How can I improve this painting and my painting skills? (ignoring its unfinished state)
Can you see what I need to improve on personally?
imagine if there were entire threads dedicated to things like this
I think it's basically good enough that /ic/ isn't going to give you much useful advice. I can't really see any flaws at this stage except maybe the focus of the image isn't clear enough and it's a fairly dull concept overall.
I'd recommend pushing it to the next stage, filling in the detail. If you can keep the standard that you have put into the rough going all the way to the end, this should be a professional level piece.
>>2597965
Is there a human head under the helmet? feels like the head could be a bit on the small side if there is.
thanks all
>>2597999
I did feel that the painting was lacking, it was originally just drawing a character, but I wanted to give it its own background and make it a full painting - I'll study landscapes and try to give them some "zazz".
I'll try and finish it this week, when I'm free.
>>2597969
apologies, I read the rules and I couldn't see anything against me just asking if I could improve, so i went for it. didn't realize there was an unspoken community type rule
>>2598000
Okay, thanks - I'll try some different sizes.
.
>>2597965
Not entirely sure what the purpose is of the flat color fields on the left and right. Seems like the inside of whatever corridor she's entering but compositionally looks unnecessary.
I'd recommend working out the entire image and placement of things before rendering tits any more. Worry about composition, storytelling/intent, color, and quality/direction of light before trying to polish it farther. You can't render your way, painterly or otherwise, into a good image.
>>2597965
i) Just like many other artists (including me) you seem to have accidentally fallen for that "one foot in, one foot out" meme.
Humans ordinarily have their feet at a (IIRC) 30-60 deg. angle.
ii) If you haven't already, try posting this in the /draw/ thread and see what they have to say.
iii) You ought to tell a story with your art, this right here feels like some sort of concept art for a really bland Mass Effect ripoff.
Rev up that imagination anon, I know you've got it in you :)
>>2597965
1. If you intend to finish it, do a few thumbnails of the background, without the figure. If it looks bad without the figure, it will look bad afterwards as well.
2. Try working in b&w and cover a full scale from pure black to almost white - to improve your values. Still life drawing is good for this.
3. Your anatomy is pretty advanced, but your proportions aren't. Try counting heads, it will tell you how off you are.
Overall, very well executed. Definitely gonna make it.
>>2597965
i feel like the lighting and color here isn't really consistent, there should be more of a contrast between inside and outside of the hallway. The sun in the background is also very disruptive.
Do you usually make separate level layers for contrast work later on?
>>2597965
Nice titties
>>2597965
Composition
Basically, you started out with a generic pose, focusing on the character design. Because of that, she doesn't express any emotion. she just stands there. That feels at odds with the doorway she stands in. Is it a doorway to her spaceship, home base or some mysterious remnant of a lost civilization? I can't tell, and she is not showing anything.
So, I would recommend a simple, open environment, that can look awesome, but is more neutral, doesn't try to tell a specific story. Also, a more horizontal layout will make her, as central vertical figure, pop out more.
Rendering
rendering is quite nice, but the lighting is neutral, flat. This is good when the focus is on character design, but for something bigger it makes it flat. You don't have to change it on the character if you do not want to, just make sure that the environment is rendered the same way, without strong (coloured) lights and shadows.
Finally, I'd recommend finishing the arm and feet before polishing too much. You get all the tricky stuff out of the way and you can feel more confident filling in the background.
>>2597965
It's a rather boring shot - a large portion of the picture is dedicated to an odd-angle view of the entrance/hallway of whatever it is they are facing. Makes it kind of hard to tell what the heck is going.
Is anyone willing to answer his question? I"m stuck on this as well, how do you go from this kind of cartoony rendering to the level of polish on a production painting? is it just blending and refining the edges?
>>2598386
I don't know what exactly you are thinking of with cartoony rendering, but I have this feeling the answer you are looking for is to think in volumes and light, instead of lines and flat shapes. So, when you have your sketch, instead of filling in each segment slowly and precisely, like painting by numbers, just have the sketch in the background and block out everything, adding more detail as you progress.
>>2598386
This drawing also suffers some .. advanced pillow shading. The lighting is inconsistent and the same strength all throughout the painting instead of coming from the clear lightsources. Also when rendering, group shadows and go from big to small instead of rendering individual forms.
>>2598454
Seems like "pillow shading" is /ic/'s new favourite buzzword
>>2598454
The lighting in this isn't "pillow shading", it's just diffuse lighting...on steroids.
If anything, it's just very lacking in shadows overall. Pillow shading would still have shadows, just shitty ones that are only around the outside of shapes...like the generic "inner shadow" effect on Photoshop.
>>2597965
As some other said, the shot is boring, I would add that we have no clue about the intentions of the character, the location (friendly, hostile, neutral?), it looks like all those boring Sci-Fi/Fantasy illustrations and book covers where artists just wanted to do something that looks "cool", without bothering with the context.
>>2597965
I think could look really really cool if you added some coloured reflections maybe coming from the room she's looking into... gives the portrait a story to tell the women discovered??
I like your rendering - it has it's own clinically clean feel to it. but your composition is bland, color palette uninspired and subject matter a mash of unoriginal digital painting cliches. You've sure spent a lot of time adding subtle color reflections on these boobs. If painting the rest of the picture is a chore then why not just do porn like you really want to.
