Critique please! Elf girl composition
4yr
Cody Laflin
Hello! I have been doing digital art for about a year now and before that I mainly did reference work. I've found that I really enjoy character design and illustration, in about half of my projects I would say that I just can't get past a certain point, whether its finding the piece uninteresting or the I don't like the color palette; I just cannot move past it, it feels off, and I don't like wasting my time when I could be doing something better for it.
This is a piece that I started and I was really enjoying how it was coming out, in the composition/color/design wise however I just feel stuck now. I tried to move forward and start blending some of the shades however I don't know if it's the color palette or the brush I'm blending with?!? To say the least, I am frustrated and I would greatly appreciate and feedback!
The shapes and the character design are really interesting, moreso if you didnt use a reference. I dont see problems with the color scheme. What you really should check out is the relationship of contrast. I would say that is the case 90% of the time when a composition isnt working. Leave your main contrast for your center of interest (I would guess her face, and secondary her hands) and then design a hierarchy of diminishing contrasts for the rest of the details. I attach an untidy overpainting, but hope it illustrates my point. Hope this helps.
Yeah I definitely see your point! It makes a lot of sense, I think that would give the piece a more 3d sense to it and help with lightening, Thank you!
Good job and cool character!
In my opinion cold light are quite tricky to use... In that case in particoular I think that shadows in are a bit to saturated and the light a bit to blue.
I can suggest to look at some video of @Marco Bucci where he talks about colours and light: here's the link of one of them: https://youtu.be/gwLQ0cDb4cE
Regarding blending, instead, I can suggest last video by @Sinix :
https://youtu.be/9QEGEBK6nIY
Oh I see, thank you, I actually am a big follower of Sinix so I'll definitely check that video out, I am also curious to watch Marco give more insight on the relationship between color and light, thank you for your feedback!
Hi Cody :) if you made the background color more blue/green and lighter I think you’d find that would lift the entire color scheme. And maybe try blending less and painting mid values more instead? Are you working from a reference? I know it can be frustrating and good on you for asking for feedback, I hope this helps.
Thank you for your feedback! I will try changing the background, and no I am not using a reference of any kind, just trying to do it from my brain...
