Alchemy Guard

[NateShaw]

I started this piece from a sketch in Alchemy and then decided to try and use all new (to me) brushes. Anywho, the legs seem short to me but I'm having trouble with the anatomy because I have no reference. Any comments on that or anything else would be much appreciated.

[SoufMeng]

The head is too big and considering the face alone, the nose is too big as well, hurting the rest of the features.

The pose is good, however in the color version, all the surrounding elements look like a mere pretence for him to be somewhere.
Sometimes you can get away with that but tis better to see that all the elements support each other to make the picture
(not saying there mustn't be a hierarchy of importance).

It took me a while to see he had an opponent, am i halucinating that?
If not that should be a major storytelling element!

As far as the alchemy version is concerned maybe it would have been wiser to tighten up the lighting in photoshop, still with 3 values, before moving to colors.
Nothing to fancy maybe something along the quick suggestions below?


(feel free to use, paint over, ignore or even ask me to remove)

As for the long term i would advice you not to sweat this image and move along, practicing with the figure, lighting and all that good stuff; it is no use to struggle too much with imagination stuff because if the infos are neither in your mind nor in front of your eyes, its time better spent to go work with refs no?

A'right i hope this helps and good luck!

[NateShaw]

SM: Awesome crit, thanks! You are dead right about everything. You are totally right about jumping to color before I got the value in and I didn't even notice the anatomical problems until you mentioned it. I think I will see what I can do by going back to the sketch.

merci beaucoup!