The Witching Tree

**ADStudio** · February 8th, 2006, 10:34 PM

This is my first post so I will just be amazed if I load my image correctly.

**poise** · February 8th, 2006, 10:38 PM

WOW!! this is awesome! I love the womans face, and the fact she is holding a baby. AH!! so refreshingly different. thank you!
I love the colors as well. Nice work!! post more.

-T

**Manchess** · February 8th, 2006, 10:48 PM

Hey Allen! Nice to see you here. Good piece...love the face. You might want to consider varying the pattern in the bark, and letting some of it go very dark in places to vary the interest. It's a strong visual and I think it can easily handle that....especially adding a little mystery to the background and thereby enhancing that beautiful face, which is, of course, the focal point. Those skulls are great, too!
Greg

**lyon** · February 8th, 2006, 10:48 PM

Allen, welcome to CA. Looks like you got the image posting thing figured out. Very nice painting. You have done a great job of moving the eye with both the contrast and the edges. What was the illustration for? Again, welcome and look foward to seeing more of your work.

**Bai Fan** · February 8th, 2006, 11:09 PM

The woman's face is great, but I think the infant's face is getting lost in her chest.

**jcaffoe** · February 8th, 2006, 11:55 PM

I agree with Bai Fan, I didn't even see the infant at first, but that's a small and easily fixable crit.

I love this piece, fantastic mood, very well rendered, excellent color work, it's a joy to look at.

**iomoon** · February 9th, 2006, 12:31 AM

Great debut. It feels like she becomes less rendered the further you move down from her face (which is stunning btw) and I agree with the comment about the tree. But that's a real eye-popping piece overall. Well done.

**rockdraw** · February 9th, 2006, 08:26 AM

did compare a photo with your artwork?
It seems that you put a photo in the womans´ face.
The same regarding your avatar

If not, very nice work!

**vigostar** · February 9th, 2006, 10:00 AM

Fantastic artwork. Hope you post tons more.. Welcome to the forums

**DSillustration** · February 9th, 2006, 10:07 AM

hey allen,
welcome to the boards.
i'm familiar with your work from the spectrum books.

this piece is quite nice.
the colors are great.
but i think she looks a little short in the legs.
(mostly a matter of cropping)

are you ditching the oils?

**ADStudio** · February 9th, 2006, 10:32 AM

This was a sample that I did as an excuse to throw my daughter into one of my paintings. Yes, I have converted to painting digitally... at least for now. This is only my second digital painting and my goal is to have it look like my oil paintings do... except I can do them much quicker and changes are WAY easier.

Anyway, there is some great feedback and I am glad I found this venue help improve my work.

**sve** · February 9th, 2006, 11:29 AM

Everything is beautiful in this piece. The only note that the main character doesn't interact with surrounding, she does with a spectator though thanks to straight eye contact. But it could be anything around her, town street, forest, cave, . Her only awareness of the witching tree is her face, everything else, body language, pose suggest her isolation from world around her. Looks like a combined beautiful landscape and beautiful portrait, not the whole unified event.
Sveta

**Alday.J** · February 9th, 2006, 11:41 AM

Hey, very good stuff here ! It's your first pic you post here, right ? Welcome, dude ! You got some strong skills. My only crit is that the eye is catch by the woman's face first. I think it's due to the fact that she have dark values that you can't find on the whole pic. It will be fine if you treat some areas like the skulls or the tree with some draker values like you did on the woman face.
Hem... Hope my english is fine.

Aside that, I like that pic for the poetic mood and the good execution.
Bravo. More.

**Xpose** · February 10th, 2006, 12:47 AM

Originally Posted by Alday.J

Hey, very good stuff here ! It's your first pic you post here, right ? Welcome, dude ! You got some strong skills. My only crit is that the eye is catch by the woman's face first. I think it's due to the fact that she have dark values that you can't find on the whole pic. It will be fine if you treat some areas like the skulls or the tree with some draker values like you did on the woman face.
Hem... Hope my english is fine.

Aside that, I like that pic for the poetic mood and the good execution.
Bravo. More.

Ditto

**loomer** · February 9th, 2006, 12:57 PM

Beautiful piece. the face is gorgeous. I agree about the baby..perhaps bring some of that strong white light and just rim-light the baby's head. Just so we look there.

I think Dan might be right too about the legs...just comparing proportions to her arms, her femur bones would probably be a good deal longer.

After all that nitpicking and crap...it's still a great piece. The initial reaction you get when viewing it is strong..and that' s the most important. Cheers!

**mikeorion22** · February 9th, 2006, 01:19 PM

hey im glad you decided to come on here, this is my favorite one out of your digital stuff, did you submit this to spectrum?

**Geophillyx** · February 9th, 2006, 04:40 PM

yeah the detail on the face really focuses my eyes there, but still id like to see more detail in the rest of the pic, even if not as much as on the face, her body looks kind of unfinished.
keep posting, dont you dare stop!!!!

**sevencrows** · February 9th, 2006, 07:30 PM

great face , the body doesn't look as good or done as the face ..you should have deep shadows on the body as it looks on the face..

I think you could pop this out more.

parts look unfinished

**markwagner** · February 9th, 2006, 11:48 PM

Heads up -ha.... on your lighting. Her face is so powerful (photo reference). The rest of her body is off in propotions which takes her power away. Also since her face is so strong the rest of the lighting needs to relate to her face. Try (in another piece) lighting some of the heads and environment the way hers is.

~M

**theshunzun** · February 10th, 2006, 12:04 AM

I would say that the hand on the infant seems to be a little off anatomically; either the fingers are too long, or the hand itself is too small, or perhaps it's a combination of the two. I also get the sense that the hand isn't actually conforming to the shape of the infant's body, like it's not actually in contact with the baby.

But hey that's just me.

Wicked cool job, though.