painting: undead king

[Blackarts]

here's another recent one. The feedback on this froum is really valuable so feel free to let loose.

http://members.shaw.ca/dmandryk/Assets/Images/portfolio%20images/Kingsblade_lowrez.jpg

[endregan]

hmm cant find much to crit. thats really awesome :) I am not sure about the sky being bright just around the guys focused on this image, maybe spread out or less center so its not like the sun follows them around. but it does look really awesome thats a beautiful sky. very well painted!!

[Ant4d]

great pic. really well rendered.

but there are two things that bothers me.
1. sky(maybe more definition or clouds or is it a smoke, anyways bit more definition there)
2. I love the guys in the back and the lower part of the King, but the upper part for my taste has too much black in it. more reflection lights and shadows maybe?(especially the face and the hand that holds the sword)

I am no man to give a crit, so I may be very wrong. but that is my humble opinion.


Cheers
Anton
:chug:

edit: I checked your url. DAMN you are good!:) Love your stuff.

[firechild]

wow, Blackarts you've done it again! great work!
The only little crits I can dredge up are:
-The guys in the background look rather flat, lacking depth, like they are all drawn on one plane.
-The main guy's sword hand looks a bit small maybe.

Keep posting as I love seeing your work. Inspiring!

[bwkeough]

I love this. It has a very classic TSR look to it, almost Frank Frazetta.

I agree with the other crits. The undead horde needs to be pushed, either towards more definition or to a more flat, graphic element. The king is just about perfect, great dynamic pose. I think the sword hand is good the way it is, a fist is usually about half the size of the face. But, in my opinion, the shield hand needs a little more, I don't think its at the same level as the rest of him. Maybe just tighten the edges at the wrist?

This image would be perfest for a book cover or game box, there's even enough room for type to keep the word people happy!

[Robolus]

Really awesome! :eek:

Only crit: Maybe I´m wrong, but I think the arm with the sword is a little bit short compared to the length of the body.

[marc_taro]

You know I really like the painting technique, but I think its slightly soft for the nature of the image - I mean, this is pretty aggressive subject matter - so it makes me think of more hard edged strokes and sharper contrasts. Sorry that is kind of a vauge comment but there ya go.

The other thing that comes to mind when seeing this - is that he's sure got a lot of muscle mass for a dead guy. Seems too beefy for the undead. - Great work tho' - reminds me of the great Frazetta.

[fungi]

reminds me of the film evil dead 3 army of darkness! cool shit man, post more i have loads of oom left on my hard drive :)

[wchamlet]

I don't have a crit, but I do have some comments! LOL

If I were you I would make the clouds look more... EXPLOSIVE! Make them look like they are moving from their focal point (center light source), or try to do some sort of seudo mushroom cloud thingy. Only don't make it look like an explosion, just really intense clouds.

Good stuff. Very impressive.

Ok I take it back. Their is one crit. His hand that is holding the sword is actually running through the sword. Look at how thick the hilt is, compared to his hands grip. Loosen the grip some, it would add a lot more volume to the hand, and the sword.

[Loga4]

Very nice,very nice!
Congrats!

[Blackarts]

Good comments everyone, thanks. There are defintaly a few areas I need to work on.

wchamlet; I think I know what you are tlaking about with the sky...intersting idea.

marc_taro; yeah he is a little beefy - maybe he works out =)

there seems to be some consistent comments on the sword hand. I'll re-examine it.

cheers


d

[eli]

Such an awesome job... very poster like!!! I can see this printed out.

Some crits: Like everyone else I feel that there is a dramatic seperation between the foreground and the background characters... such that I see two distinct planes and this makes it lose some of its 3 dimensionality.

second, I am not very convinced with some of the arm muscles. especially the tricept on his sword arm. Its shape does not jive well with correct anatomy.

Third, his sword hand is sort of melting into the sword a bit creating one massive shape..

These are very minor crits because I like this pic... only reason I say them is because you ask, but all in all I think this is a stellar piece!

[mcotie]

very nice! try lowering the glowing sky down towards the horizon more and let the highlights of the raised sword arm stand out against a darker backdrop. In regards to the Frazetta example mentioned by marc-taro; if you study any Frazetta piece you will notice that his objects in the foreground usually never meet in tonal value w/ the background, one is always outdoing the other in either ligtht/dark values. this technique causes the figure to be pushed out without having to just bathe the forground in light to try and achieve the same effect. It doesn't necessarily have to be lit to be closer.

post more!

mitch

[Patton Art]

freaking awesome. someone else already said this, but, it reminds me a lot of Frank Frezetta's work! I like it a lot.

Sorry, not crits for it... I'm just gonna kiss your butt instead :-D

[mikadoguff]

Beautiful!

I would like to see a little more enviroment setting. Perhaps something indicating where this triumphant pose is happening. Is it summer, Fall? Is that a razed castle below his feet? I may be off here, but I feel that one or two more considerations like that would really make this piece stronger.

Thanks for letting us have a look! Excellent work!

[sepulveda]

let loose!!...

I don't see anything wrong with this piece blackart...great work!

[nardfrog]

i think this is one of your best pieces. I really liek how it looks like you made the rock definition with one stroke. I think maybe the main character should be on a little higher pile of rocks to give him more emphesis. Its just knitt-picky small thing though.

keep posting at this rate, you have great work.

[Muttonhead]

Awesome work. This is by-far the best "In-the-style-of-Frazetta" piece I have seen, NOT that it was intended to be such, but instead it has many of the elements that made Frazetta's work so strong.

Great job.

-Muttonhead

[sandgrain]

you convinced me!
definately cool frazetta feel to it, like muttonhead sayd.

just seeing this makes me want to find out what the hell is going on! yeah, good stuff.

[J May]

Cripes Black, nice piece, one of your best!

Love how you've handled the banners and the rough strokes used for the foreground stones.

Right now the intensity of the clouds is right at sword height, so my eye hangs around there more than on Mr. Dead-but-still-hitting-the-gym. Maybe lower the brightest point of the clouds?

Still, with half a dozen people mentioning Frazetta, you cant have gone wrong.

Cheers!

[Strang]

this is awesome, love the whole piece, from concept to finish

thanks for sharing, keep them coming...

-Strang

[killer_gym_sox]

in a little way it reminds me of the romantic piece that delacroix (i think thats how its spelled) did with the half naked lady holding the flag. Hehe.. Except this is badass.. not romantic

[Cassandra]

Wow, it´s fantastic! :chug: