Rainforest scene-help?

[tehLuna]

I know I already put a thread for help with the mossy wolf, but since I dropped that idea, and just decided to put a flower on him, I completely changed the composition, and now I'm focusing on some other subject of the picture.

I am doing a picture for a contest on dA, where the theme is 'wild and overgrown' The scene is in middle of a cloudforest/rainforest where an old lemur covered with moss meets a new arrival, werewolf/wolf with a flower on its back, who is sunbathing in one of the rare sunny places around the forest. And don't worry about the paws, since I'm thinking of making the ground somewhat foggy.

I want to know what I can change within the composition, colors, lightning and shadows, or the details around the picture. Any critiques would be helpful

Hope you understand what I'm saying, my english isn't really that good ^^;

[Lhune]

Mmh. You obviously used a reference for the wolf's face because it's pretty accurate and almost photorealistic, but then the body is greatly lacking in correctness. It's almost as if the head and body don't belong together, or as if they've been drawn by different artists. I'm not accusing you of anything, but I think that if you went and put so much effort into that wolf's head, you should do the same with it's body.

Here is a wolf in a similar angle:



And a wolf skeleton. Pay extra attention to the legs, the position of the wrists, knees and ankles in particular.



I'd also like to suggest that in future pictures, try rendering the background first before detailing your characters. The wolf is looking beautiful but his face is lit in a very particular way and you will have to paint the background very well around him to give the impression that he's actually there. It's usually easier to do it the other way around.

Either way, good luck with this piece. If you manage to render everything as beautifully detailed and realistic as the wolf's head, it'll most definitely be a very amazing picture.

[tehLuna]

Thank you for the comment!
Well, I used both references for the head and for the body, but the only problem was that I couldn't find any good picture with the same light source as the head, so I had to improvise a bit with what I could find.
And as for the background, I'm still experimenting with painting techniques, so I just started from the head thinking of it as the most hard and detailed part. But it sure does make more sense to start from the background. I'll try to keep that in mind next time. Thanks again ^^

[imnotanoob]

the wolf's abdomen seems to be very short

[tehLuna]

Okay, so I smudged the rest of the body and then used some softer brushes to try to keep the same style as when I did the head. I am the queen of consistency :B
I also started working on the background, found some reference pictures, and somewhat refined the shapes of the trees. And now I don't know where to start from. I don't want to detail the background too much, as I want to keep the focus on the animals in front.

[tschahri]

Hey, I seriously think you should re-draw the wolf's body. As said the head is well done and rendered, but the rest of the body has no anatomy and is from a wrong angle. I know you've spent time painting that, but doing it again will improve the whole painting.
I did a quick redline to show how the proportions should be looking.

[tehLuna]

Thank you for the comment!
Detailed the lemur, and *hopefully* finished refining the wolf's legs. I think they should be all good now.

[tehLuna]

Sorry about the double posting, but I just wanted to show an update :/
Almost finished with detailing the lemur, I just need to finish off the hanging moss part, and found myself a new reference picture for the background. I'm not really good at drawing backgrounds, so any feedback on it would be very appreciated! For instance, what do you think would be the best way to show proportion between the trees? I tried making them less saturated the more far they are, but I'm not sure if it can be really shown.
And yes, I just realised the picture is too high saturated. I'm working on that right now