FireFight

[Warhead82]

It has been about 3 weeks, now since i finished this, but now i can release this, to you guys to view! I did this as a concept piece for the mod i am now working on www.cw-meltingpoint.com - Come out and check out our site and support us!

Tell me what you think of the piece thanks!

Justin.

Click here http://justin.vrhead.com/CommonFiles/IMG_gallery/IMG_digital/images/FireFight.htm for a bigger image, "photobucket is gay now!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/Warhead82/Justins%20Digital%20Art/s0ldiers003sig.jpg


C&C welcome

[Warhead82]

Come on people??? Nothing to say?? 40 views, no comments or crits! Bah...this always happends. :(

[angel of light]

i like it, i think its very well laid out. good job

[sercoe]

Ya I like it too.

Just wondering, what guns are they using?

[ulvdemon]

Nice image, my only thing is dealing with the M-60, the design of it looks off, other then that very solid work.

[Warhead82]

Thanks guys!

[Danilo]

I suggest you need to take out the plans. Like air perspective, fog. Whole pic looks flat. Fire looks same as soldiers... more atmosphere, mood, dramatics...

...I think everything else is ok.

[Chris Beatrice]

It's really interesting for me to see work like this. It's funny because some of the artists on this site can draw really, really well, but never really take the plunge of attempting a piece this ambitious. They'll maybe do a single character on a blank background or whatever, and of course that's totally fine especially for concept work.

Here you're doing a full blown illustration / painting, taking over the entire picture. This is a lot more ambitious than you might realize!! This brings in a whole host of issues and relationships you just don't get in the cool character study on a black background type thing. I commend you for taking that on, and I want you to take the following critique in that spirit.

Composition
Parts are pretty strong, like the rhythm between the figures, and the way the larger figure in the lower right corner frames the image, and sort of stops your eye from leaving, and redirects it to the rest of the image. I think the weakest part of the composition might be the burning building. It is shown almost in its entirety (nothing overlaps it, and it doesn't run of the edge of the picture), yet I don't think you mean it to be the most important part of the piece. I don't think you mean it to be the focal point, especially because all the figures are pointing "off screen." On that subject, I think you really need to have some idea why they are doing that. Obviously they are shooting at an enemy, but I mean visually what do you want the user to be looking at or thinking?

Light and color
The light and color situation in the environment depicted is kind of ambiguous. Though the whole piece is still holding together remarkably well, because there is a certain consistency there. Now I think you need to learn how to manage some inconsistency, and that will make a stronger piece. In a piece that is obviously intended to be fairly realistic, you need to understand how everything in the scene is lit. If you can see something, it's lit. You just need to answer, "by what?" is the fire illuminating anything in the scene? I don't see it reflecting at all on things like the tops of the gun barrels and helmets, and so on. The cool sky seems to be lighting those things, though. If you brought some of those warm fire colors into the rest of the pic, you would be amazed at how it would tie the piece together both as a believable 3d environment but also just as a 2d "design." So apart from the sky and the fire, what is illuminating, for example, the front of the large figure (his left side, his canteen, etc.)? Greenish light reflecting and refracting through the foliage? Nothing? Maybe it should be very dark, almost black. That, again, might help the illusion of a real environment, and frame the composition even more.

Figure placement and deep space
Most artists don't think about the "bleeding obvious" in the depiction of 3d space, but overlap is one of the most powerful visual cues the eye understands. For example, if you draw a rectangle that covers part of a circle, your eye reads it as a circle that is partially obscured, not as semi-circular shape. Overlap is so important in delivering the illusion of deep space that you often need to add it in places even when it might not exist in the model or the reference. Here, look how the large figure (his arm and weapon) exactly don't overlap the other figures. It's like as an artist you don't want to obscure one of the "important parts", but the result is flatness. There are lots of other reasons for the flatness, but this is a big one.

A similar but more subtle situation is happening with the water. Many of the lighter parts of the water, say, around the large figure's elbow, look like they're painted around his elbow, not behind it. Obviously this is exactly how it was executed, but it needs to look like it's behind him. This is how the water is interacting with all of the figures, btw. It's subtle, but the human eye and brain pick up on it in about 2 seconds (that's how good we are!). You need to understand the way the eye puts two and two together, so you can exploit what works and get rid of what doesn't (which, btw, a camera cannot do).

I hope that helps. Keep up the good work!

-Chris