Giant Panda WIP painting

[Kevin A. Hardy]

Just wanted to get some critique for this before I went any farther on it. Just a quick sketch with some shading on it before I paint it up. And thanks for critiquing and suggestions. (I love critique, Be as rough as you can please ) A reference was used.

[Vermis]

This 'un, by any chance?


http://picturesofgrizzlybears.com/panda-pictures.php

My own little nitpicks, for what they're worth, are that the sketch gives an impression of a grizzly with a dye job. Or at least gives an impression of size and power that'd be more associated with a grizzly than a panda.

The smaller size of the head in relation to the body, for one (plus the shrinking effect of removing the white from the neck). Makes the body seem larger. The head in the sketch also looks fairly round, flattened (wider than it is tall) and Po-like; especially with the rounded snout and pinprick pupils in white eyes, too. It's also more of a grizzly shape!


www.edu.pe.ca

I'd suggest stretching the head down a bit, about as wide as tall, with slight shift towards a teardrop/trapezium shape.
Also, remember that bear snouts stick out further than human faces. Maybe rotate and straighten the vertical construction line a touch, or be careful not to construct the snout as a flat shape in direct alignment.

The right (it's right) foreleg looks okay, but the left is huge compared to the photo. Almost twice as beefy. The shoulder is as wide as the head. Compare it to the shoulder in the photo. Similarly, the chest is deeper and bulkier in the sketch, and seemingly deeper than the belly. Invokes the old bulldog/mesomorph image.

Mighty humps rising over the swayback. The shoulder hump is pretty true to the pic, though extended a little far (and usually more apparent in lateral views of grizzlies than pandas, which I admit threw me off). The contour of the pelvis could use a bit more smoothing over, though.

Overall, take some of the roly-poly from the head and apply it to the body instead.

Shading... even less authority on this than bears, but I'd say needs more. Particularly around it's left shoulder and white areas. And the entire left side is plunged in cool shadow anyway. Taking the sketch on it's own, the shading of the forequarters doesn't match up well with the hindquarters. But let's see what someone with more savvy than yours truly has to say.

[Kevin A. Hardy]

Yeah, I tend to exaggerate when I draw and now that you've pointed them out, I can see the problems. XP

That was indeed the pic I used.

Its always nice having a fresh pair of eyes to look at things for you.

So thank you, and I will most certainly attempt to make some fixes to this after my drawing exercises.

(also, I have gotten the extreme urge to want to try and animate this D: )