AlexTooth WIPs

[AlexTooth]

Hey hey ca.

Thought I'd start posting personal WIPs, time to get serious about getting good and soaking up the critiques and advice

First up a portrait I started a few weeks ago, other than general polish I wonder how else I can improve this piece? Also which bits are silly or don't make sense. Or what I should study more of etc.

Thanks in advance!

[A-May]

Okay firstly I'd like to say that is truly beautiful! I'm a bit of a novice so I'm not sure but I think the right eye is slightly larger than the left! The ear maybe needs a little more refinement, and the lovely golden light hitting the left side of her face is a little inconsistent, so maybe it should affect more? I'm not quite sure! Overall it's really really lovely though! Well done!

[Jason Rainville]

Flip-it flip-it flip-it. The eye on the left is floating too far away and it's angled more than the other as well.

[LukasA]

I flipped it for you ;D
Horizontal
Upsidedown

[joelle]

you have to flip it upside down to be able to see details or mistakes your eyes got used to seeing it in the same way for a long period of time. Same thing as jason: her right eye is way too far away both eyes are way too angled and her right eyelid is off. Also, I would rethink the shaped in low opacity you pasted on her face ... its half way between abstract shape and a tattoo, I think you should refine or rethink the idea. overall the face is a little bit too blurry.

I do like the mouth and light,

good luck

[LukasA]

Oh Sorry, I put an upside down one in my post now

[joelle]

you dont need to do it for us , but rather use it as a tool or technique often when you draw for a while and feel like you need new eyes.

[Lithriel]

Hey Alex Tooth! Nice to see you around these parts. I like the effect of this image. The colors are unique.

Overall, I think the values are nice but there are some areas where I feel like there should be more differentiation between light and shadow. You have strong shadows on the side of the nose and her left eye socket (on our right) yet the shadow is not present as strongly on the check or under the neck as we would expect. Your shadows should be the same value throughout for that light source, with some rim lighting and reflected light on the right coming from the blue light. Darker core shadow along the right cheek would make it a little more consistent. Also, darker nostrils and where the lips meet with help make the values consistent with the dark areas around the eyes and the side of the nose.

Others have mentioned the eyes. The hat is dragging my eye to the right. Perhaps you can balance the other side of the canvas with something?

[AlexTooth]

Wow, thanks all for the response!

Thank you for pointing out one eye is different! I hadn't noticed that :s and I flip it lol, maybe im blind. I will adress the eye angles too, I did want them slightly arched though, I dunno is it too unbelieveable?

Yep tattoo thingy is kind of placeholder at the moment I'll try and make it look better!

Thanks for detailed crit, Lith - I really wouldn't think about this kind of stuff so it's very much appreciated I guess seeing all the values and stuff properly comes with practise, somethin I need a lot more of especially portraits and people!

Thank you for all the input.

I am going to update this piece soon, I have to complete a couple of lil commission jobs first though><

One, this enviro, would appreciate any help, I know it's a bit cartoony, but any tips to make it better would be a great help!! Feel bad uploading 2 pics but life gets in the way of personal work I guess.

[THEMike]

Very nice painting, love the atmosphere. The only thing I can critique is that the water has no reflections and looks fake. Good job.

[Lithriel]

Wow, that painting is awesome. No crits from me!

[tobbA]

That's a very nice painting.

This might just be me though, but I feel like the red forest in the middle is kinda out of place. First off it's very loosely painted while the rest of the scene is very tight. And secondly the entire painting is blue and yellow while the trees are really red. It might have looked better if there were more red elements throughout the picture.

[Jason Rainville]

Looks really nice, but it feels weird that on a very bright sunny day there's an intensely dark shadow there. It would be much much brighter.

[sone_one]

Looks really nice, but it feels weird that on a very bright sunny day there's an intensely dark shadow there. It would be much much brighter.

!

>

[AlexTooth]

Thanks guys, I haven't neglected those pieces! I had some commissions come up which I have to finish first.

This is one for an iphone/ipad game, any helpw ould be great, not really going for realism, but something colourful and cartoony but with impact?

[AlexTooth]

well guess that sucked beyond repair,

another wip!

at the moment im thinking too busy remove cloud on the left, somehow bring more focus on the face

[sone_one]

are these bright areas between the character and the bridge(?) clouds? if yes you might rethink that... its totally unbelievable... if no, what is it? and whats its justification to be there? because its very distracting.

the background is attracting much more attention than the character right now. imo its a good rule of thumb to keep the highest value interval to your subject and make value intervals more tense where theres less importance/focus. yet the opposite is happening there.

i really like the character ... its gesture and all... i just cant keep investigating it because the background is screaming all the time.

[edit] also the highest temperature contrast is in the background (the slope beeing background aswell)

[edit2]
david leffel (the art of painting):
"the background by definition should be background. the busier you make it, the less it is infact background. it becomes foreground."
"if everything is foreground, nothing is foreground."
"if youre supposed to see it, it is foreground."

[AlexTooth]

Wow thanks for great feedback Sone-one I really appreciate it

Ye, everytime I am looking at it I just think "too busy"! They're meant to be clouds, more placeholder ones but yeah I agree they're not working the best, luckily they're on a separate layer.

I'll take your feedback and see what I can do, I hadn't really thought much about temperature contrast and the like, still a lot learn! Thx again.

[AlexTooth]

updateee

mmm, how to take it furthers, pretty stumped.

[Jason Rainville]

The perspective of the background doesn't seem to be correct when you look at the foreground, nor do elements of the background seem to jive with each other. i wouldn't mid seeing the perspective lines on this...

Why do;
- all of your female characters show their mid-drifts (not that it's overly sexualized it just seems way too consistent that they all have the same sort of outfit)
- all of your female characters have stomachs that aren't defined at all? I'm not saying that they all need to have abs but they all look like a big cylinder of putty with a dot for a belly button. there's a lot you can do there;

[joelle]

you work with a lot of saturated color, sometimes its best too balance out the color and use saturation to give punch to your point of interets/ subject/light. as for the last drawing, I like the overall design and idea but i think the character looks very stiff her clothes looks stiff as well... and I'm not fond of the arm that is a total shadow, very unbelievable to me, how can an arm int his position can be o far away from the body that I becomes a total falt shadow but the bG elements are still visible? doesnt make sense! Oh by the way I likes your comissioned piece , but I am not fond of the color scheme and the abuse of flaring, I think overall you have difficulties with your soft and hard edges...look into it !

good luck !

[williams73]

horse seems to be on stilts and maybe warm up character to make her pop....
did a quick and dirty paintover to show you my thoughts...do with them what you will.....
also I think we would see a bit of the horses hindquarters

[AlexTooth]

thx all

Jason - Hey man, thanks for pointing that! I have only 5 or so female characters and gah, every one has that kinda cut outfit >< Well I have a lot to learn about character and costume anyway, but thx I hadn't noticed! Yeah the perspective was whack I redrew lines (this drawin is about 1yr old) and the bridges didnt even match up for a scrapped them, they were too busy anyway. Thx for ur input I got real respect, a pro like you still got time for us little guys

Joelle - thanks for your critiques I have taken it all on board, I think I leave the cleric piece on the scrap heap as for this latest one I did play with some things, thanks for your input!

Williams - thx! I did change the horse a bit. As for "pop" while it is quite effective, it's not really something I was going for in this piece.

An update, pretty much done I think, because I do more it will get worse and worse! or if there's major things let me know levels I dont know about, everyone says add more dark so I did, but on my monitor its too dark now, but meh I think my monitors not set up right.

[Lightship69]

Hmm is it just me or is this turning into a sketchbook??

I like the last post though I think you are lacking a last push to finish it off, its just minor details really, the sword and fingers, open eyes to look at the fairy in his/ her hand and other little things. The devil is in the detail as they say but it turns a good image into a great one.

I like it well done, and all the best with the next one.

[AlexTooth]

Hey thanks Lightship, every little helps and I think I needed a extra push

At this point I get lazy - no excuses!

I shall do some more detailing and update the pic, and probably post a new one soon.

I really need to concentrate on my anatomy, characters, gesture and such over the coming months!

[AlexTooth]

right done for now i think this time!

[Jetpack]

I like the movement, but the horses head follows the tangent of the ruins in the background.

[AlexTooth]

Bit of an update on this, I have checked the eyes on top of each other and seem to be same size and checked the distances too. cropped it a bit made a start on hair n stuff, changes some of core shadow

[AlexTooth]

Another update, cc welcomes!

[AlexTooth]

Looking for any crits on this! Supposed to be bright and sell a toy.