An experiment update.

[R_M]

Everyone does them, so here is my orc champion. want him to be menacing, but at the same time plausible. more human if you like.

I am tring to cut away the main person as much as possible, and the goal is to be left with an orage area that divedes the bluish sky into2 fields. Don't know if it mskes much sense, but I am having real fun with this one.
I am not sure about the moon, where it is going to be, or if it is going to be there at all.

sketch:
http://roberto.webconnect.dk/gfxgallery/orc.gif

Digital:
http://roberto.webconnect.dk/gfxgallery/orcwip1.gif

[R_M]

Rather happy with the way this one is turning out, and it is fun to.
noy to sure about the moon placement but the road is still long.

tring to figure out the contrast of the moonhiglight, and understanding better Booms comments on viewer focus and contrast. (from an other wip of mine).



http://roberto.webconnect.dk/gfxgallery/champ3.jpg

[R_M]

http://roberto.webconnect.dk/gfxgallery/champ4.jpg


I want to add more realism to him, but am not sure where to go from here....

[tyboogie]

hey rm i like the atmosphere youre creating on this one

there is a lightsource on the bottom left so why not play that up and make the lighting on him more dramoatic

just a personal opinion--but the sky could use more variation in color (maybe clouds too) just to keep our eyes wandering around-- the sky is a little deadd


im not crazy about the cropping at teh forehead--but thats just my opinion


i really like all teh people and flags and clouds at teh bottom

adding the people helped alot
looking good man--youre getting better--ty

[R_M]

Thanks Ty, :D

well the cropping thing came from the Queen wip, and cutting people at their joints. I was trying to see how much I could get away with. the orc itself isn't really spectacular so I think that cropping him the way I did adds tension to the pic.

Sky needs a bit more variation, but I will not add clouds higher up. when I did it I was tring to improve my composition skills, and was working following Phil Hales way of putting a pic togheter. he kicks some serious butt, and can pull off practically anything. the colour bg is also inspired by him.

http://roberto.webconnect.dk/gfxgallery/champion.jpg

He is painted a bit to loose for my tase, but I see it very much as an exercise and it is a fun one! :D
Any comments on the anatomy? I was going for badass fit orc, but not hulklike, makes more sense to me to make them almost human, it makes them more real.

[Erik]

Hey,

I like what's happening here, nice sky and the basic lighting is all there.

About the crop, well i don't know. Seems the most important thing in the picture is his abs and pecs right now. But maybe that was the whole point ;-)

There should be something else happening in the picture i think. Maybe direction of his gaze or face expression, maybe something else, because right now he's a bit like a statue to me.

Bring in the army a bit closer and have him look like a champion or something?

Good luck!

Erik

[Boom]

Hi Roberto

I really like this one! I also think the cropping is adding suspension to the piece. It makes the golem seem larger than life. If he wasn't cropped like this he would seem smaller and not as grand!

But again I would say that you should watch your contrast. I think you are going from your lightest light to your darkest dark all too quickly and almost everywhere on all your sufaces. That makes it look oddly 'busy'.

Seems to me that you have a tree point light going on. the moon, the low sun in the background and an artificial light coming from behind us (the viewer). Maybe if you oversimply this you could eliminate some of the difficult issues that seem to trouble you the most. Concentrate on one lightsource at one time and only when done you can add subtle touches like the light from the moon (which I think btw shouldn't at all be visible in a lightsituation like this)

To create distance you should really lower the contrast in the crowd in the background. Push the values more towards the color and value of the sky. Add more blueish tones to them. Remeber that the further away your elements are, the more of the skycolor should be picked up by that element.

Maybe, a good excercise for you would be to render a b/w painting. Eliminating the color for a few pieces might help you see how subtle you can variate your values in order to create form. It doesn't take big contrasts to do so.

anyways. I really like this painting and it's already looking special. Keep you pacing up! :)

;B

[R_M]

Thank you for the reps! great help and motivation!

Erik/Interesting you focus on his abs, I was hoping theat the strong moon higlight on his back and the way it outlines his body would be the focus... like under his arm where you can see the ribcage.
the way I see the pic he is standing in the middle of a circle. he is a champion, during a ceremony and he is facing a fire (that is supposed to be behind to the left of the viewer). he is getting ready for tomorrow, when some serious asswoopping will take place.

Boom/ Funny you saw it as 3 point light. I worked with only 2 lights in mind. the fire infront of him, and the moon light behind him. I hadn't seen the low sun, but I think it comes from the skys colour, that gets lighter the closer it gets the horizon. I tried to flip it, so that the ligh values are close to the moon, and that effectevly removes the sun.
I see what you say about my going from light to dark, very fast, but I tough that the kind of light source I used in the picture, made it necesary to have a high contrast. but I agree with you the picture is a bit nervous. now that I have a nice outline to work with, I will try the b/w thing. Good idea :D!
Made some changes but not enought to warrant an update.

Again thanks for your time guys!

[Tedsuo]

Hey RM, I had some thoughts on your pic:


http://tazmanianhamster.tripod.com/pics/Ted_for_RM.jpg



It's a crap PO, please forgive me. My main thoughts were that it didn't seem dark enough to be night time, or at least to warrant such a sharp contrast in the lighting. Iif that's not where you were going with it, maybe make the light more diffuse? I like the idea of it being almost dawn, but that would be a harder piece to pull off I think.

I also feel that there are some anatomy issues around the pelvis area, and the composition feels a little crowded IMO.

I like the banners and whatnot in the background, it helps add a sense of place.

[incognito]

My only real complaint is that it looks to me like he has a beer belly with abs! Otherwise, great job!

[R_M]

Whoa there is still life in this old lady!

Tedsuo/ POs are always welcome, there is nothing to forgive man! I think it is great that you take the time to do it, and it is the bedst way to improve (for both of us).
I don't agree with your darkenning the sky, I was really happy with the colours I had reached, and though that they were quite peculiar and added something to the pucture. I was going for summer night kind of setting :D

on the other hand, you took the ork a step further, and by smoothing him out you made him more real, and showed me where I could have worked on him some more. With the orc I had come to a wall, where I didn't have the guts to keep working on him. he turned different then what I had in mind in the beginning, but I liked him, so I began to be afraid to work more on him, in case I ruined him.

the pelvis was a bitch...

haven't seen any of your stuff lately, what have you been up to? post some!

?/ :D orc know how to party, but I see it to. in the original handdrawing it wasn't so big....

[Tedsuo]

Hehe oops probably should have checked the date first. :)


Honestly though, I didn't really do much, maybe 15 min worth of work. All of the information's there already, so changing the lighting is pretty easy. I actually like your original colors a lot, I know what you mean about the summer night. Hrmmm.... it's tough! I think the problem is you want to emphasize the moon, but you also want to light the character with the fire. I remember how dark everything gets when I'm near a fire... tricky! I can't figure it out in my head. Next full moon, go have a bonfire on the beach. Maybe the answer will come to you. :)


Hehe, yeah I haven't been posting lately. Been starting a lot, experimenting a lot, finishing little. But I have some focus now, should see more painting soon. And I just finished preproduction on a cartoon for school, so I'll post some of that in a day or so.

:chug: