Critique needed D3 Art Contest

[zny]

Hey Everyone,

I recently noticed there was a d3 Art Contest, and there where 16 h left to do it. So I made lots of Coffee and did my best. I'm not too pleased with the outcome since you can t read the silhouette of the Character well and i figure that the green light from the spell should affect the Character more.
I'm also not too sure about her left hand and it's forshortening perhaps you can help me with some input there.

I still want to push the Artwork since i defenitly think it's got potential but need more tweaking. Anything else that you would change ?

[EagleGrove]

Definitely make the green light affect the character more. Can barely see her(?). Also, what is she doing? That pose looks uncomfy, as far as I can see anyway. I might be reading it wrongly (Which is a problem in itself). Have you tried the pose yourself?

[Black Spot]

Make that front leg a lot bigger to emphasis the drama and kill or dull down the blue light - there's no reason for it. You might need to make the whole picture bigger at the bottom as she's looking a bit cramped.

[Artfix]

Yep make hips and legs both 50% bigger. Then add light behind her. How can you expect to see a silhouette if its not light behind it? Then, make sure her hair is not covering up the shapes of her cool horns!

I would also have her head tilted up some. It looks like shes pushing her chin into her neck, know what I mean?

Oh and get reference! Especially for the foreshortened arm. Get a camera and put it on a timer and do it yourself. That is the single best way to get it right.

[zny]

Thanks for the feedback apperciating it =) I'll post as soon as i get the changes done.
*edit* no way to do subtle changes i need to redo the whole piece -_-

[zny]

Heya !

So did some refs and tried to bring in more storry since there was none at all in the last piece.

What do u think about the composition ?

I think the pose works far better now

[Imrooniel]

Hmmm, that square-hole thingy at bottom bothers me. Maybe it'd be better to cut ~half of it and move skeleton hand higher (to fit on screen as it is now)

[Grunler]

I think the pose and lighting are now a lot stronger, but it feels a bit staged. If she were kneeling down, I'd think her body would directed towards the caged pit, as if she were looking down at the victim, then up at the viewer.

[Artfix]

I like where you're going with this and especially that you were willing to abandon your darling. Its a sign of a pro.

But I agree, it looks staged. And...the story is a little confusing--what was the knife for? Whose blood is it? If she is cutting herself for this ritual...do we need to show the burning skeleton too? What IS the ritual exactly...? It looks like ritual cliches like slapped together.

[zny]

Soooooooo too staged ... too confusing,

well what i'd like to do is creating a classical cliched sacrifice scene with a witch. It should be cliche of course but u are right I mustn't drop in all that there is to that cliche.
what about removing the kennel thingy, adding a victim ? This would be more clear from point of storry telling but wouldn't it be a bit obviouse then ?

*edit*
Would u always lean her more towards the victim she casts the spell on ?

whadddaaaaabout she's just fuddeling around with spellcraft u know, it's late all the cool witches have a good party time she ain t got no friends so she just grabs some chicken and has fun ^^

[Ysvyri]

Personally I'd bring the focus more to her and loose that poor skeleton dude in the oubliette type affair. I like the drama you've created with her dynamic pose, flowing hair and brilliant lighting and it's a shame to have something in the bottom corner that distracts so much from it. If you don't want to loose the skeleton dude then maybe try to make the entrance to the dungeon thingy at a diagonal and cropping it off the image a bit so it's less awkward.

[zny]

I'm not so sure anymore with this whole piece anymore anyway ^^.

But the review process was cool since it showed me that I wasn t realy knowing what to tell with the piece. I just wanted to make some thing sacrificed related with cool dynamics and I guess thats just the wrong approach to a good piece.

[Artfix]

Don't be discouraged dude. No one said it was going to be easy. If you give up now, you're not going to improve. Of course you can make a sacrifice image.

Who said you're doing the wrong approach? In fact, we have all said we like the changes you made from your first post. But if you expect one more rough to be enough to land on a solution, then you are dreaming. Which is why people do thumbnails instead of roughs. Do tiny drawings with a few values to work out which way she's facing, her gesture, and what is in the scene and overall GENERAL composition. Do many of them quickly and THEN spend time on one that is good.

Arriving at an ideal solution to a complicated illustration isn't easy. I lose sleep over unresolved paintings all the time. It takes perseverance to get past the rough patches. But when you find solutions...man its a great feeling!

[zny]

Well I think I'm doing the wrong aproach I'm compelled by the pose and the hair question is would you do thumbs with the pose + lighting or would u also abandon that and start off again ?

[zny]

FUS RO DAH !

I rly suck at making quick thumbs I rly gotta practice that. Would you still associate the right one with a sacrifice scene ?
*edit* and i just realized i worked much toooo big again ^^

[Black Spot]

I prefer the first one. Now is the victim willing or reluctant?

[zny]

did another one, I think I'll try to do even more thumbs just out of exercise since i didn t do those for a long time i definitly need to focus more on the planing part of my projects rather than rendering details. Thanks for the Input I'll be back with more ^^

[Chris Sanders]

keep playing. i like the one on the left in post 15. diagonals are good for action. try and turn her body slightly to add some depth, but i like the idea of the staff in intersecting the form, also try to balance the magic out on both sides, or design it through the composition.

[Grunler]

Hey, you might have moved past the pit idea, and I think the thumbs are a good idea, but I just wanted to do a paintover to show what I was talking about with her direction towards the pit.

[Artfix]

Those really are some very nice roughs. If you prefer to skip thumbs, and do those sweet roughs, that's ok, it's your time. But if you ever work for a studio, they sometimes expect finished work within hours.

I really like post #17. I like the RIGHT rough on #15 lol. The left one still looks staged to me.

[zny]

Heya everyone

Thanks for the overpaint on the pit image, looks much better with the kennel in front of her.

@ artfix since I used to work for a studio I tend to rush to the finished piece without going through the basics.
Since I got time for this one I really like to take my time and explore even more thumbnails. I'm with you on the #15 right one, I think the last 2 thumbs of me add a sensual quality to the theme which I'd like to explore.

Dunno the longer I work on the theme the less I like the frontal view.

I think I should rename the thread to "WIP Sacrifice scene" =)

Thans Guys

[Artfix]

It's funny that you look at thumbnails as spending more time. And I was telling you to do thumbnails to save time.

[shockowaffel]

Since it's a diablo fanart, why not check on the actual Witchdoctor skills and see if there is something that fits a little better than a sacrifice scene ?
Maybe you have some other ideas in the process.

[zny]

Hey Artfix !

The studio i worked 7 years for they just needed figures in a square symbol and it always had to be placed in the centre. Whenever i had to make "compositions" i always had to place the figures in the same areas due technical specifications, so what happened is my skills in composing where never trained and i actually just spent time to get better at rendering details / anatomy ect.

So doing thumbs right now is kinda new for me, I totally agree that doing thumbs saves time and i still got my problems there since you identifiered the things i did as "roughs". Meaning i worked too much on them again

So what costing me "more time" right now is actually learning to do Thumbs
To doodle around with loose quick sketches rather than doing 1 pose and rushing to the final product.

[zny]

Hi Again !

Did 2 more Roughs just for the ske of it and I think i'll work out 2 pieces since i can t decide which one

I'd stick to 5 and 6 since i think they got both interesting compositions but yet different themes.

What would be your oppinions .

And does anyone know how to change subject title since this is far gone from it's original purpose of doin a d3 character =)

EDIT:

Sorry i forgot this first: THANKS to Grunler for overpainting, number 2 Props to him

[Hypnotonic]

Hey Zny,

Loving your progress so far. From your last post I would definitely say that #6 is the most sacrificial one, but I know in the D3 universe, the witchdoctors do not have that kind of time.

So for the sake of the game #3 is probably the best in my opinion in terms of "story" and "mood". It is seductive yet shows power.

Or #4 is on equal footing because it really focuses on the magical side of her instead of the sacrificial.

In my opinion I am loving #4 a lot more so I definitely would love to see this one roughed out.

[Grunler]

Wow, #2 is perfect! (kidding )

To me, #6 is the strongest, save for one thing. I feel that the victim is taking up too much space, and is distracting attention from the witch. If you agree, then there may be a couple of solutions. One might be to move the camera in closer, so that the head and upper body of the witch appear relatively larger. Another might be to rotate the victim 180 degrees, so that he appears upside-down, and have the witch kneeling over his body. That would shift some of the focus towards the witch, but might read too sexual depending on her pose and position. Besides that, you might think about stuffing something in the guy's mouth, carving some symbols into his flesh, or something equally unsettling to expand on the ritual.

Anyway, great job with the thumbs.

[zny]

Just did some color roughs for Nr 5

I'll also work on Number 6 good input on the victim i'll try to push the witch a bit more, not too sure with turning around the victim but lets see how it turns out =).

[Eldinga]

Loving dat progress.

2 & 3 are definitely my favorites of those color roughs, but they pretty much completely kill the mood that you got going in those previous sacrifice pictures. Maybe add some blood to her hands? Right now it's a little 'good witch of the woods'-feely if you catch the drift.

6 & 8, I think, works the best following the theme. But I still think that she looks much too nice..

[Artfix]

I agree--those are too colorful. And I would try not lighting her face from the ghost. I like her looking more backlit like in the rough. That gaurantees she is dark and therefore not a nice lady. And that silhouette of her face is what makes it so striking.

p.s. I don't know how to change the subject line. If you can't do it with advanced editing, then you can't do it. But don't sweat it--you have 1300 views...we all know what's going on