Critique on a Speed Paint

**KentaWolf** · June 2nd, 2009, 09:30 PM

Hello! This is my first time posting on CA. Hoping to find precise critiques and get better.

Just trying out color on this one. I know the hunter's arms are disproportionally long. Speed paint: one hour.

**spaztastic** · June 2nd, 2009, 09:37 PM

add some more saturated colors, and look at some tree roots to help get those bad boys a little more grounded. other than that this is looking good for a speedie. also add in some different textures on the foreground.

**Dethklaus** · June 3rd, 2009, 04:49 AM

I like this picture overall, but that triangular patch of grass at the lower-right corner bothers me. To me, it feels too... abrupt, for lack of a better term.

My question is: What's your intention with that patch of ground? Is it a shadow? Are you planning anything specific with it, or is it merely a part of the picture that remains unfinished?
I understand that you're not going for a high level of detail, but I think the scene would be improved (if only slightly) if you blended that section into the rest of the ground. Make it look like the rest of the grassy field.

**-HAWK-** · June 3rd, 2009, 05:18 AM

hmmm...I'm not sure where to rest my eyes in this picture. I want to look at the hunter but the shape he's making with his body is directing me away from him and towards the middle tree. But the lights on the roots of that tree - as well as the patch shining through the arch of the roots - direct me to the tree on the left. So my eyes settle in on the root of that tree but the shape it's making combined with the dark triangle on the right, send me back to the hunter to repeat the process.

Decide on your focal point and use the elements around it to emphasize it. If it's the hunter for example, maybe try having the tree near him lean towards him instead of away and you could try having him hold the bow more in front of his body to eliminate the "arrow" he's making with his body shape that's directing the viewer away and not letting you focus in on him or his face.

On another note: the root of tree in the left is reminding me alot of a human leg (thigh and calf)

Otherwise, great job! I still totally lack the ability to speedpaint so I shouldn't be the one to talk but I think if you take everyone's crits in mind and play around with it some more you could have a really cool piece here ^^ Welcome to CA!

**Craz** · June 3rd, 2009, 05:25 AM

The biggest problem for me is the root in the lower left hand corner. It's definitely competing with the Hunter for attention and at first I thought it was a deer's flank.

**dierat** · June 3rd, 2009, 07:31 AM

I feel like the major problem is that you need an area of focus in the bottom left somewhere. Compositionally you have a strong directional movement running from the hunter in the top right down to the bottom left. I feel like there should be a rabbit or something in the foreground but somehow it stepped into an invisibility field and I just can't find it anywhere. A few people have mentioned that the root in the bottom left is very conspicuous but I personally wonder if that's just because the horizon line is pulling their eyes down to the bottom left and they have nothing else to look at but that root. For the hunter, it would help if you gave him something that made him pop out against the background a little bit. Maybe you could give him a knife or something else that could sparkle in the faint light and call our attention. It would also help if he were wearing a red cloak or something but a good hunter probably wouldn't wear something that obvious.