Capa's Prayer

[bengonzalez]

Any c+c is welcome. Currently I'm stuck on two things. The way the arm connects into the torso. I can't seem to get the triceps to Look natural. Second is the background This Is my first digital painting and I'm not sure the background is working right now. Also I would like to hear thoughts on the composition.





Benjamin Gonzalez

[look]

Good job on the arm so far. The pose is a hard one and it looks well overall. I'd suggest to move his left arm lower. You may want to re-shade some part of the pants, he looks like he's sitting on a glass instead of floating freely. The coloring there are too distinct.
The lighting doesn't look like it's coming from the planet, you might as well just toss that planet to avoid lighting inconsistancy. I don't really understand why is there yellow colors on the skin and pink colors on the pants. I don't see anything casting a yellow light, and unless the pants are leather or nylon material, i doubt it'd reflect the skin color to that degree. The beads could use more shading, right now they don't look consistant with the rest of the drawing.

And it's probably better to use simple dot for stars, instead of the spiky shapes there. They look rather odd.

[bengonzalez]

Thanks I will try the star thing. The color yellow? dirty brush? no I knew it didn't really go in there but I was playing with the Idea of the sun being opposite to the moon. the pink on the pants, thanks I wanted to reflect some color onto the the pants but I guess kakis don't reflect much color. I will try a few of things you mentioned and see how they turn out.

[look]

If you do plan on having sun casting yellow colored lightings, then you should have all the lighting to be yellow colored, instead of having bright pink color for lighting on skin. It'd be inconsistant.

[BMunchausen]

I don't know if this is your intent, but that coloration on the skin makes him look like raw meat, like his skin's been flayed off.

I think the composition is pretty stiff and static. The figure's centered, there's not much room around him, and the moon is anchoring that corner. I think I feel the need for more "air" in the image.

[bengonzalez]

Well no it wasn't the coloration was me attempting to paint a highlighted flesh tone. Is there a big difference between Mac colors and PC colors when viewed online? I'm working on a Mac so I'm going to check to see what it looks like on a friends PC. Thanks for the crit I was starting to feel the same about the composition.

[bengonzalez]

no update yet on the pic but I just looked at it on my friends HP and it's darker than I thought. the shadow I had added seems to swallow the image in darkness. is there anything I can do on my end for images to be viewed consistently across different platforms?

[Danilo]

I think that neckchain is to static for dynamic pose of man.

[look]

Originally Posted by bengonzalez

no update yet on the pic but I just looked at it on my friends HP and it's darker than I thought. the shadow I had added seems to swallow the image in darkness. is there anything I can do on my end for images to be viewed consistently across different platforms?

There was a thread in lounge talking about monitor caliber referrence testing or something like that, which is to help people adjust their monitor to the "standard". Just google around for it, y ou should be able to come across some.

As for the skin tone, it's not just about the shading being dark, it's also too reddish and has no color variation. It may be hard to jump into color varied skin tone right awy, but for start up, you can always try to give a different hue for lighting, different hue for shading. Like even if you use light pink for base color, try to use a greyish purple/blue shade for shading color, and light yellow for lighting. And see how you like the result.

[bengonzalez]

Ok thanks Danilo for the comment and you are right I made the original image directly on Painter without doing any prelimanary work. I allowed my knowledge of the software to limit my composition so I whent back and did this pencil sketch today to work on some of the issues of the painting as commented by Look and others. Next I plan to do a pencil of the background I will post it once it is done.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

[EccoXile]

You should give more arch to his back, it would help make him look less stiff. When I first looked at it I thought it looked really uncomfortable like something was just tying his body together

just remember when you do the background to give the guy room to breath, as already mentioned. Just thought I would reinstate that with the sketch you poseted being so small.

[madster]

You should ditch the cheesy bird outline in front of the moon. It doesn't contribute to the composition, and is out of place in a space scene.

As to the stars, check out some of the "nebula" tutorials on the web.

The skin coloring appears too stark in contrast as you change tones and values, overall it has too much red tones, yet it holds its own against the beads, which are a bit too hard edged.
Of more importance (to my eye) is the right foot, which looks too lumpy and misshapen.

I like the overall impression of this piece, and am interested in seeing how it turns out.

[Sems]

not sure on the foot, I dont understand all those bumps, or that bird looking thing infront of the moon why is there a bird in outter space?