deer woman (critiques?)

[poisonous-dreams]

so! here, i present a digital painting. i'm having trouble with it. i've bounced from shitty digital art to learning traditional painting and now i have no idea what i'm doing. i find the figure doesn't have enough weight for me.

[Pyre]

I'm interested - did you use a reference for the pose?

Right now the most distracting thing for me is how blocked in everything is - not much blending's occurred yet, although that's probably intentional given that it's clearly in the rough stages. The only other thing I could think of is the fact that I can't quite tell where the elbows are on her.

To give her more weight, I'd suggest maybe darkening up the shadows and darker values on her lower half, or just upping the overall contrast down there. Maybe play with focus a bit on her legs or with how they interact with the background to make them seem not as paper-cut-out-ey.

Although I'm also horribly inexperienced at this - I'd recommend waiting until somebody else who knows what they're talking about comes along before latching on to any of my advice.

[Valyavande]

I wonder why a deer woman has antlers. As long as it isn't a reindeer that just doesn't make much sense. But I know, many people do it like this. I still don't understand it, even if I like antlers too. and maybe the overall anatomy could be a bit more delicate, especially for the limbs, to make it more deer-like.

[Black Spot]

Sort out your light source and the weight will come.

[humboldt squid]

I've actually been wondering about this trend too, women with antlers seems to be a pretty common motif lately. It could be some phallic symbolism or even a dumb pun or maybe I'm just overthinking it.

[poisonous-dreams]

Pyre - I used a reference for the positioning of the legs, but not the torso or the arms. Thanks so much for the rest of your advice! I've been working it into the piece, and it's looking better.

Valyavande - Is 'it looks cool' a good enough reason for adding antlers? I've always liked horns/antlers/things of that sort, so my answer is just to 'add antlers to everything!' And I'll slim down the legs, thanks!

Black Spot - i'll work on it. thanks!

humbolt squid - see my response to valya. although i can't speculate upon why others do it.

[poisonous-dreams]

augh no double post

[Frida Bergholtz]

Actually does with antlers are not as uncommon as you might think.

[sone_one]

not as big and wide ones though... and it contradicts the impression of what we percieve as female.

[Frida Bergholtz]

not as big and wide ones though... and it contradicts the impression of what we percieve as female.

I like contradictions of what we percieve as being female, but it is good to be aware of when you are doing it.

Anyhow speaking of the antlers (besides the hillarious fact that humbolt squid's avatar is featuring a pug with a pair.) the shape of the antlers are really undefined. The right one seem to be going forward and the left one backwards. Once you figure out the lightsourse as Black Spot suggested you should take another look at them. I really like the native american feel of the painting.