Professional Help Needed!!(new post!)

[RedGallo]

Hello, My name is Enrique Rivera. I am an art student in the ART INSTITUTE OF WASHINGTON, and I hope to one day be as good as the people here.This is my first post here on concept art. My girlfriend's Birthday is coming up, so I decided to do some thing nice for her.

Ok, so here's the scoop. Im trying to do this very intense water sceen. On the back its suposed to have a huge storm, with lightning and rain everywhere. From the mermaid's shoulders down, you will see the rest of her and a beutiful sceen of the deep blue. The thing that im having major trouble is her, what color am i supose to do her skin under these conditions?, How will the light from the bottom of the ocean will reflect on her body? those are basicly my major problems for now. I have been looking for reference but cant seem to find anything that can help me. So this is why im here, to ask the pros. I hope some one can help me with my little problem... thanx for listening ^^

[alex_86]

I see a few more problems than that lol. How can you have a rain storm under water? Lightning doesn't go that far down into the water. You're on the right track with the skin color more or less (perhaps a bit more beige and red and slightly less green, and keep it close to a grayish blue). It's quite basic really, just put blue into the equation and use little glowing fish or plants for light and maybe give the mermaid an object that glows (which if she was a real mermaid she wouldn't leave home without anyways).

I also spotted some anatomy issues: Her arms are way too masculine and the area from her butt down is too big for the body (shrink the waist and thicken the end of the tail).

Good luck :)

P.S. Darken all of the background and basically everything that doesn't have direct light on it to a very dark blue, much darker than what you have now.

[RedGallo]

I see a few more problems than that lol. How can you have a rain storm under water? Lightning doesn't go that far down into the water. You're on the right track with the skin color more or less (perhaps a bit more beige and red and slightly less green, and keep it close to a grayish blue). It's quite basic really, just put blue into the equation and use little glowing fish or plants for light and maybe give the mermaid an object that glows (which if she was a real mermaid she wouldn't leave home without anyways).

I also spotted some anatomy issues: Her arms are way too masculine and the area from her butt down is too big for the body (shrink the waist and thicken the end of the tail).

Good luck :)


LOL, well, Im planing to have the lightning just on the top. And I have to fix her anotomy. Im still working on it. I really apreciate the comment. thanx

[stanko]

Hi,
I am guessing that there is going to be a split scene thingy (so you can see above the water and below at the same time)? It might be helpful to show where that is going to be. At the moment you have divided your page right down the middle (big no no when it comes to page layout) so I would suggest that you move everything up so that the horzion falls on the upper 1/3.

As far as color goes... is it night or day time? Also what color is the tail going to be? One suggestion would be to look at some tropical fish and use the color patterns of them to decide on how to handle the fish fins. If it's day time I would use a few greens but mostly oranges and yellows. If night time I would us warm purples and blues. Either way I would keep it a warmer tone since so much of the painting will be blueish. Bottom line is I would use a warmer tone for the figure and that will allow it to advance and push the background into the back. Go luck.

john

[alex_86]

But that's not the deep blue at all then :P

[RedGallo]

Hi,
I am guessing that there is going to be a split scene thingy (so you can see above the water and below at the same time)? It might be helpful to show where that is going to be. At the moment you have divided your page right down the middle (big no no when it comes to page layout) so I would suggest that you move everything up so that the horzion falls on the upper 1/3.

As far as color goes... is it night or day time? Also what color is the tail going to be? One suggestion would be to look at some tropical fish and use the color patterns of them to decide on how to handle the fish fins. If it's day time I would use a few greens but mostly oranges and yellows. If night time I would us warm purples and blues. Either way I would keep it a warmer tone since so much of the painting will be blueish. Bottom line is I would use a warmer tone for the figure and that will allow it to advance and push the background into the back. Go luck.

john



Hello Stanko,Yes there is a split sceen thingy^^. Well, I havent really gone with the sceen layout since im still experimenting on the girl. (Its still not the right thing to do, but hey!) so yeah, I like the idea of looking at real fish, im probably going to do that. ...And yes, its i night time sceen... ill see how i will handle the cool colors... well, thanx a lot man, really appreciate it

[Idiot Apathy]

Mmm... first - what color is the girl? Then, what color lighting is on the top half and what color lighting is on the bottom half?

I'm assuming she is a fairly typical mermaid yeah? Green like a fish? So, stereotypical underwater colors would be a sort of cyan, probably a greener-cyan. Soooo, get a nice greener-cyan you like for the water, block that in - different values and saturations appropriately. Now, the girl is green (like a fish!) combined with greenish-cyan - so hue wise make sure she is greener than the water, but overall a tiny bit more cyan than normal (normal being the green (like a fish!)) Saturation and value wise you'll have to determine for yourself depending on how you want this puppy lit.

Now the top half? A storm out at sea? I might get a good reference for that, they can be a bit different out at sea I think. Hell I dunno, a dark blue violet for the overall feel maybe? Your source, the mermaid is green (like.. a... fish!) so after you block in your storm with the right hues values and saturations (color) take your base green and hue wise you should end up with something closer to blue/blue-green. It's probably best to err on the side of your "normal" color so it still reads appropriately but you should also experiment around (that's how you learn!). Values and saturations would still depend on how you want to light it :), maybe this can help? More light = more value, saturation comes from one "color of light" being more powerful than the others. Uhh, yeah - look you should get into some color theory probably...

Hope that helps :\ ~adios!

[RedGallo]

Allright, well, with some of the advice i have been getting and the little free time ive had, i have managed to fix it up a little. I still have a long way to go, but i have been mainly concentraiting on the mermaid since is the most important thing in the picture. I would love some more critics ^^

[SplendidArt]

Her hands are too short, kinda looks like a midget, also it might be interesting to not make it just fat landscape but add some cliffs with coral or some fantasy fish. Also i think the part of the body right before the fan type end of the tail is too thin. The white lines yo made around her makes it seem as if she is encased in water, no ripples under water only on top, Also i would make her giving off an aura which you started but it just seems as if its brigther closer to her, because you made it about the same color all around.But looking good so far.

[RedGallo]

All righty then! Still working on it. Here Ive been working on the background, added more details, and ive also expanded the canvas size. Still not done... i have to fix her arms, put all sorts of exotic, acuatic, weird, life down there. Tell what u think guys

[andoi]

a lot of things are neeeded to establish in your work, the subject matter should blend well with its background, put some blue into your figure as well,the greens should reflect on the blue to show some transparency also:teeth: .