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Firequill β A WIP
Published: 2011-11-06 03:15:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 770; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 11
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Description
A work in progress, indeed! After working on that previous autumnal image and receiving some helpful critique on it, I ended up doing some more studies and thinking and decided to try a different scene, but keep the 'autumn forest' setting.This is supposed to be a girl and her dragon friend sitting down for a soothing cup of Hot Drinkβ’. The dragon tries to slip its tongue into her drink, but she pulls away and gives him a bit of the stink eye. I feel like I need to adjust the dragon's expression and/or body language in the head area to get a better feeling of 'was trying to sneak a taste'. What do you think?
I'm also having a heck of a time trying to draw the girl properly because, y'know, humans and the fact that I don't have a long history of drawing those, really. I was trying to put my own upper body in that pose to get an idea of how I could draw it, and was also trying to look for references of sitting positions, though it's been difficult trying to adjust the generic sitting poses into more of a 'recoiling' sitting pose.
So, I suppose at the moment, I'm mainly interested in critique on the character interaction, the anatomy/pose of the girl, and composition. She'll be wearing winter-type clothing in the end.
I'll also be adding a backpack or something on the ground leaning against the rock the girl is sitting on at some point, probably with a thermos poking out of it for handy storage of the rest of the previously mentioned Hot Drinkβ’.
But, of course, critique on any aspects of the image so far are welcome!
Edit 06/11/11:
I've adjusted the pose of the girl, changed the dragon's head position, and altered its expression slightly...! Hopefully this is getting the message across better.
Obviously also, I added some scribbly base colours to show what sort of colour direction I'm going in. I haven't done much actual shading yet, but I'm planning on the light source coming from the top right. Or something.
Oh, and I'll probably end up changing the girl's clothing colours. I'm struggling a bit to think of something that works, so I might look up images of people in ~winter ensembles~ for ideas.
Edit 11/11/11: Considerable changes this time. I've added some foliage, refined lots of rocks, begun the process of shading the characters and so on, but still lots and lots left to do! Still have to add that backpack...!
Edit 08/12/11: Added grassy texture to the grass plus fallen leaves. I am trying to refine the girl and it's challenging...!
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Comments: 25
The colors are looking good!
You might try adjusting the tonal structure a bit, to give emphasis where you want it. Try squinting (to allow you to see the piece without all the details), and make the focus of your piece jump out at you.
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Thank you! I'll give your suggestion a try when I get back to work on this painting!
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Wow...This looks great! You've progressed really well so far. I can hardly wait to see the finale!
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Thanks! I look forward to seeing the finished piece too! Whenever that happens!
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It looks like it's on the right track, as far as I can see.
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Very beautiful scene, i like the dragonΒ΄s head 
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Thanks for the suggestion! Her torso started out even wider and I narrowed it down from that, but wasn't sure how narrow would be 'narrow enough'...! I've gone and changed it, so hopefully it's looking a bit better now!
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It is looking better now
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id say for the recoiling pose, her hips and shoulders would be nearly perpendicular to eachother. hips would be in the same position, but she would be facing her chest away from the dragon in a gesture of protecting the Hot Drankβ’. the problem this presents is that it also means her head would be facing away from the dragon a bit more as well, but it still works for the situation i think, she'll still be looking back toward the dragon without actually being able to see it face to face. also gives it kind of a shunning reprimand, imho =-D
the only other thing i'd touch with my crit stick in this phase is that the dragon's head, a central focus of attention, is about middle of the composition. i would shift or crop so that the air between the two character's heads was in that place instead, it'll emphasize the scenario more and the creature less.
<( -.- > )//
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I tried changing her pose uh... slightly! Making her right shoulder dip down a bit further and her right one a bit higher, though now that I've added clothes on top of that, I wonder if that's noticeable anymore...! xD;
Hopefully it at least looks like she's thinking something along the lines of 'This is mine, bother someone else!'
Bfff, I think I might have completely misread what you said about the composition. You said I should crop it so the space between the characters would be where the dragon's head was in the original sketch I uploaded, but I somehow interpreted a that wrong and think I did about the opposite and moved everything to the left more to move the dragon's head away from the centre. Whoops. Maybe I should try that again. xD;
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I think it's turning out fine the way you're doing it now, the biggest no no with the previous upload was the head of the dragon being dead center. you're scenery is interesting enough to justify the current composition, tho it does split the attention between the background and the exchange occuring between the characters.
The pose looks different enough imho, I think it communicates the point, but I don't have the fresh perspective I did at first glance to tell you what my virgin impression of the image is.
On color choices, you don't need snow to communicate winter, but your bg colors are really warm, they say either spring or summer to me =~0
I SHALL THWART YOUR EFFORTS AT EVERY CROSSROADS, MORTAL!
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Why, the colours do give it a warm feeling and such. But I bet that it's Autumn, else the leaves on the trees wouldn't probably be all red and orange or something, and she'd not be wearing a coat and drinking a Hot Drink(tee am!). I think some floating leaves would be enough to change the its feeling from Spring-like to Autumn.
Still, I really love how the Dragon sits /around/ her with that "I want." expression. And the scenario, it is beautiful. Even though it's not "finished", it's really nice looking, Congratulations. I'd never have the patience it takes to draw such masterpiece. Or even just its scenario, really. I am an horrible artist. Tsk.
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i think you might confuse a full scene like this and a lot of time. you can do them quickly! it's just a matter of how much you are able to hold yourself back when you want to go in and edit everything to get it to your standards. try getting a scene down fast, once you have the basics in place, it will motivate you to finish it all by itself =-D
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Thing is, I don't even know how to draw these things. Also, I never make some digital art before drawing it onto paper. I am not able to do it. No matter what.
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it comes after enduring failure after failure. the more you are willing to try, fail, learn from it, (even if just a little) and try again, the farther you will take your art.
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Aw, that's cute.
The only thing I can think of is maybe making the dragon smile in mischievous sort of way?
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Thanks! I've now given it a smile, though in an 'eager dopey dog wants your food' sort of way. xD
I may still change it later if I decide it's not working out.
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Haha, I see. I like it!
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Maybe have one of the dragon's eyes half-lidded, ya know, in a sly sneaky sort of expression? The human looks fine to me. For a WIP, the background and foreground both look seriously awesome!
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Thanks for the suggestion! I changed its expression, though I've made it a sort of 'eager, dopey dog that gets in your face when you want food' type of look, which I hope works in some way. We'll see how I feel about it when I look at it tomorrow, I suppose! xD
I'm glad you like the background and stuff!
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You're welcome! I think the expression's perfect now! :3
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It's great! Can't wait for you to color it, I bet it'll be awesome
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I'm glad you like it so far! I've updated it and did indeed try moving the dragon's head closer to the cup and changed its angle a bit! I also gave it a sort of 'eager' expression to make it seem a bit like a dopey dog getting in your face when you've got food or something.
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I'm liking the colors! It does look much more sneaky now ^^ The girls expression is perfect too. Thanks for the update!
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