece. Though maybe I toned the flowers down too much.

Gilead: A lot of the illustrations I have had to do lately have been pretty straight foward so I left this one a little more open to interpretation. This was painted digitally at 8x11in 400 dpi.

bhanu: Thanks, I thought the piece was getting a little overworked so I let up on the gore and flowers :)

saa: Hmm.. yeah you are right, she could use a little more softness here and there. Thanks!

dogfood: Thanks dogfood I am glad you like coldness I tried to give her face.

mwillustration: Thanks for the great comments. Sounds like her face could use a little extra attention. I figured the cropping of her face and of the figure in the hedge would meet mixed reviews... but I decided to just do it anyways. And as for the flowers, I may revisit them to see what happens.

[DSillustration]

great composition.

i agree with mike, the flowers are sweet.
in fact, id like to see more of them.

[Konstruktion]

I'd really like to see the mans face. Really nice mood overall, and clean.

[greymattre]

i like the tiny flowers in there contrasting the thorns, great effect. Makes me want to read the story to find out what's going on, which I'm guessing the writer(s) would love. =)

[JoshuaTheJames]

nice!

-JtJ

[squidmonk3j]

something about that face, man....she's bound to haunt my dreams! :)

[Elwell]

I like the figure, the hedge, and the sky a lot. The cropping of his face, the subtle touches of red, the layers of thorns being bleached out by the moonlight, are all great Her face, to me, doesn't come up to the same level as the rest of the piece. I also agree with Dan that a few more flowers would juice it up.

[Carnifex]

imho the face blends in too much with the rest in terms of values. maybe add more red?
the rest is great. i get uncomfortable if i look too long at the guy's body.:teeth:

[deschamps]

So I went ahead and added more flowers this weekend and also worked on her face a bit. What do you all think?
-Eric

DSillustration: Hey thanks for checking it out Dan. I went ahead and painted in a few more flowers.

Sarcophagus: His identity isnt really important...though I was very tempted to paint his face.

greymattre: Thanks, I hope the author is happy with it.

JoshuaTheJames: Thanks Joshua.

squidmonk3j: I appreciate the kind words!

Elwell: Thank you. I refined the face a bit. Hopefully that'll do. I was glad everyone seemed to be hoping for more flowers...I was happy to paint in more.

Carnifex: Thanks Carnifex.

[sevencrows]

that's a pretty neat picture :)

[Theo]

Am I the only one whos bothered by the fact that his torso appears rendered as if theres a second light source casting shadows on it? Just a bit odd to me. But the atmosphere is great man, spot on:) I do love those purple moonshadows, I just wish they made more sense to me.

The flowers are awesome by the way. perfect touch.

[staceydiana]

hot damn...looks lovely eric. You are continually pushing yourself forward. Congrads on the publication.

[mwillustration]

eric,
i love your rework of this!
looks beautiful.
the added flowers really help the composition in my opinion.
plus reworking the female face really helped.
i still think her face is cropped just a bit too tight, but that's really nitpicking it.

the rework really takes it up a notch!
love it!

[strych9ine]

Beautiful piece, the rework does work better than the original. There is so much depth to these brambles, the sky looks almost unnattainable for the figures. Gorgeous.

[bhanu]

Yeah
This is what I wanted and this what I got from you.Great work of art.
Thank you for considering my perspective .It looks better than the older version.
Please Post more.

[Elwell]

The face is still my least favorite element, but it is much, much better. The extra flowers are perfect.

[se7en_]

Awesome. The scratches on the chest are great and I really like how the skintones came out with the purple lighting. Very nice.

[saulone]

Really nice work - lighting, movement - face works for me. I really like the added flowers as well. Your pallete is spot on IMO - I agree with what MWIllustration stated about that. Great stuff.

[Boom]

sweet painting as always, Eric!

[Jason C-M]

I saw this one on your website and wanted to say how much I like it. I think it's really top-notch, man.

[Irene Gallo]

I just saw this in my latest copy of REALMS OF FANTASY. It looked great.

[Pesmerga]

Man, this piece is freaking awesome! :yayca: I agree with the rest though. That face looks kinda weird. I'm not sure what Theo meant with that lightsource thing but I think it looks great this way.

How long did it take you?