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DanielaIvanova — Shaman
#blond #blue #christmas #deer #drum #girl #glow #light #magic #moose #music #purple #red #reindeer #saami #sacrfice #sami #shaman #sketch #snow #spirit #winter #wip #woman #woods
Published: 2017-11-18 15:20:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 20746; Favourites: 727; Downloads: 68
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Description
Photoshop CS3, Intuos3, probably 30+ hoursProgress steps on my Artstation: www.artstation.com/artwork/rNq…
I've been fascinated recently with the culture of the Saami, who are the native people of Scandinavia (not unlike the Indians for the Americas). A Saami shaman was a spiritual guide able to traverse the hidden realms, inhabited by the spirits of the dead, the spirits of nature and gods. A shaman's drum was not only used to help induce the trance-like state needed to communicate with the spirits but was also a kind of map used for predictions. Each drum is inscribed with different characters and is unique to its owner.
As with any pagan culture I find it utterly inspiring how different everyday "rituals" gain a huge spiritual significance in a certain context - such as music, or the communication and relationship with animals.
Big thanks to everyone who helped me along the process with tips and critique.
Submitting it to 's awesome Best of 2017 contest . Go and submit your own best work of 2017, too!
EDIT*: I won!
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Comments: 247
Awesome! Love it! It looks fabulous now 
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I'm so glad you like it! ^^ Thank you for all the support and critique, it's helped me immensely.
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You are always welcome friend
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Thanks! I'm so relieved it's finally done
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Danke sehr, ich habe mir Mühe gegeben.
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Thanks! I hope I finish it soon
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I really like the technique you used - even though it's a digital painting, it reminds me of traditional colored pencil illustrations <3 Is it an illustration to some story?
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It does? 
Not exactly, although I can easily see it as one. It's a Saami shaman doing a sacrifice with her drum and guiding spirit. I just got really fascinated by their costumes and culture recently.
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yes, but I definitely don't think it's a bad thing, I really like your rendering style 
it seems fascinating indeed! thank you for explaining it
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Yep, tree branches in the foreground should give it a nice foreground interest. Everything looks great except few things imo.
1. Treeline section between the character and the right border of the image, shouldn't be in focus imo so maybe blur it out a wee bit?.
2. Her belt is cutting her off with a flat finish. Surely need some highlights to define fur/leather finish.
3. Her crystal is shining bright means its going to cast a hard shadow of her forearm. There is a shadow already but it's more of a soft shadow to me. Also you should play around with the overall shadow contrast a bit till you reach a better outcome. I might be wrong though.
Looking forward to see the finished piece soon..well, as soon as you finish
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Thanks again for the tips! 
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You are most welcome
Treeline to her left side. Problem here is it is clashing with the character because both have hard edges(left side). You could blur out that small section of treeline to bring the character into the focus. Just a thought. Don't worry. It looks great atm, but since you are striving for improvement, I wanted to point those minor things out nevertheless.
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I definitely prefer the framing tree branches! Definitely felt its absence with this update.
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This piece is shaping up nicely. Environment looks lovely now and has a fine depth to it. However, few things i'd like to point out here,
1. Crystal ball or whatever that object is, has a strong self-illumination, therefore its light must be reflected more to the fabrics and the overall shadow contrast has to be more intense imo. ex: Non illuminated areas from the crystal ball should only receive the atmospheric light or none at all so such areas has to be more darker.
2. Girl's figure has too all hard edges and very few or next to none soft edges. Blur out the edges which should not be focused. ex: her left side: back of the head, shoulder etc. I cannot say which area for certain so you need to play around with this a bit.
3. When color temperature is concerned, all the focus going to be on the fabrics(red) / crystal ball(orange). So If you want some focus on the deer, you might want to give it a subtle warmer hue. Also you might consider another distant interest(very subtle one at that and use a warm hue) such as a bonfire/ fireflies/ spark of light etc. There's a pattern that the eye reads an image, so for your future work you may want to read a bit about HCI theories.
Please note that this is just my opinion. You don't have to change anything just because i say it. After all I'm still a student
Keep up the good work!
Last min addition- Her left forearm area :between the gloves and the blue fabric, looks flat(boxy), probably lacking a bit of highlight from the crystal ball. I might be wrong so go with your instincts
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Thank you so much for following the process and even more helpful tips.
I'm yet to address the values/contrast as well as a couple other points you had for me since the previous time. I have not forgotten, just not as methodical as I'd like to be
HCI is short for human-computer interaction (is what google spewed out) or not? I've never heard of that.
Thanks again for all of your tips. Please don't feel the need to sugar-coat it, you obviously surpass me on technical knowledge and have a keen eye for details. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me.
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You are welcome friend
Yes Human computer interaction. There was an awesome book for this but darn i don't have the book with me nor the name of it QQ. It's extra knowledge and really helpful if you want to master your craft one day. As artists we need to know how the brain processes stuff which are seen by the eye so that we would know how to lay out our points of interest in an artwork.
Deer looks great for now don't worry about it
Don't worry too much about making this a masterpiece. There's always room for improvement so don't get stressed over things that you have to do to finish this piece
Also take a look at master artworks collection at CA. It will help you a lot
www.conceptart.org/forums/foru…
You are doing great. Hoping to see the finished piece when you are done
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Okay, this might be a stupid question but how does human-computer interaction relate to how our brain analyzes things?
I tried tweaking the deer's color last night but nothing came of it. I guess I'm counting it as one of the things I can't pull off yet. I don't like the transition very much but don't really have an improvement idea for now.
Haha, that's like asking the water not to be wet. I just have to have it as satisfying as it can be. After the finished point I don't really care but during the process it's push to the max, otherwise I lose the motivation xD
It amazes me how effortless master paintings look interms of composition and values. It's only when you try to make it yourself that you realize just how tricky it is.
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When it comes to visual design esp in games and such, they are very picky about how they place the menus and animations etc. How they decide it is by colors of the screen/composition. If they want to use a small animation/notification they make sure its to a side of the screen because eyes are very sensitive to motion changes at the visual boundaries. This is why most notifications are on top right or bottom right. Also, There's a pattern that eye reads content esp text. I think when it comes to images its the color temperature. Sadly I've read this a long time back and i cannot remember much. Knowing them gives you an edge that's the whole point. If you want to place a text in your image then you should know whats the best spot to put it. That's just one example. More you know how to address your audience (or control how they view your artwork), the better, imo.
About the deer, try this. Apart from the adding a warmer tint (yellowish) blur out some sharp edges of a side. This will give it more depth i think. Use a soft paint brush with transparency not the blur tool. Just a suggestion, it might work
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Wow, the detail and effort you put into this is incredible! Keep going!
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Thanks so much for following me along the process ^^ I hope the end result won't disappoint. You have a valid point, I've been feeling weird about that part, too. I'll definitely address it before considering it done.
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I don't know much about art/am not much of an artist, but this looks absolutely amazing! I love the way you've textured the snow in the background, and the dress looks lovely. The way you've blended the deer with her hair looks amazing, too, and I love the way the antlers enclose the moon. The only thing I'd say is that her face is a bit dark... not sure if that's intentional or not, but I can't see much of her expression.
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Thank you so much for the compliments <3 You absolutely have a point and I'll definitely work more on the values when I'm satisfied with the rendering. You will be able to see much more of her face when I'm done
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Great use of colors here. Love the subtle lighting on her face, hair etc. The glowing object is actually very bright in the scene so i think in my humble opinion, rest of the values should be pushed bit harder to create a convincing contrast in the scene. I could be wrong though.
Keep up the great work
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Thanks for the tip, I will definitely work more on the values and contrast. Lighting can be super challenging, hope I get it right in the end
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Read a bit about 3 light setup. its easy to learn for the start. Key light/Fill lights/Rim light really works in this scenario. For an example, treeline could use a bit of rim light so does girl's hair. Also make the scene more dramatic by pushing the values hard and increasing the scene contrast if you can.
I've mentioned this in another comment so I'll link it up here.
Happily ever after (Dominator/Demurra)
Keep up the good work! update looks awesome, would really like to see how it shapes up in the end
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Those actually came up in a film lighting video I watched recently. Have you studied those in a photography/film environment?
This is actually very valid advice, I've been worrying quite a bit about values on this one. Some of it I will tweak at later stages since lots of layers makes it difficult to get coherent adjustments but you will definitely be seeing some more rim lighting in the next update. Thanks so much for helping <3
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Sadly no, never received a proper education but I've read about lighting in drawing books, articles, youtube etc. You should refer the book called "pencil drawing techniques by David lewis" if you can. It explains values and contrast really well. Also, Andrew loomis books are great sources for this too. google it up
Getting the right values is a hard job. I'm also slowly learning it. Don't worry too much about it though. More you acquire knowledge you'll be able to slowly apply them to your art without thinking too much
and You are welcome!
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Same here
It is, especially when you also have to worry about color. I didn't use to even pay attention to it, hopefully now that I'm more aware things will start to come together.
Did you start out with traditional drawing?
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You are welcome
Those books are amazing and i also spent much time studying the paintings/drawings of the masters and that really helped.
For the color, without going into the advanced stuff, try this simple tutorial. Helped me a lot, probably will help you even in some small manner. It's a pixel art tutorial but relevant to the topic.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhgSM_…
Also, pay attention to the bounced light and atmospheric perspective.
www.arthints.com/wordpress/wp-…
Those are very important to give a nice depth to the scene. In your scene, a bit of moonlight on hair, clothing, tree line would give the viewer the idea that the scene depicted is a moonlight night. Also, subtle bounced blue light can be used on the figure esp where the shadows are.
Also, bring in layers of contrast and simulate atmospheric perspective through color and saturation. Usually objects near the camera has high saturation while far away objects have low saturation. You could try that on treeline and see how it goes
oh and you can add a bit of blur and depth of field effects but be subtle.
Finally, You can create a secondary interest by creating a faraway mountain or something, faintly visible and less saturated (use bit of rim lighting here) It should give a good depth to the scene imo.
EDIT: Your scene is looking bit flat. try introducing some layers of terrain maybe? I had this issue in a previous daily sketch challenge and I addressed it by creating a path through the mountain to give it a depth. It's in my gallery "DSG Sketches" folder under the name "Vitamin cow". It's definitely not the best example but it's a simple beginner's way of addressing above issue i guess
Oh well, that's a wall of text. sorry for that. Hope this helps though
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Oh, I neglected to reply, sorry 
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Yep that color tutorial is just awesome
and you don't have to do them all in this artwork. Slowly learn and incorporate them to your future work. I'm no expert or anywhere near but if you have a doubt just ask away
Another trick to improve your sense of colors is to do master studies. However do not use the eyedropper tool
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Whatever you do, keep going 
The two pale blue orbs holding her cloak, if those reflect light it should project onto her chin and nose. A cold secondary light source
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I've gained momentum now, so no stopping
Yeah they're metal brooches, took me a long time, too. Thanks for the tip, I will try to implement it, but I'm unsure how it will turn out.
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Looking forward to it
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