Shaman And Ferret

[Bonsuego]

Hey guys, I'd love some critiques on this piece. I know it's still not quite polished, but I'd like to get some critiques before moving on to the final stages. Particularly if there are any anatomy experts out there, I'd love some feedback from you! The shoulder blade area doesn't look right to me, but i can't figure out quite what's wrong. Thanks in advance!

[Demo]

some things that might help are
play up the contrast on some of the green skin tones to add more depth and reality to the green guy.
Their only seems to be 3 planes the one with the creature, the tree and bush layer and then the lighter background add some more variation to the lighting to the trees and throw in some other things to break up the constiancy and it should kick the depth upp a little
other things that after looking at it for a while were how the tooth on the right side wraps around mabey it should be cut off from view ???
and some of the white spots that shows where the light shines through

[Bob Todd]

Without the title I wouldn't've known he was a shaman - he's in quite a Gollum-like pose. He needs some trappings like tribal necklaces, beads, feathers etc.
The arm with the ferret needs more work on the lighting so it's clear it's foreshortened and he hasn't just got a mini arm. The ferret's snout needs to be a little more dog-like and less squirrel-like: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Zo...ges/ferret.jpg

[Bonsuego]

Here we go again guys. As far as the title goes, I think It'd be a lot easier to just rename the piece than try to fix the fact that he doesn't come off as a shaman. That was the original idea I had, but I'm really happy with the imagery I have now, so 'Ogre and Ferret' should suffice just fine. Let me know what you think!

[benu]

Some anatomy issues: The palm of the hand is too long and the thumb could be bigger and the whole shoulder area is a bit off. I think the shoulder joint is too far left. But I'm no anatomy expert, too.

[MiniGoth]

Instead of using white and black, try doing the warm/cool thing to define shadows and highlights - it should help clarify depth and edges a whole lot.

[Bonsuego]

Here we are.

[humboldt squid]

you really need to find a way to visually separate the fore shoulder from his chest, because they really blend together as it is.

[Noah Bradley]

One thing you should definitely be paying extra attention to is your edges. Right now a lot of the edges around objects are rather hard, while the interior edges are very soft. Having a hard-edged is not a bad thing; be bold! Since this appear to be direct sunlight as well, it should be more prone to hard edges. Something to think about.

Furthermore, the middleground trees are popping forward way too much. The background ones are working--they're receding nicely. Try a similar approach on the other trees.

Keep at it!

[moonskittles]

I made a quick paintover, I hope you don't mind. The blue areas are ones I think more intense shading, and the red ones are where I think your lines are wrong. The ear you can chose to ignore, as he IS an ogre and his facial structure is allowed to be strange. I think the fangs are a bit off, that the top lip should stick out in front of the farther one more and they both need more shading.
Also, here might be a good ref for your arm.

[Lulie]

I just want to say: the third version is *so much* better than the first/second. Well done!

As for the background's popping-out-ness: IIRC, things that are further away are typically less saturated and lighter. So, the answer might be to desaturate and slightly lighten those trees, as you've done with the ones behind them (though presumably less intensely, because these ones are closer).

Another thing I notice is that you drew some of the leafs on the right, but all of the others were done with a brush, so they look out of place. Actually, it's not the fact they weren't drawn with a brush so much, more that they have fewer values (look more desaturated, also uses fewer colours).

[Bonsuego]

Thank you all very much for your help. I've made quite a bit of progress using all of your suggestions. I really want this piece to be on a professional level, so don't hesitate with any more critiques you have!

[Earendil]

Continue with the warm/cool thought process and considerations. I recommend looking at photo reference or live animals that have this kind of green skin tone, in order to get the proper colors. Because skin is usually a mixture of several tones, I added browns and yellows for the areas getting hit by sunlight, and desaturated the areas that weren't getting hit by sunlight. (I actually desaturated too much in some areas, but you get the idea) I thought those bushes on the lower left were screaming LOOKATME, so the contrast got knocked down on those. The backdrop I thought was was also competing so I used a darker color for the atmospheric haze, and tried to bring out the ferret's head a bit more. I'd try and get more variety with colors too.

Keep up the good work!

[Quigleyer]

This is probably said far too late, but I haven't seen this until now- my apologies.

There's no vibrance of color as your tones all blend together so much on the green figure. Your edges are all of an extremely soft build across the figure, until you get to the edges which are pretty hard in comparison. Still- you're contrast is doing decently right now, and I just want to present something for your consideration and not sound so condescending (especially when I have no room to be). Just, to me, it feels like the character is more of a balloon with no texturing in the figure- this makes me really attracted to the bushes.

[Bonsuego]

Here we go again.

[Lulie]

I get the impression of the ogre looking washed-out.. Perhaps up the sharpness and contrast, especially around the back and on the right (his left) arm and leg?