The Morrigan (W.I.P.) critiques welcome

[Yazuki Wolf]

Working on the theme of "The Morrigan", a celtic three personed goddess of death, battle, etc. (wiki it if you want to know more).



I`m still undecided on the clothes and background, but I`m thinking I want to have the middle figure (Macha) wearing a necklace with a raven since they are sometimes referred to as "raven women" and often appear in this form.

I also might try to suggest a crow in the background silhouette.

Anyway, any suggestions and or critques would be greatly appreciated.

[Jason Rainville]

The skintones look reeeealy muddy. You should get some saturation into the midtones of the skin, rather than just lighteneing or darkening the colour you started with. The profiles of the two ladies on the left and right are also not working mainly because their eyes look as if we're seeing them dead-on. Get any image of a person in profile and you'll see how reduced the form of the eye becomes.

Nice rendering so far

[wooblood]

The drawing style combined with their very neutral expressions and postures are adding up to providing no sense of personality/attitude/mood in the picture (though I see that you are working on some dramatic underlighting, which should probably help). I would just think about what you want the character(s) to express to the viewer.

[{CKL}]

Definitely agree with what Jason and Woo have contributed so far. I think, even though it is stylized anime, you need to pay a little more attention to anatomy and form. It looks to me like the two side figures are stuck between a profile and 3/4 view, with features falling on one side or the other. The front figure is also contorted in a very strange way, something you might want to reconsider. My advice for color is...don't be afraid of it. I usually start by taking the lighting into account then start with a local color, building up a fairly monochromatic underpinning of the form, and then start adding in secondary and tertiary colors (which are dependent upon the part of the body/face, diffuse light, etc.)

This is a quick paint over, using a generic warm lighting scheme this is just a quick example of color play. (Sorry it kind of steers away from your style, but hopefully it helps.)

[Yazuki Wolf]

Wow thanks so much for the advice.

Jason - I knew something was off with the profiles, but couldn`t put my finger on the problem. I`ll try your advice

wooblood - yeah I have a bad habit of getting a dramatic image or concept in my head and then somehow managing to dull down everything (seriously need to work on that). I`ll do my best to bump it up.

CKLamb - wow, your sample sketch is very helpful. I`ll definitely keep it in reference as I continue with the piece.

I`ll get back to work on it and try to have the next stage up sometime next weekend.

Thanks again for all your help.

[Danilo]

i like the gray key of original image. Biggest problem is that compositional it could work better.
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kv...rlywo1_500.jpg
see how different places in this image have different potential force. Trying to feel when that forces are in balance in the image will help you create good composition

[{CKL}]

Danilo makes a good point, you don't have to go into super saturation for a brilliant image, but you do need to handle the tonal range a bit more to make it work.

[Yazuki Wolf]

Thanks again for everyone`s advice. After about 18 hours this is what I got.



You can see the step by step progression and what reference I used at this link
(though I may not keep it up there too long)

They`re heads were much too big before (even for an anime style) so I reduced them and I tried to adjust the size/position/width of their eyes as well.

I also did my best to increase the color range without losing the subdued tone I`m going for.

Tried to add some elements of interest to their costumes and suggest a bit of their personality, but I admit that this area is still a bit lackluster.

The deadline for this piece is just around the corner so I may just hand it over after some slight touchups, but I would like to revisit this piece (or theme) again in the future. So any final comments and advice will be sincerely appreciated.