Composition/Coloring critique
4yr
Filip Mladenovic
I made this digital painting a couple months ago and it really really bothers me. There is something critically flawed with it and I can't quite analyze it. When I look back at my black and white gesture for this painting it seems ok (at least better than the final result) so I think the picture fails somewhere in the coloring or value application. It just feels like a muddy mess. I don't think I can fix it but I would really appreciate some specific advice so moving forward I don't make the same mistakes again.
Hi Filip! I'm not a pro but hope this helps. Two things I hear Proko say often is, make sure the darkest light is never darker than the lightest shadow and group your values (check out his videos on this). The lack of these may be causing the muddiness in your piece. Also, defining where your light source is coming from helps a lot (even with multiple light sources), one example on your piece is the light hitting the thigh from the top left but not the breasts, inner collar, hands or boots, perspective will help this as well (Plus a good book on this: James Gurney, Colour And Light). Seems like you've done a good job overall, nice work!
I thought I was consistent with the lighting on the figure at least but you're right. The collar doesn't make sense and the clothes seem too dark. I think I really need a different approach when I work on something like this. It seems like I forgot what I was doing half-way through the picture.
Hello, I'm no expert, but composition wise, it's not really easy to read. The eye jumps a bit from a spot to another without much directions.
The shapes of the huge statue and her scarf merge in a disturbing way (they're catching the eye of the viewer instead of the girl. The two pikes behind her are also a bit distracting, I think there are too many strong diagonals that don't converge somewhere (the pikes, her rifle, the stones, broken fence).
I think the lighting is also a bit off : the main light source seems to come from above and that giant wing would cast a huge shadow upon her and the ground.
Maybe you should try to rearrange some of the background elements and define a clear light source. I'd recommend working in black and white thumbnails to see if your silhouettes or the action read well on a very small scale (like the size of the image preview in your post). Working small avoid getting caught up in details. Usually, the focal point of your picture should be were you have the highest level of details and contrast.
So here are my two cents on this ^^ Take this with a grain of salt though, I'm also learning :D
I tried fixing it up with all your advice. I think it really helped. It's still a long way from perfect but I think it is much improved.
Thanks. I always knew background were a problem for me. I was really not thinking about the lighting much for the background using some sort of excuse about it being foggy or overcast. But I think you are right that the lack of clear lighting really destroys the structure of the background.
I think your points about the background lines seem right also. I thought I had enough color contrast in the background to avoid any confusion with those lines but they are really just a distraction and don't contribute anything to the picture. I probably should have just deleted them.
I also remember fighting with the 'cape'. I was deleting and re-drawing that shape repeatedly. I was trying to keep it sort of dynamic and energetic but I agree that it doesn't look right.
Ironically, I had thumbnailed this all out in black in white before I did the final painting and I thought it looked better. However, I think the problem was I didn't really include most the background in the thumbnail. I was going to say I left out that background in the value sketch to focus on the foreground and midground. Saying it out loud sounds so obviously stupid I don't know why I didn't think about it when I was originally doing it.
Also I can't paint the ground. I don't know what it is about rocks and dirt but I just can't handle them. I've done a couple of landscape studies to try and improve and its not enough. Probably my difficulty with these things contributed to why I didn't give enough attention to the background.
