Oddsea's Portfolio Beta

[oddsea]

I'm collecting my work to represent my cover/CCG portfolio but I feel like some of the pieces aren't exactly 100% there yet.

That's where you come in...I'm hoping for some heated critiques & suggestions to help put these puppies to rest. I'll give you what I have and alittle background on what I was leaning toward in the illustration. An art director is you!

The first submish is a cover for the Metal Gear comic published by IDW based upon the IP owned by Konami. Subject matter is the comic's hero Solid Snake. The theme is the backstory of some of Snake's unresolved missions coming to light. An anthology of warstories, so to speak.

I wanted to keep the cover in the vein of the current cover artist - Ashley Wood, who uses a mixture of current graphic design and a painter's sensiblity towards exaggerated realism. Some of the elements seem solid enough but it needs that extra UMPH. Make it alittle more dramatic. Like the stories are ghosts haunting him. Suggestions?

Metal Gear: Revenant Files
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/Oddsea/revenant06.jpg

[Jason Rainville]

I feel what you're saying - at first glance I thought "That's great. Slick and similar to the artwork." But then the more I looked at it... yea, there's something missing...

For me, I think there needs to be more DEPTH. The black hole on his chest is a good way of creating some contrast, but now I think his chest is receding while the rest of the piece is trying to advance. I'd like to see maybe a quick variation with a darker/more textured background.

Again, good stuff, hopefully we call all help you make it POP.

[ayeyah]

Good colors! It almost looks as if you added a filter to it; is that the case, or are you just completely awesome at painting that way? If the former, could you post the original image?

Regarding the missing elements: It might be the background is too flat. Maybe if you added more depth, especially on the left side...? I was going to suggest darkening the background, but that would probably ruin the color scheme and the lighting on his shoulder.

[oddsea]

lol...i don't know about completely awesome at it. When I saved out the web-optimzied version of this WIP it dropped the color profile and switched to a 256 color palette. The result was an awful posterizing effect.

Here is the original sketch and the loose monochrome.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/Oddsea/stopdrinkin.jpg

I usually tinker around with the underpainting and the lesser subject after the initial sketch scan. The redraw of this includes a secondary character on the left and Snake's face looking more moody.

Thanks for looking! If you like this you might like my character thread:Oddsea's Character Barrel (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64869)