CGMythology's Sketchbook (nudity)

Charlotte: Thanks for taking the time to do the 'line-over', great help illustrating your point! Very useful; I implemented your input, hope it's improved now

...........

Current progress, has come quite a long way but there's still a lot of work to be done:

Looks good. It's coming along great!

The hip area I mentioned before still looks a little flat and I'm not sure your ref can help you out because it's where the dress covers and creases. You'd probably be better off with a nude anatomical ref.
I had a google and found some here.

And I did a bit of a paint/line over to explain.



You want the form of the torso to shape inwards to the groin area so that the hip/buttock can recede behind to give the body more dimension.
I know this is really tricky with mermaids due to the fact they don't have legs or any groin area. But a bit more shaping and shading round there will make it work. Currently the strong outline of the hip is working against the form rather than helping to define it.

I think you should move your horizon up. Everything is making her look like a giant and that ship look tiny.

To illustrate further, what you are trying to achieve is like this photo:



But what you actually have is more like this:

Valence: Thanks! I refined the hip area a bit according to your input, I hope it's better now!

Banj: Great feedback, thanks for taking the time to do that, I think it works much better with the eye level higher as you illustrated. I updated the image with the new eye level.

...........

Current progress, made changes to eye level/perspective and refined the figure heavily. I think it's a strong improvement over the previous version, although it has a long way to go:

Found the time to work on the image some more, it's getting there! Want to give it another detail pass or two before I call it done:

Worked on the image some more, it's almost there! Will have it finalized tomorrow, but please feel free to leave any final input, would be very much appreciated!

A lot has happened since the last WIP I'm sure most things I could comment on are things you're still working on, and the "leggy tail" as I've mentioned before, is a thing of personal preference. I do think she could have some more shadow under her bum (on the rock) and I'm not entirely convinced by her hands yet, even if I can't put my finger (no pun intended but ) on exactly what needs changing.

Also, Happy Birthday!

Is it everyone's birthday round here?
*looks for presents*
*disappointed sigh*


At least the picture is looking fantastic. The girl looks so radiant now.
I'd be happy with it as it is, with maybe a little work on the ship and perhaps a change to the angle of one of those seagulls in the top right to break the look of "formation flying."
But it's looking ever closer to being finished!

Charlotte: Thanks for your input! I added the shadow and revised the hands a bit. Thank you for the birthday wishes as well, much appreciated

Valence: LOL it appears so I reworked the ship almost entirely as well, and revised the seagulls.

............

I revised the image some more and did some final detail work, I'm calling it done for now. I sent the image to my friend and she's very happy with it as well, so I consider the image a success in that regard. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to provide feedback, as there was a lot of things that weren't working in the beginning stages that were pointed out and corrected, so I'm very grateful for all the input I received! Below is the final image: