my new creature work

[Zakarian]

this is my new work...worked on it for about a week and a half. please critique this piece, i need it a lot.

as for me, i think the background, lighting, and all the textures pretty much sucks...but i cant pinpoint the problem...help..

http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/jeiwang/images/nierutwebsmall.jpg

here is the full size image if it helps in critique...
http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/jeiwang/index.html

[keyth]

nice creatures. the first thing that comes to mind is maybe...bumping up the contrast a bit in the skin to really "pop" that creature off the page. some of the dark cracks in the skin could be pushed a bit.

[danielh68]

Hi Zakarian,

I like the piece, the creatures are very original. My only suggestion is that composition doesn't tie in the elements well. For instance the creature in the foreground consist of all hard edges, thus it looks like it was cut and pasted onto the composition. The background is a little too soft and blurry. And, it seems the foreground creature's lightsource differs from the background elements. Either the intensity is different or the angle of the sun.

With that in mind, it's alright to have the edges of foreground elements to appear and dissappear depending on where you want the focus to be.

I think it's simplier if I illustrate. I hope you don't mind that I grabbed you image to show you. You'll find out what I mean below. Again, I'm not saying this is right. It's just something I have read and apply. If you think it's slop, I understand. Anyways, here it is:

http://www.blitzdesign.net/dsg/dan/creature_edges.jpg

[blackhand]

Well, the first thing I notice is this weird, semi-tangent with the top of the creature's head and the mesa behind him. The mesa comes down and curves, blending into the form of the head of the creature. It's just distracting is all.

The design and rendering of the creatures is well done, as is the depth of field effect you have going. With the depth of field, though, I think the clouds in the very background would be blurrier and not nearly as sharp as they are now.

Echoing Keyth, the foreground creature could use more contrast as the overall feeling of the image is a bit too soft.

[Zakarian]

thanks for the illustration daniel:) u've pointed an important factor that i overlooked in almost all my past works, which is that the edges can apear and disappear where i want the focus to be:)

i have noticed that the lightsource of the foreground creature is a bit different from the rest of the image as i worked on it.
i used to be in the correct direction but it sorta shifted as i painted...

also i agree that the contrast of the skin could be upped more to pop out the creature. i actually had a version with a higher contrast, but that looked much too dark and specular(guess i should have experiment a bit more)thats why i made the contrast lesser in the final piece.

the reason y i made the neck curve in this way was because i thought it looked more interesting than if the neck were to curve smoothly all the way. so it seems like the neck is stiffer in the middle and the creature cannot move its head up very well. but i have to agree its a bit weird and a tad distracting.

i am really glad u guys critiqued this piece. u guys have helped me see many of the mistakes that i have gotten used to and cannot see any more. thanks guys:D

[danielh68]

You're welcome. Again, you did a great job. Very cool creatures!