Hulking Serpentine Brute

[skullhead]

UPDATES BELOW:

This is my first post here. This is a piece I've been working on for a while. He's pretty close to finished. Critique welcome.

http://www.freezerclown.com/SerpentBrute.jpg

[Michael Jaecks]

cool. I love snake-bodied creatures

It seems like each pipe that comes out of his body and back into it is reflecting a lot of saturated color onto his purple skin. Like they are their own light sources. That's cool, but if that were to make sense the background would have to be a lot darker I think. Otherwise the ambient light around him would make those colored highlights less saturated, or perhaps even not visible at all.

The hand, claw and lower snake body seem less rendered than the very cool torso. But I suppose you are still working on it...

I like it.

[voraz]

Interesting character. I agree with neorepto that some parts of the drawing seem to have get much less attention than others. I think specially the scalles would improve with some more texture.

[JERI]

One thing that really bugs me with is his enlarged pinky. It stands really strong as the odd one out, especially since he doesn't have his right hand to provide symmetry to it.

Otherwise I like the design and especially the muscular details on his arms.

[skullhead]

Thanks for the critiques, everybody. This piece has been a test for a number of things; from arm anatomy to developing a viable digital painting style and workflow in Photoshop CS2. He's been reworked both on paper and digitally several times before he's gotten here.

Regarding the background:
It's something I've been struggling with for some time. Alot of the earlier backgrounds were darker, but I ditched them because I didn't want the backgrounds to become dominant elements of the image. I originally had rectangular vignettes behind the figure. Anyone have any suggestions on background treatments?

Regarding the finish:
I've been trying to avoid overworking the image, and in doing so have left a few areas underfinished. I'll remedy that in the next round.

Regarding the claw:
I see your point, but that aspect of the character has been that way for a long time, so I'm kind of partial to it.

Thanks again for the critiques. There will be updates soon.

skullhead

[skullhead]

It's been back to the drawing board particularly on the tail for this guy. Here's the latest version. (I've dropped back to grayscale since I'm rethinking the color scheme). I'm interested in whatever feedback people have to give. He's still in progress...


http://www.freezerclown.com/SerpentBrute2.jpg
Latest Version:

[JMarok]

I like the addition of the fin/ridge, it helps the eye follow the curve of the tail.

The ridiculously small head bugs me, although I realize it's an intentional part of the design.

Also, you should check for some muscle refs on his deltoids. The deltoid is attached to the lateral third of the clavicle, the acromion and the spine of the scapula.

Ehh, this might help illustrate what I'm babbling about.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~anatomy/shoulder/surface/surface4.html


http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/3340/serpentbruteacromioclavicular7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6827/serpentbrutedeltoid5tz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[skullhead]

JMarok-

Thanks for the commentary and the x-ray view of his shoulder. :-) I've actually used lots of anatomy reference in the making of this image, but the deltoid is always difficult for some reason. That particular shoulder always looked a bit wonky to me (the other one looks okay to me). The green outline is quite helpful. The deltoid is actually three muscles, anterior, lateral and posterior deltoid; and that's what I'm trying to emphasize in his shoulder.

[JMarok]

I see what you mean by the emphasis. I think that the bulge of the lateral pennate achieves that effect, but the rounded line where the point of his shoulder should be is what makes it look wonky.

The other shoulder doesn't have that problem because the trapezius runs into the acromion like it should, you haven't really defined that on the left shoulder (his left). If the trapezius were inserting properly, that would force the definition of the deltoid. The link I provided to the Dartmouth website illustrates it much better than my craptastic doodles.

[skullhead]

Yeah, I definitely see what you mean. The way the left shoulder is now, it looks like he has a lumpy growth on his shoulder. A few quick changes should get his deltoid in order. And thanks for the link. Here's a site with some good highlighted images of the various portions of the deltoid. I'll update this evening when I have some time.

http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/DeltoidAnterior.html

Keep the constructive criticism coming, folks; I want to really push the quality of this image.