Battle concept

**Jimmy_K_007** · July 10th, 2011, 12:10 PM

Hi everyone. I'm having the usual trouble of working towards the finished look of the drawing. I'm a digital art school graduate and have always been a keen illlustrator but since dedicating to concept art I'm becoming more aware of how my work does'nt seem to be up to par with proffesionals. Help?

**Velocity Kendall** · July 10th, 2011, 12:14 PM

i think the characters look awesome, maybe try tightening the crop in on them

**dagreengo** · July 10th, 2011, 01:32 PM

I think its looking pretty good, I agree with Velocity, the cropping could be considered a bit. But more importantly, I think you need to keep working in values, esp. in the floor, to ground the characters in the environment. If I really zoom out, the area of interest (monster, fighters, and architectural element) all fall together and get to be flattened out.

Try to consider the lighting a bit more, in terms of values that are closer to the camera being darker, and value fading away as you get further from the camera, maybe use some light atmospheric fog between the first guy, the monster and the monster and the second guy, and the second guy and the architectural element.

**Venger** · July 10th, 2011, 02:14 PM

Before you continue have a serious think about the composition of this piece.
At the moment its very hard to read.

**Stoat** · July 10th, 2011, 03:55 PM

I'd move foreground guy to the left and down a bit, so you have three distinct overlapping shapes, bop-BOP-bop. Then put your energy into making that group work. The rest of the image, looser strokes or lighter in value or...something to keep all those blades of grass and individual stones from being bitsy and distracting.

Also, with your grouping, things should either well and truly overlap, or have plenty of breathing room. I'm thinking here about the sword tip of the guy in the background, that almost-but-doesn't-quite touch the beast. Bad mojo. Also the helmet plume of the foreground guy. You can make that work, but I'd be tempted to make it go the other way and not overlap the beast.

**Jimmy_K_007** · July 10th, 2011, 05:11 PM

Thanks guys!!

**Jimmy_K_007** · July 10th, 2011, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by Venger

Before you continue have a serious think about the composition of this piece.
At the moment its very hard to read.

I have difficulties identifying these basics, is there any online rescource you know of or would recommend?.. and thank you!

**dagreengo** · July 10th, 2011, 06:21 PM

http://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL

I swear I load these up on my TV and I can watch them like a tv series. So great, and so packed with info.

EDIT: I can't remember who to credit with giving me this link, but it was someone from the conceptart community, thanks!

**Nezumi Works** · July 10th, 2011, 08:36 PM

I'm a little confused why you chose to have the monster facing away from the viewer, thus hiding the most interesting parts. On top of that, you've got two of the three figures facing away, which makes it hard to really get into the drama of the piece.

Honestly, I can't see any reason for not turning the beast around, in the same posture, and attacking the closer figure. If nothing else, it would move the focal point, where most of the figures are looking, closer to the viewer and making it more visible.

**mburrell** · July 10th, 2011, 09:11 PM

One reason this is not computationally feeling right is your two fighting men are
completely in the wrong fighting stances. The fighter facing us has his sword horizontal to a up coming powerful vertical blow, no way will he put himself so far out of position. Second the fighter with the long spear will not use it like that until he side steps and I am not sure that would work. As such it all out of balance martially, so it is visually. They call it a martial art, it follows similar rules as all arts. Find a good fight movie and freeze frame it to get some ideas. Try working a little abstract to to find shapes light and dark elements that conflict well with each other to express the conflict and rhythms of a fight. Fighting is up close and personal to pull so far back will create a challenge you don't need as of now.
Your costuming and drawing is good, I think you need to research your subject more. This is a good start towards working it out.
Mike

**Jimmy_K_007** · July 11th, 2011, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by dagreengo

http://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL

I swear I load these up on my TV and I can watch them like a tv series. So great, and so packed with info.

EDIT: I can't remember who to credit with giving me this link, but it was someone from the conceptart community, thanks!

I know eh? I wish I went to school there.