Horde raid

**mylez** · July 16th, 2009, 01:32 PM

Hi everyone!

Just got done with this piece. I have a nasty habit of not finishing what I start so I figured why not submit something to the Blizzard fan art section. It definitely helped me finally finish something.

Im very new at this so please leave any crits! Thanks!

Hope you enjoy!

**mathias92** · July 16th, 2009, 04:51 PM

Cool! I love Warcraft and WoW's art style!

**mylez** · July 23rd, 2009, 01:50 PM

Thanks Mathias! Me too, Blizzard has been a huge inspiration from the first Warcraft to Starcraft to Diablo 2 and all the art involved with them.

**isso09** · July 23rd, 2009, 03:01 PM

I suggest a study on rim lighting, or maybe using reference. That would give you more than I could possibly explain in this post. Also, facial studies are key and something I need much work on.

The picture seems to lack wholesomeness in general. I think that too many things are covered in what seems to be pitch black. The poses and the composition could be improved by starting out with a thumbnail and block in the main shapes VERY roughly. Do gestural drawings of the figures first, and then dress them in armour, clothing, weapons etc. You're focusing too much on the details and losing sight of the big picture.

I messed around with it in photoshop a little. I think I upped the brightness, removed some contrast and desaturated, not necessarily in that order. In general when you are going for realistic lighting/style be very careful about saturating too much.

Hope this helps!

**mylez** · August 12th, 2009, 11:25 AM

Thanks for the great advice isso09!

**MT-Mystic** · August 12th, 2009, 11:06 PM

Way too much contrast - unfocused composition - unconvincing facial expressions - and all the guys are the same! The copy/paste/flip of that one guy makes you look really lazy, and makes your composition rather unpleasant. Also, considering the ground plane, your orc would be higher; at the moment, his legs would be going through the ground plane.

**sneakywombat** · August 12th, 2009, 11:14 PM

This is a good start, but there are a few elements that are lacking here:

As was said before, you should work on lighting and finding a good range that accentuates the brights and darks, as opposed to the technicolor thing happening as it stands...

Also, I'm noticing the faces of the humans are virtually identical. Avoid this cookie-cutter style, because it is very noticeable. You may save time in the short term by employing this method, but you will only cheat yourself in the long run.

On a somewhat related note, I'm noticing that the only one who's position is dynamic and compelling is the Orc. You might consider creating variance among each particular human and invest a bit more time into each one.

Other than these things, I'd say you're off to a strong start.

**MikeBurns** · August 12th, 2009, 11:31 PM

I'm sorry but if you are going to copy and paste the same each full figure 4 times in a piece you need to rethink your approach. You shouldn't be copy/pasting something as important as figures unless it's like silhouettes or something. I was enjoying the detail in the orc's face but once I noticed that you copy/pasted the human I got really disappointed.

I agree with the above posts that there are composition and contrast issues as well as other problem, but I think there are also a lot of things working really well. The problem is that I'm so bothered by the copy/paste that I can't get past it. Stuff like this can say a lot about an artist.

I don't mean to upset you or anything, but people DO notice this stuff, and if you show this to a client and they noticed what you did it's going to raise red flags and they might tell you to drop the project all together.

I really hope you do redraw the human figures because I feel like this piece has a lot of potential, but the copy/paste is really holding it back.

**sneakywombat** · August 12th, 2009, 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by MikeBurns

LAME!

I'm sorry but if you are going to copy and paste the same each full figure 4 times in a piece, you shouldn't be copy/pasting something as important as figures unless it's like silhouettes or something. I was enjoying the detail in the orc's face but once I noticed that you copy/pasted the human I got really disappointed.

I agree with the above posts that there are composition and contrast issues as well as other problem, but I think there are also a lot of things working really well. The problem is that I'm so bothered by the copy/paste that I can't get past it. Stuff like this can say a lot about an artist.

I don't mean to upset you or anything, but people DO notice this stuff, and if you show this to a client and they noticed what you did it's going to raise red flags and they might tell you to drop the project all together.

I really hope you do redraw the human figures because I feel like this piece has a lot of potential, but the copy/paste is really holding it back.

...Agreed. And you know, as I look at them again, I'm noticing also that the human's faces don't show any expression of fear. They look almost gleeful, even, don't they?

Also. They're all carrying heavy sacks of gold. And not one of them seems to be stooping from the weight of it.

It might be a good idea to create each human differently, from scratch, with these revisions in mind. Good luck.

**hudsonpro** · August 23rd, 2009, 01:55 AM

The Orc looks great and I love the comedic presentation of the picture, the fleeing peasants with heavy sacks of gold is a nice touch.

Is this your first picture posted here? I would like to see more, maybe an isolated shot of the Orc in a different manner.

**pauscorpi** · August 24th, 2009, 06:33 PM

I would also suggest stay away from using too much black in your shadows. Pure whites and pure blacks appear very strong in an image, create visual wholes and make the image look overly contrasty. Try instead using very dark shades of various colours.

Good luck