Boss Basher Needs your help...

**Corrath** · August 13th, 2009, 03:52 AM

This is my work in production currently, I planned on getting it critiqued when I finished it. However as I thought about it, why not have problems addressed as I'm polishing?

This image will be used as a portfolio piece on my future website. The composition is setup in such a manner for this destination. Let me explain, The faded ink, drawn images on the beaten canvas will be in the background (as seen). The primary focus, is of course, the painted Basher standing at the 2/3 center position. His coloration should make him pop. But he will still be behind the following

In the lower left corner, the relatively empty space, will appear the Boss Basher 2D animation (for a video game). Several different states will be accessible such as Basher_standing_ phase, Basher_standard_ attack, etc...

What do you guys think about this idea, how can it be better executed? More importantly how can I make the painted image pop even more, be better defined? I think his pose and stance is satisfactory, but the coloration, the lighting and the textures aren't done well at all. Please add your input, I appreciate it.

Corrath (Justin)

**Corrath** · August 13th, 2009, 11:02 PM

Still no suggestions... <sigh>

**Black Spot** · August 14th, 2009, 02:14 AM

The thorns aren't finished the same way. The parchment may need more defined shadows when you've placed the other there.

**tobbA** · August 14th, 2009, 10:04 AM

I think lighting is your biggest issue here. The figure comes across as flat.

I'm not sure but I think you've attempted to have the light come from behind him and from the left. But this doesn't really translate to how you've shaded. Try to imagine the direction of the light and think of how the shadows would fall from that

A second lightsource can help bring out the form as well. Try to use cooler colors for shading if you have a warm light and vice versa

**MikeBurns** · August 14th, 2009, 10:10 AM

I like the overall design of this piece quite a bit! I suggest adding some bits of red and maroon in his midsection piece as well as his weapons to unify the piece more. Right now from top to bottom I see a pattern of color-gray-color. It doesn't need to be a ton of red though, maybe just if you made the rim of the midsection armor red and maybe the part between the spikes and the handles.

**Corrath** · August 15th, 2009, 09:12 AM

Great feedback guys, I'll try my best apply it as I continue to work on him.

@ Tobba: I definatley want him to pop, to leap off the screen as it were. Can you give me a specific area in detail that needs to be shaded better, I agree with what your saying but I am afraid to approach it without messing it up in a new way. I am not identifying what needs to be changed even though its right in front of me... Help me.

@ Mike: Yea, thanks buddy. Hows the Moose/Bird,Centaur man coming along? I will try some different tints to the armor, but I want it to look beaten, as if hes been in battle before, especially his weapons. Do you think the skin tone needs better coloration, variety and what have you?

**MikeBurns** · August 15th, 2009, 06:25 PM

I keep pushing my creature piece, all of the feedback has really helped it develop nicely

thanks for asking!

As for your piece, if you want it to look like it's been through a good amount of fights you should add some scrapes and maybe even rust. Also, I think it would be neat if a few of the spikes in his weapons were broken off. As far as skin tone, it looks like you are shading in with black and highlighting in white, and this is not helping your colors. It's best to pick a color that is close to black but not quite and the same goes for white.

That's all I got for you for now. I look forward to seeing this develop!

**Corrath** · September 5th, 2009, 04:00 PM

Although still not done, Basher is starting to pan out now. I have been creating a long worklist of small things I need to fix on him, redo, or tighten up better. I am going to attach it below. Along with this worklist I have been flipping the canvas horizontally and zooming in and out over and over again to make sure he is done well...

Guys I want to finish this 100%, even if my best effort is still short of perfect.

What I need is some critique, look at my worklist and add to it please. How is my lighting working out? Is there any part of him that still needs hammering? Is the image popping? I have been focusing on him so much that its hard to see the minor problems. I applied some of the critique given above and I promise I'll do it again. I need help. Thank you.

**Corrath** · September 5th, 2009, 04:14 PM

Here is the worklist

I am also not totally satisfied with the pencil work/line art. Although the different angles/views are great, I wonder if I should have a collage of different line images to give a wide range of what Basher is all about..? What your guys advice be with the layout mentioned above for the line art?

Yea, I'm asking alot of the community but Im going to do as they tell me

Thank you.

**Corrath** · September 7th, 2009, 04:33 AM

Still no advice, <sigh>...

**Spikings** · September 7th, 2009, 04:51 AM

The left hand doesnt seem so well developed as the right hand, like no black claw on the thumb, etc. Neither does the right foot in terms of highlights. But then I realised you already stuck this on your list of things under 'both fists', not the foot thing though...youve pretty much sorted yourself out already, not to mention its a fairly professional piece anyways.

But I hope thats helped a little bit more than not at all.

**Eric Young** · September 7th, 2009, 04:55 AM

It already stands out against the background because it's painted and 3 dimensional and everything else is flat, but maybe giving it a cast shadow on the page will make it pop more. Personal preference for me though, I always though characters just floating in space looked off. The lighting looks good you can easily read where the light is coming from.
Don't get discouraged because people are not commenting. I have the same problem with the critique section, it doesn't seem to get enough traffic on this site. It gets hard to get a lot of good advice. Maybe making a thread in the finally finished section will get you more attention, it will most likely get moved to the critique section anyway but more people will probably see it in the FF section because that section gets more traffic.

**Jagged88** · September 7th, 2009, 05:01 AM

Ok this is my first time giving someone critique/comments and I only started doing this kinda stuff in July so it's up to you if you want to take it or not.

At the moment some of the skin looks to smooth and blended together to well, you could use a custom texture brush or the hard round brush to sort that out. Try and add more colour in to the shadows like blues and darker purples. You could also put some reflections in the metal parts of the armor so it looks like it's reflecting the skin tones. A basic shadow wouldn't go amiss aswell to show more were the light is coming from and what surface he's standing on. He looks like a guy that wouldn't be to bothered about his clothing aswell so in my opinion the rag he has hanging down would be a bit raggy and torn. It also looks like the armor isn't doing it's job correctly because there are more scrapes and cuts on him than his armor, you could put some dents and the edges could be a bit rusty and war hardened. You could also put saliva coming out of his mouth.

I also agree with Mike about chopping some spikes off or bending the metal ones.

Hope I didn't come off as an ass, I'm just trying to be helpful. Cant wait for the finished piece