Dyanmic Scene WIP

[fallen-reason]

Latest Update...




Hello,

I'm currently working on this piece. It features a battle between an archer and a brute. It's one of my first attempts to drawing some sort of a dynamic scene, so I would be really honored if anybody could take and watch my progress.










In my latest update I seriously need to re-vist the man's arm and perspective on his back armor.

[Griffonnage]

There is a problem with the bow... And I don't like the moon being in the middle part of the image it "steal" attention from the lady. Maybe you can move it behind Ashe instead ?
I see some perspective problem with the axe, but I see you didn't work on it a lot, just be sure you solve that before rendering

Nice image, I think if you solve some perspective issue it can be a great result !

[Candra H]

I don't like the horizontal bow position. I know a lot of people think it looks cool but my inner anorak cant buy it. It's just not an easy way to shoot arrows. You'll get a much better pull on the string if it's vertical, and that way, the arrow will fly further.

Anyway, just my two bob's worth. I hope it helps a little and feel free to ignore me if you disagree.

[Hexokinase]

Why is the archer jumping and dodging? What is she dodging? Does the brute have any ranged weaponry? Are there other enemies nearby?

[fallen-reason]

Griffonnage
I will try playing around with the positioning of the moon. I agree that the light is quite distracting at the moment. Gah yes... the axe.... >_< going to work on it more tonight. Thank you.

Candra H
Ah right I see....I wasn't aware of the horizontal/vertical bow position issue. Alot of the illustrations I looked at of archers for inspiration had them sometimes positioning the bow that way for the 'cool factor'.

Hexokinase
The archer is jumping back to take an aim at the brute, since she wants to keep a safe distance away from him. No, he doesn't have any ranged weaponry, and no, it is just a showdown between these two characters

[fallen-reason]

Progress update. Started work on his back armor and detailing the floor. Tomorrow I aim to get the archer's pose correct (aiming towards the man) and adding the glows radiating from their weapons!

[Hexokinase]

Well, she looks more like she's jumping to the side than backwards. But the bigger issue is the difficulty of archery. Considering that it takes a fair amount of stability to take an accurate shot, one would expect a moving shot to be much less accurate than a stationary shot, and a jumping shot to be even less accurate. I'm guessing there's about 20ft between the two figures, so it seems pointless to be doing a sideways jump when the enemy isn't in range to harm you yet.

If she were actually dodging a melee swing, a ranged projectile, or an environmental hazard, I could see a reason for a jumping shot. Right now it feels like she has a dynamic pose for the sake of having a dynamic pose, without any justification for the action.

[Momucat]

Hm The only real crit I have that I haven't seen mentioned all already is this image is missing a sense of depth in the middleground and background. The archer is standing in an uncomposed empty space and I really think it's enhance the picture if you found a way to break it up and make in more interesting/dynamic. Maybe add some more plant/trees or paint in some crazy clouds, even making the tree branches more bumpy/gestured would greatly help.

[Velocity Kendall]

maybe stretch things out a bit and try playing withthe angles and sizes of things. if you put it on a new layer, you can turn it on and off and see if it helps.
i meant to give the ax some space but ended up giving him a horse; win some lose some! might help anyway..

[Dumb Naked King]

VK kind of hinted at this in his paintover, the thing that bothers me most about the picture (aside from the archer's awkward topple-over ballet moves)... What is going on with the light? Are they in a warehouse filled with carboard halloween decorations? With that big shiny moon behind the archer, I would expect the characters and trees to be backlit rather than whatever you have going on right now. The light from the lantern(?) to the right should have a much more dramatic effect on the tree it's hanging in and any other nearby objects. Your shading isn't following any logic; the light seems to be evenly distributed from like, everywhere, which makes the entire whole picture look flat.

[fallen-reason]

Momucat


Hi momucat, thanks for the suggestion. I haven't focused really what is happening behind the archer. I plan on adding some nice silhouettes later

Velocity Kendall

WOW Thanks alot for the paint over and advice. I really like your new axe position. Unfortunately the character I'm drawing wouldn't dig a horse!

Update progress

[Aceoko]

Just some ideas on the OP really, ignore it if you wish it's not that great.

[fallen-reason]

Aceoko

Hey, thanks for taking the time to do a paintover! Started to take my picture into colour....

First time doing a grayscale to colour painting.... So every step is a learning curve for me.

[cfhd]

Looks like some Torchlight fan art. I personally don't really like Torchlight but this is a good pic if that was the art style you were going for.

[Havok Reed]

I feel like people are ashamed to say they are doing fan art. There is nothing wrong with fan art. This archer and brute are from LoL

http://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws....ius_Splash.jpg

http://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws....e_Splash_0.jpg

I agree with the paint over, makes it much more dramatic...just without the horse. Are the weapon's they are using black cleaver and hurricane?

[Velocity Kendall]

I love fanart! some of my favourite images are paintings of stuff from books i like or movies i enjoyed. look up Kizer his work is off the hook! i say go for it. just do it as well as you can and never let it be an excuse to slack.

[Havok Reed]

Oh yea for sure! I love fan art too. Hell, my avatar is fan art I did of Olaf from LoL, I just brought it up because he isn't the first person to not mention who they are and what it is for. Several people came through the critique center looking for feedback on their LoL art entries.

[Velocity Kendall]

i dont know what LoL is but they should definitely get fresh eyes on their work here or elsewhere, it makes it better, always. clients have a bad rep, partly deserved for ruining nice work, but actually good art directors know what theyre doing and know their project inside out, and their feedback (demands) often really make the work better. youre like d'oh of course why didnt i think of that.

i like fanart because when youre reading a book you can see exactly what it would be like and what everyone looks like, all you have to do is draw what you see. also helps add narative to your scenes.. i think anyway.

[Havok Reed]

League of Legends, its a computer game that is really fun with the worst community on the planet. But still fun...haha.

[The Fez]

When doing a 'dynamic scene', I would advise that you defer to the fathomless reservoir of comic book tradition. All the rules for setting up dynamic scene between multiple characters are there, especially on comic book covers. One thing you might observe is that prominent comic artists ensure their central characters' faces are clearly visible, unless there is a profoundly evident reason why their faces should be obscured (narrative, compositional). We can not discern, clearly, either of your characters, nor view what are most assuredly tense expressions. That's like, you know, half the oomf in any dynamic scene. Drama. Characterization. Ample breasts. These are the things an audience will expect. Nay. Demand.

[moonskittles]

Drama. Characterization. Ample breasts. These are the things an audience will expect. Nay. Demand.

Ahahaha. :3

fallen-reason, I'm seeing some really great paintovers and advice given to you on this thread, and from your updates it seems to me you're a little afraid to implement the changes. Personally, I'd advise that you be fully willing to completely restart your painting. IMO it's a healthier viewpoint and will lead to better art.

Now, the one you have now is good. However, looking at it, I know you have the skill to be much better. You don't have to throw it away. Just, perhaps, as an exercise, start a new piece implementing some of the things you'd learned from this thread.

Just my 2c.

[fallen-reason]

Havok Reed

Hi! Should have mentioned really it was fanart, I'm not really ashamed though The weapons they are using are Ravenous Hydra and Runann's hurriance. This is for the digi-art competition. And oh god yes, the community can be terrible.... >_<

The Fez
Thanks and yeah, though I suppose Ashe's ample breasts are too far away to be seen.

moonskittles

I would be willing to start all over again, but this is an entry for a competition which ends soon, so I will see this through to the end! > This is one of the first times I've attempted a dramatic piece and painting from grayscale to color, so I'm learning alot!

[fallen-reason]

Tonights update!

[Revidescent]

I did a paintover of this last night, then let it sit as I waffled over whether to post it or not - I'm not sure how helpful it is, or if the advice is sound - but I did it, so I might as well. This is based off a greyscaled version of your last post, but it doesn't look like it's changed too much in terms of value since, so...



I was going to advise getting rid of the firey lantern - it's just kind of distracting - but now I see the bow is glowing orange, I'm less certain, because that does make a neat little triangle. Hm.

The point is, you need more depth. Better separate foreground, midground, background. I agree with everybody else talking about how her pose makes no sense - it doesn't look like she's leaping back, it looks like she's taking a little hop to the side. He seems very stationary, so jumping around to take aim at a non-moving target seems silly. I'm a bit confused by how much light the firey axe is giving off it's only going as far as his fingers, casting no light on his legplates, the ground, etc?

I do like your colours. They're more cartoony/stylized than realistic, but there's nothing wrong with that. Just try to make everything a little more coherent. All the parts of the scene still feel a bit disparate.

[Vernon Lee]

Looks great! Im entering too hahah.

Ermm you could try putting the moon behind Ashe's head to silhouette it a bit and the strong contrast will give a nice read imo. I like whats happening in the top right corner maybe continue that webbing stuff to reinforce the perspective depth (sorry i covered the trees face i just realised ¬_¬) Added a shadow to AShe coming from the moon and lit up some of the slabs on the path to lead the eye around. As a last thing im not sure how far you wanna go with the "FX" kinda thing but modified the bow slightly, cause from what i remember the two outer arrows are a different colour. Hope this helps you out, looking really good =|

[fallen-reason]

Wow... big thanks for the paintovers you guys.

Revidescent
Hmm I understand... I really hate her pose right now. Since I'm working to a deadline, I'm going to really try and fix her pose tomorrow. It just doesn't make any sense.

Vernon Lee
Good luck! Really like the shadow coming from her. I like your cobwebs to give depth suggestion aswell. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow!


Progress



Also, for some reason the contrast goes up in the picture whenever I upload to the web. I really thought I had color calibrated my monitor properly...