It's looking good. I like the changes you've made from the photo to bring light and readability into the space. With regards to figures... My first instinct is to ask "what's the story being told?" If you can put that into words then you'll have a natural goal to reach, how many figures, in what poses, doing what activities I'd play with a bunch of quick thumbnails next to find the best solution for portraying the people in that story, and the best arrangement of value

I posted on here a couple of days ago and was so genuinely impressed by everyone's feedback I want to use it again. I'm trying to do a historical representational picture of some caves on the island where I live. These caves used to be used by the indigenous Lucayan Indians, so I want to paint a scene of them using them. I have some good reference pictures of how they would've looked but I'm not sure how to place them. I've put a stick figure in for scale. There can be as many or as few as necessary. There will be shafts of light coming down through the holes in the cave ceiling so I know I definitely want a small campfire with the smoke going through the light. The background still has a fair amount of work to go including a lot of vines and sunlight dappled on the ground and the shafts of light coming through the holes. I'll add my reference photo I'm using so you can get an idea of what it should look like but obviously it doesn't have people or shafts of light. Any suggestions on how to place the people and any criticism on colour/saturation/contrast is welcome too. Thanks everyone :

Thanks for sharing, Rich! One thing I noticed and someone touched upon was developing the left side of the painting. I live in a western civilization and read left to right so my eye tends to view an image from top left to bottom right. Currently the ship is anchored on the bottom corner. I think the image could be flipped and my eye sees the ship more as pushing forward more.

Rich, I am just learning this stuff as well...so take this with a grain of salt. Parallel lines should meet on the horizon, so if you project the side of the boat the meet inside the red circle. You either need to move your horizon up, or adjust you boat-sides. Also, recall the horizon is at your eye-level so it would affect the boat and it's crew, i.e. you'd be "looking down" more. Furthermore, a basic composition "rule of thirds" suggests you place the interesting elements at the red-line intersections. That would imply you should move you lead boat into the upper-left red square, and maybe adjust the chaser ship a little, but it's probably fine. Lastly, I'm not sure were the highlight of the fella with the rifle is coming from. Your light seems to be to up and to the right. Hope that helps. (Nice clouds and water!)

Hi Rich. I did a fast (and sloppy!) draw-over, that I won't say I "like" but it incorporates/illustrates some suggestions that might be useful to you, and which you can interpret in your own way more thoughtfully than I have. First I wanted to say your perspective is believable to me, and it feels like sunlight and a real space. When I did the draw-over I was looking at Howard Pyle and NC Wyeth approaches to these ship scenes. I wanted to make it more dynamic and dramatic, although it might not fit with historical accuracy. For example maybe the sea would have been calm. I've shown how the masts in the original version seem to "agree" with each other by being parallels, and that the horizon is relatively calm and level. The men are in mostly vertical poses. I want to change these things. So my suggestions are to throw off the balance. If you look at Pyle and Wyeth you'll see the horizon line is always broken, uneven, tilted. Like the viewer is on a ship themselves. The masts could clash by leaning into one another, and what if the threat of the distant boat was closer, the moment of crisis depicted? I tried to use contrast and shape to heighten the effect. I didn't take much time to redraw the sailors but I would suggest posing for photos or get friends to do so. Get up high and photograph from above, the way the painting is. Throw together some costumes with what you have and get the lighting as you want, and then get the models to stand in unbalanced, energetic, kinetic, dynamic poses. Try to orient their weapons, arms, and other items in the composition to draw attention toward the target. Maybe take video instead so they can actually move around with high energy, and then use selective screen grabs. So again, some quick, rough suggestions from me not meant to be taken as a whole solution, just some ideas for adding dynamics and drama to your story. Looking forward to more work on this or other things! -Zoungy

I really like the essence and technical execution of your painting - the time period are obvious to me. I so want to go swimming in that ocean right now! Compositionally, I would have included more visual appeal to the left side of the painting. Currently, I feel the work it is very right-side heavy and that my eye travels to the right of the image and stays there. I think there are storytelling issues that could be made clearer. The white stuff in the bow/stern of the French ship which I assume is the boat's wake and a splash of the cannonball? Or maybe smoke of a cannon? Visually, I don't think it is obvious what is happening. In addition, the foreground boat does not have a wake and thus, the more I look at the details of the image, the more I question whether or not the boats are traveling towards the viewer or out to sea. Another issue upon reflection is the scale of the French boat. It is odd logically. I mean, if the characters in the foreground are close enough to ready their pistols of the 18th century, then are they shooting at a toy boat ?