If This Sucked Any More, It'd Be a Vaccuum Cleaner!

**ConceptCreature** · December 31st, 2008, 02:44 PM

Hey, you ever get one of those spectacular ideas, and then you can't successfully put it down on canvas no matter how much you labor at it?
Welcome to my nightmare. I need help with this! Why doesn't this have a WOW factor yet? I can't make the metals look like metal, the design in the ceiling doesn't seem to be in the same area as the rest of the ceiling material is, I'm just really annoyed that I'm not THERE yet!
So tell me the secret to achieving "wow", senseis of the geek art world! I really need specifics, here! I want this to be as cool as it is in my head, and I'm confident the answers I need are HERE, in this forum!

**SMILEFACE** · December 31st, 2008, 02:52 PM

you could over lay some texture to the ceiling like cool patternwith some contrast in it or something - i fell the same way just look what i did to my horselady

**Black Spot** · December 31st, 2008, 03:10 PM

The focus it all over the place because the background is too bright. Make the whole thing more claustrophobic to bring our eyes in. Bring some green and red on the yellow metal with some hard highlights to bring out the metal.

**Zapp!** · December 31st, 2008, 03:40 PM

Just my opinion but,

It looks cartoony to me, which might be what you wanted but not many cartoons have much of a wow factor to me, you could try losing some of the black outlines as I think they are making the picture seem flatter. More shadows around the edges would also help as it would draw more attention to the screen.

It is a good picture though, especially the piranha and the person in the screen. Hope I helped

**Elwell** · December 31st, 2008, 03:58 PM

**SMILEFACE** · December 31st, 2008, 06:42 PM

wow Elwell that really pop it

**zaveta** · January 1st, 2009, 09:53 PM

I think you're being too hard on yourself. The metal looks like it might need a little more punch, and the only thing I can think of is looking at metal objects around the house. A brass doorknob. A copper lamp. or something on google.
The added gradient layer really helps.
Overall the piece looks great.

**themightykwan** · January 1st, 2009, 11:04 PM

I think it has alot to do with the lighting. If you really push your darks in your background and foregrounds to add a more foreboding sense of mystery it would help. For example the chair should be a lot darker behind the boy and the shadows on his back and the back of his head. Intensify the shadows behind the mirror and increase the shadows on the ceiling.

Even possibly cooling down all your background elements so that the warmth of your central elements really makes them stand out more and become the focus of your eye. The reds in your background pull the eye away from the yellows of your central elements.

To be honest, it's practically, nearly, almost there, just some tweaking will do the job!!

**spaztastic** · January 1st, 2009, 11:45 PM

hehehe I had to check this out because of the tittle...hahaha made me almost pee laughed so hard, I needed that....oh... hey he's tilting to the left a little too much.

**johanerik** · January 2nd, 2009, 01:33 AM

Than what am I? A black hole?

**Ayem** · January 2nd, 2009, 01:53 AM

In my oppinion, the only thing that this was seriously lacking was some varying brightness/contrast to make the centre stant out more, but Elwell already took care of that.

Something minor that I see is the angle of the cupboard to the left. Seems a little wonky on the top. Like if anything were places on top of it, it'd just slide off forwards.

**DBarla** · January 2nd, 2009, 11:43 AM

Hello there!

Your piece blowed my mind, i really love this style, i dont know how to do it, but i love it, lol, so i put my eye to help, i just played with the color correction layer on photoshop looking for your "WOW" factor, try that and see what happens, i show what i achieved in one minute test, maybe is too orange, but thats personal taste i think.

The "wow" factor seems to be the "contrast"/"grays"/"blacks"/"whites"/"color mood" factor when everything else is okey.

But im nearly starting to do some wow pieces my own, so take it from where it comes, others maybe can point you better.

And maybe the second focal point, the guy from the screen...maybe an ugly face to fear will put more emotion on the picture, theres a cool naive/maniac mansion feel on the piece, so maybe trying to put some ugly alien makes it more mysterious, just to keep looking for the "wow" factor and not to trow this wonderfull piece to the toilet cause is really nice.