Death and Rebirth (School project)

[-Marin-]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here and I would be thankful, if you could help me with one of my pictures. It's some kind of redesign of the old grim reaper and I tried to let him look more modern or something. A friend of mine said that he could be an endboss in Final Fantasy and another one said the same thing with Silent Hill, which I took as a compliment, but I'm bothered by something I can't point out. The background is one thing, because I have none, but Death [insert name ]himself looks very empty and I can't find any other symbols of death or rebirth (or both) which could fit without letting him look overloaded. Also I have to admit that the little plates between the two bones are copied from bumskee, because I liked the idea very much, I hope that's not bad. Also I have to mention that his backbone is sticking out of his body and is just not visible.

Besides I'm not very experienced with Photoshop and Painter, but I had invested hours and days into that picture, collected reference of anatomy, snake skulls, etc... and now I cling to it.
I thank you in advance for your help.

Ma

[Xazy]

He reminds me of a bone thief from Eternal Darkness :)

maybe you could try giving him some scars or wounds... maybe desaturate his skin tones so he looks older/grayer? His arms are pretty thin and emaciated, but his torso and legs look fuller... maybe you could make his whole body thinner or more boney? That might be a little cliche though.

Maybe his feet could use some work too... they don't have the same texture or finish as the rest of his body.

Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it, I think the design is great as-is :)

[sho-nuff]

In my opinion you should probably have had the pose resolved proportion wise before moving onto painting it. The pose doesnt have to be anatomically perfect but poses can be hard to fix once you have already moved on to painting.

To be specific the size of the legs need adjustment as well as the torsos position. Because if a character was sitting like that there would be an arch toward or away from the camera in order to balance on the foot eg. hunching over or leaning back.

Something i do when i draw my figures is mentally 'feel' myself in the pose, in doing so it helps me to position everything as it should be, because im not just drawing a pose, im drawing myself in the pose. ahh hope that makes sense?

Having said that if it was intentional then ignore what i said. I have a few pieces where the proportions are deliberately dispropotionate so if thats what you going for then its all good.

[Whren]

I somehow think some of the strokes on the body could be sharper, the head is so stark and sharp in contrast to the way the body is painted. I think it's what Xazy was saying about the different levels of finish.

Also, might you be a certain Max Marin from Ringling?

[-Marin-]

@Xazy
Haha, I haven't played Eternal Darkness for a very long time... nice game.
I will think about the scars and wounds, depending on whether they will let him look good or not. And I'll put some texture on the feet, thanks :rendered:

@sho-nuff
Yeah, the pose is rather awkward, because I had to change the skull very often and had to place it higher until his cowered posture was unfortunately gone. And do you mean his right leg is too short? Thank you, I will try to fix that... was an important hint. :)
But in some way it was intentional, cause the way he's moving is a mixture of Spiderman and Samara climbing up the well. Natural laws have no effect on him, if he doesn't want them to.

@Whren
I will work on the sharpness and texture of his body, thanks :rendered:
And I don't know what Ringling is... so... no ^^;
Marin is just a character of a novel I'm writing.

Ma

[rinmon]

if I could offer some aesthetic notes (they're mainly loose personal opinions, not really technical specifications) :

the pose: wouldn't the whole picture look better if one of the scythes was positioned in a different way? Like, for example, his left 'forearm' could be held lower and the scythe would go backwards into a perspective shortening. It could also be less saturated on the distant end. That wouldn't change the whole concept, but the picture itself would look more natural, since (IMHO) asymmetry usually makes pictures more interesting, especially if they're simple in design.

the magical plasma-thunder-rays (or something P: ) : they don't look natural. Again, try making them less sinusoidal and more chaotic (like lightning bolts, for example) or differentiate them in brightness or thickness as they go downwards.

symbols: I don't know if it needs more symbols, perhaps you could repeat those you already used in different spots (i.e. as patterns on his scythes' base or the skull). Also the eyes symbols on his chest look detached. Try maybe fading them more into skin, add deep scars or skin cracks on their ends (so the symbols look like they were burned on his chest or burst from his insides) or turn them into some type of pendants on a necklace.

Well, as I said, those are only personal suggestions. Composition might not be most important issue, but usually it rather helps than interrupts in 'selling' your product P:

[-Marin-]

@rinmon
I must say that I like your idea of the symbols burned into the chest. I will definitely include that - it's exact the idea I searched for. Thanks <3
The "plasma-thunder-rays" should actually represent the form of DNA as a symbol of life... but they look to much like Star Wars weapons. I guess I have to practice a bit more with PS and Painter to handle this.
Concerning the pose I won't change anything... I realized it's too late to let it look good.
But thank you anyway :D