Help the artist learn~ Update~

[Anamya]

I told myself after my last critiquing here that next time I was doing a fairly large or important piece, I would get it double-checked step-by-step here to get it to the best quality possible then compare the difference in my unaided works versus the new one.

Normally I work without lines. I'm considering using lines for this piece and would like input on that. If I don't use lines, I'll be going for as realistic as possible that I can get. If I use lines, I want it to be more comic like.

So! Basically I need your help. I'll be posting first, for composition issues. (As you can't really tell if I have any proportional issues or shading issues till it's colored.) Then I'll be posting a sketched in color piece. After that a finally colored piece, and I'll make final changes.

A question-- I know in traditional paintings an underpainting is often used... do you think that would help at all in a digital painting?

Any suggestions on lighting would be helpful. It's an alice-in-wonderland type piece so the forest has to be dark, so I'm struggling on how to light the background while making "Alice" the main focus. I thought maybe a lightning bug would provide sufficient lighting inside the mushroom area if exxagerated enough.


Aside from that... I don't know. :/ Just critique anything you can think of... though a few things will be changed already. (Once I decide if it's realistic or not I may change the face of the rabbit and the cat... to a more realistic look, or I may change the two other faces to a more comic look.)

Thanks for the help! (Oh, and the actual sketch is a LOT lighter than this, I darkened it to show up better.)

[Anamya]

I didn't want to wait any more. o_O So I just started. Here's so far:

[stoph]

establish where your lightsource is coming from. then go.

[Anamya]

There is a little yellow dot-- that'll be an overly powerful lightning bug.

I had to somewhat artificialize the light though because otherwise it would provide a creepy "flashlight under the face" kind of look.

[Sepulverture]

Then change it. you can't create light. That is like trying to creat dirt using water. it just dosen't happen. you can make more than one of them. if you aren't going for realism here than you can ignore what i said, but if you are then you have to obey the laws that govern the style. One thing you should remember is even when you exaggerate things, you have to make it believable, or at least plausible.

[Serena-]

for the most part the start is fine, I'd change the light source however at this point while it's still pretty easy to do. Also the one side of the hair seems way to flat... (my right side) that is.

I really like the skin tones in the face though, the highlighting makes the character seem very childish. It goes along very nicely with the mushroom background... like alice in wonderlandish.

[Anamya]

It's supposed to be Alice in Wonderlandish. Good! Mwaha.

Uhh, okay. So what if I took and put another lightning bug somewhere up in front of her face? Or would that complicate the shadows any more?

And it's kind of hard for me to fix the lighting. O_o; I'm having enough trouble with it as it is. I'm not very experienced in this kind of lighting and we weren't allowed refs for the contest. =_=

Edit: Oh and her hair is messed up because I stopped in the middle of working on it.