Demon Lion WIP- Critique Requested :3 please

[Tollkirsche]

It's been a long time since I've tried to do a full piece like this, and I know it needs a certain degree of help. Sincerely requesting critiques so that I may improve :3



Thank you for your time!
~Danielle

[Geist02]

I like how crisp the image is, and the different red values are attractive. my critique would be that the beast has little to no action in his pose, the other characters seem way more engaged and he seems just bored which kinda breaks the action of the piece. his butt seems to be flat in space which doesn't give his standing position any depth. I'd say make it seem like it's further back by casting some shadows and make it thinner since it's going back. but if you really wanna push this piece I'd say change his pose to be a little more defensive or threatening. Love to see more man.

[TinyBird]

Get a ref for the legs and establish your perspective. We're not going to see both tiny human and a house sized monster straight from the side, one of them has to give. Also I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what is happening and where the focal point is supposed to be. It kinda looks like the lion is trying to shake the black stuff off of itself, but I guess the point is that it's controlling the stuff? Also the lion overall is pretty flat and like mentioned, there's very little depth to anything (like the position of the figures in terms of the lion).

[Tollkirsche]

@Geist02 & TinyBird: Thank you both, it's much appreciated!

I tried to rework some things based on the feedback:





Hopefully I'm headed in the right direction? Sadly, I have much to brush up on.
-Danielle

[Lela]

I like the last version best, it feels more dynamic and balanced than the first one (the second one looks awkward in my opinion)
The only thing that throws me off: Why has the demon to look at us? I think it would seem much more believable/easier to read if he would look at one of the fighters

[kingkostas]

Hello mate

I think it lacks in level of detail. Cant hold the viewers eye enough. Add some details [it doesnt refer only to texture issues, but better defined light and shadow relations] in the places where you want to focus the viewer

Keep up the good work

[kingkostas]

and here some quick reworkings

[Geist02]

that last one looks the best, there's a scenes of desolated horror, the monster is focusing on the guy trying to chop him up and there's dimension. I'd say look up some images of fighting lions to get a better idea of proportions and such. dont hesitate to use references to really polish your work.

[Yefim]

Look up reference!!!!!!!

[Tollkirsche]

Thank you everyone, agreed on all points. I was having a hard time finding proper reference for the angle I was looking for, but I think I found a good one. I know, no excuses, I'm definitely not denying how horrible it was looking! I started adding detail back in now that I have a better base (I hope), still need to touch up the legs (lion hind legs look sort of weird even the real ones ), and mess with colors. But here's the next WIP to show that yes, I am listening to feedback: references!



Thanks all,
Danielle

[Chris Sanders]

hey Tollkirsche, nice ideas in the piece, i think with some lighting adjustment and compositional tweaking it could be great. Here's some examples. Also if the skull is lit from the torch on the lions head it would look a lot different to what you have. Think plains relative to the light angle. Also i looked at some reference shown here (otherwise i would't have a clue how to make theses elements seem realistic, reference is your bff) -

http://bolstablog.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/horse-galloping-on-the-ocean-beach.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5230/5...db863d65_z.jpg
http://www.skullsunlimited.com/userf...iants_2908.jpg
http://aristidesatelier.com/system/f...H_RamSkull.jpg
http://thedoggyworld.com/wp-content/...understorm.jpg

[kingkostas]

nice points from chris. Only thing that i would like to mention is that you must search for improvements that dont sacrifice the design, because that would remove the challenge of the piece.