Crit my evil character

[ianessom]

Hi,
Ive created this deadly character, its still work in progress,
pls crit it for me



View more of my art here

[ianessom]

Hi pls crit my character, including background, its still W.I.P

[Star Eater]

Hey buddy

The horse looks very flat. He is champing while all hell is breaking loose behind him? As mentioned by rkoziol7 the perspective is off.

The riders pose is strange to say the least. That's no way to ride a horse, especially with an explosion happening right next to you. I can't make out what is happening with his legs? They appear to be too short. His head is very small.

There seems to be an overabundance of digital effects which are taking away a lot from the character. What is supposed to actually be happening in this piece?

[Falchion]

I think I may be going blind, but...where are the rider's lower calves, ankles, and feet? All I can see is where his calves meet the horse's legs.

[Star Eater]

I think I may be going blind, but...where are the rider's lower calves, ankles, and feet? All I can see is where his calves meet the horse's legs.

Heh, I felt the same. I think the 'calves' are actually the top of the sabatons tapering off to a pointed tip. The pointed tip of the greaves are overlapping and hiding the calves.

[LAG]

Here we go again. Didn't think you would come back after your response to the crit you received on your last thread. Linked HERE. I am glad you did! Please realize that most of the comments people will give you, although they seem harsh at first are usually legitimate and MEANT TO HELP. Here is what I will say. You have some crazy rendering skills! This is apparent in this piece as well as the last one you posted. Here is the problem though. As good as your rendering is, what kills your pieces is your errors in drawing. You still have some anatomy issues both on the horse and rider. The rider doesn't seem to be quite in line with the horse. I can give more explanation when I have more time. Also, your armor, while amazingly detailed and cool looking at first glance, has some real logical functionality issues. This pose is about the only one this guy could hold wearing this with the way the plates overlap. Also, some of the plates are not sized the same from the left to right side. I'm not sure if this was intentional or lazy and thats what bugs me about it. Im also, pretty sure the horse would have diffuculty moving his head around, not to mention being shredded to pieces by the saddle. The sword in his left (our right) hand looks bigger than the one in the foreground.

As mentioned in your previous post, these are all issues that you could fix with some work on anatomy, drawing, and now I am convinced perspective as well. The reason people were so hard on you last time is because we HATE to see someone with such obvious rendering ability spend (I am going to assume 40-60 hours) painstakingly detailing an obviously flawed drawing, and not willing to look at their piece objectively when they receive crit. You are receiving FREE advice (which you are asking for btw) often from industry professionals, on how to fix things. Please, please, please, have a different attitude than you did in your last post, and listen, learn, and GROW as an artist. Do yourself a favor, and post your next piece at the drawing stage, let us help you fix that, then come back here after your drawing has been corrected, and wow us with a piece, with good composition, anatomy, and rendering. Then we as a community will see that you have learned taken advice, and learned something, thereby helping you become a better artist.

[kev ferrara]

Cool stuff.

I think the blurry photoshop smoke in the foreground is too blurry. Even smoke should have a form and shape.

Good luck,
kev

[Pate5]

I think you've got too much contrast everywhere. It's making the piece really messy looking, small high contrast details drawing eye to everywhere. Try splitting the piece more to foreground and background, light and shadow.

[JeffX99]

To me it isn't contrasted enough. Check your thumbnail...there is no way to pull out any character or form because the values all blend together - the light from explosion blends right across the torso of the knight starting at the upper arm - back of horse's neck is same value as darkness/smoke behind - spikes on shoulder/helmet armor curve right into, mimic, and are same value as billowing smoke. All that contributes to visual confusion of masses and forms.

Lighting is also a major issue/problem...a huge explosion/fire in the background should silhouette the horse and knight. Sure, you could say there's fire/explosions all around...it's a major battlefield and all...but that doesn't matter...as the artist/illustrator/designer you have to get that impression/narrative across and still make it read.

That's what thumbnails and value studies are all about.

[Venger]

I second Jeff's comments.
An interesting idea that you really needed to expand upon through thumbnails - I'd increase the canvas size and push the dynamics much more (now that doesn't mean add extra things, it means figure placement, lighting, 'camera' view.)
You seem to be trapped by your horse reference?
A little knowledge of armour wouldn't help either - from there you can extrapolate the designs.

[keith_v]

I think the piece has a lot of potential, but there's just too much going on to see it. In this paint-over, I tried to bring out the character from the background and make him the focal point. I integrated the motion of the background with the horse. Also, I obscured much of the horse to keep the focus on the rider. I also added a slight blue tint to the rider to help contrast him with the background.

[JeffX99]

Nice job keith! OP should take both images and shrink them down to thumbnail size to see the difference in readability.

[Black Spot]

A horse is a bit rounder at the top, so either that armour is cutting into the horse's flesh or he's just lost his balls. Bring the knee forward and out.

[Elwell]

moved

[Velocity Kendall]

"or he's just lost his balls."

thats horseriding for you, crunches ones nuts a treat

[Star Eater]

Right, I thought this was the same piece uploaded again.

[Venger]

I think this was moved from FF Star.
It has been altered somewhat, though not much.

[Star Eater]

Yep, just noticed that now, Big V.

Still, no replies, no nothing, hope the artist at least got -something- out of it.

[JeffX99]

Yep, just noticed that now. Big V.

Still, no replies, no nothing, hope the artist at least got -something- out of it.

They don't seem to.

[Star Eater]

Yep, well, I merged the threads now. Everyones helpful advice is in one spot. I also kept the two pieces up for comparison, but they look pretty much the same to me.

Sorry to mess around on your turf Tristan! (Where Angels fear to tread...)

[Grunler]

I overlayed the images out of curiosity and they are in fact completely identical.

[Venger]

I also kept the two pieces up for comparison, but they look pretty much the same to me.

Huh you're right, same image...ah well another one to add to my ignore list.

[Star Eater]

Well, to be fair, looking at the dates of the top two posts the FF image was actually uploaded -before- the critique image. Or so I would understand it.

But this whole mess could have been avoided if the OP would have just uploaded one piece of art, in one section of the forums, one at a time.

ianessom, hope you will check this thread out as a lot of folks have given attention to your artwork. A lot of -good- folk.

[AtlasIves]

i hate to dig up a buried thread, but this is really bugging me, i dont wish to offend Ian but is he, as an artist really ready to be featured in expose? http://www.ianessom.com/ .

i wish ian all the best, and hope he learns to utilize the expertise this site has to offer in a more productive way, but its obvious some of the fundamentals are lacking.