Dragon Forest

[Neolight]

Hey everyone, looking for general crits on the image below. I'm making a fantasy esc forest with a dragon walking into the scene - having trouble with the dragons perspective as I want him 3/4 viewed from behind. Any ideas on that score would really be appreciated!

[Griffonnage]

Wow I really like your colors and mood ! I'm not good at perspective but when it come to that, try to look at some fundamental, draw a grid, try to understand your little dragon as simples shapes (square, cilinders...) You can look at some komodo dragons to solve any anatomic issue that can bother you.

I would take care about how you lead the eyes of the viewer too, on the right you have a very big wall made of trees that cut the space, on the left it's some empty space leading inside the forest. This part is great but a little confusing because it's all in shadows, as if it was another world an not a part of the same forest.

Hope that help you I'm definitly sold on the mood, really want to see the final !

edit : what a shame, sorry for all the bad typing text, I edited to make it clear...

[Neolight]

Wow I really like your colors and mood ! I'm not good at perspective but when it come to that, try to look at some fundamental, draw a grid, try to understand your little dragon as simples shapes (square, cilinders...) You can look at some komodo dragons to solve any anatomic issue that can bother you.

I would tzke care about how you lead the eyes of e viewer too, on the rig you have a very big wall made of tree that cut the space, on the left it's some empty space leading inside the forest. This part is great but a little confusing because it's all in shadows, as if it was another world an not a pzrt of the same forest.

Hope that help you I'm definitly sold on the mood, really want to see the final !

Thanks alot for the great criticism! I'm sold on the idea that the left part of the forest seems disconnected, i'll shine some light in there.

[Aliciane]

Hello

I'm quite a beginner, therefore I'm afraid I can't help you a lot with the little dragon's anatomy.
I like a lot the colour scheme you've used for your forest and the way you've stylized the trees. All those curvy lines are very nice.

However, I'm bothered by the colour of the dragon. It seems not to belong to the environment because it's colour is rather different from the colour used for the forest.
This is what I would have done with its colour :



To explain a bit more, I've circled with black (very very roughly) the hues you've used for your forest, and in red the hue you've used for the dragon. And because the chroma you've chosen is quite high, the colour, well, stands out, so the dragon is noticed, but is seems almost contrary to the colour scheme.

I would have chosen a more yellowish green, or even yellow itself (like circled in blue), because in the context of your colour scheme, I think those kind of colours would appear green enough. Moreover if you shade your dragon with slightly reddish shadows, I think it might reinforce the green impression without it seeming too off context.



Once again, I'm just a beginner, you have totally the right not to agree with me
I hope what I say isn't totally stupid :o

[moonskittles]

I would definitely do as prescribed and work out your perspective lines, as your little dragon looks very out of perspective to me.

As far as his shape, the best ref I could find was a baby crocodile; they have similar cartoony features to what you're going for.

http://www.funonline.in/wp-content/u...3100086861.jpg
http://www.butterfliesandwildlife.co...-armand-bayou/
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/lc...-the-rocks.jpg

[Neolight]

Thanks alot you two. The color treatment and the ref pictures will surely come in handy. I'll post an update when I have your comments integrated.

[Neolight]

Here's an update to it.

[Ever]

Hmm, my eye keeps getting drawn to the light clearing at the top right of the image and not the dragon. It actually took me a little while to realize there was even a dragon in the image, despite its bright color. Also, his horns seem to blend in with one of the trees.
I'm not sure how that could be solved, perhaps by making the dragon contrast more with the area surrounding it?
Also I dunno how important that is, but the mushrooms look kind of weird standing in neat rows like that. Vary their sizes and placement some.
The forest has a really nice atmosphere though c:

[Griffonnage]

Agree with Ever, you can push the contrast with the little dragon to make it pop out . As for the light or shadows, you can use them with more contrast to create distinct part and help the viewer to go through what you want him to look at. When you use a very bright light, do not be afraid to use very dark shadows. If you do not do that, the scene will look like it is unlit, the result will be flattened and the viewer eyes will have difficulties to find what you want to show.

I would also take care at the foreground, just at the right of the little dragon : the perspective isn't clear between what is the shadow and what is the slope.

Honestly, with a little more contrasts here and there you will have a really wonderfull image. I really love the colors you choose, it's very peotric and dreamy.

I hope you don't mind, I did a little PO to illustrate what I mean for the contrasts on the dragon and the foreground... I definitly don't have your nice touch, I hope I didn't "break" something...

[Kiera]

ok, alright, crit .
Dragon from behind:
He is off-balance, note where the animal's frontleg goes:
http://cdn.greatdogsite.com/admin/up...ed_pointer.jpg
http://www.colourbox.com/preview/179...at-hunting.jpg
But I get why you want to let the leg there, it would interfere with the other leg.

Also you've choose to paint the head in a weird perspective - the dragon is an important character, right? Why don't we see a bit more of his face?
Right now the horn is foreshortened in a strange way and there's no indication of a face or an eye. You could tilt the head a bit or put him in another place altogether.


Also a random overpaint, I was curious what made the composition so messy.
There are a lot elements which are really distracting, several of the swirls, especially the ones in full profile and with high contrast against the sky and the root that has a tangent with the dragon's head.
The 3 mushrooms in a row look completely out of place with the rest of the environment - clean repetitions in nature are rare, so I keep looking at those mushrooms.
But in the big picture it seems that the line of action of the landscape is random and the rythm of the trees is off and tilted to the right.

[Neolight]

Thanks for the awesome criticism you three. I will try to incorporate these points into the image and into my next. I'll get around to posting a new final version some time soon with the lighting changes... but major compositional changes will have to be dropped. I gotta move on.

The lesson was a good one though and i'll try to augment my next image with a better gestural flow.