Returning Home: WIP

[BLADES]

Hey everyone,

Here's what I've been working on for a little while now. The theme is set in a fantasy world. With a Knight returning to his homeland after a long adventure. It still has a lot of open space and I'm not sure what else to add to it, any ideas?

[Quigleyer]

You have improved quite a bit. Nice landscape action going on at the moment!

Your story telling and composition are, what I feel, needs some addressing. In your PM you said you were concerned about the lack of negative space at the right side of the canvas, and I agree- way too much. Think of many different ways to tell your story here:

You have a river
The basic essential problem to any composition is getting the eye to move around how you want it to. You've got everything on your left side. By moving the knight to the right hand side (you might want to bring him a little closer to the camera... we need a foreground element) and then positioning the river so that it extends more across the canvas and ends somewhere on the right side you can successfully use the three elements as starters for your eye flow in the composition. The human eye tends to follow any flowing elements of a composition and the river is the perfect connection, at this moment, to tie everything in together. We assume the hero is following the river and we look downstream to see where he's going.

"Payoff factor"
So, as we're looking down the river I feel we need a "payoff". If we're being told to look there we need some gratification for our eyes once we arrive at that area of the canvas (I'm thinking AT the horizon). Mountains, a distant city, etc. could work here, as very basic and worthwhile examples. They/it (payoff element) would also allow you to use atmospheric perspective to give a grander scale to your story. The greater the scale the more epic- and I think you want epic. This is also some of the reason I feel the knight needs to be slightly closer to the viewer- you have something close then you can have something really far. Just a grander scale.

The shadows on the knight are going to take some experimenting. You were correct when you said he was de-saturated and you might want to start with some earth tones and just begin layering color. Play with many different layers to "mix" your colors on your canvas. Getting a reference for just a basic person standing about how you want him to would help out as well. Some other ideas about the knight:

-Lower the value
-Get rid of the "video game POV" (turn him? a big)
-Maybe he's taking a moment's rest and is sitting on a rock, taking a drink, doing something other than just walking?
-Maybe a companion (dog, eagle?) just an idea

Good to hear from you again, man. I'll help out in any way I can. PM me if you need anything else. I like what you're doing with your paintings now- keep it up!

[BLADES]

Thanks for the constructive tips and critiques Eric. You're the man!
I'll be posting an update soon.