CGMythology's Sketchbook (nudity)

I finished up the painting process.  Below is the current preview followed by the steps for those interested.  Of course if something is off there's always time to do minor revisions if necessary so please let me know!  


 



 

First thing that popped out at me is the horses lower leg ( front one nearest to us) is much thinner than the other one.

Banj:  Good eye!  Did some refining to the legs, hopefully they look more natural now!


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Took a break from the image to do some more lighting studies, pretty happy with these.  I think I'll try to do a few more in the coming days, I always learn a lot and I feel my lighting is more natural looking now due to these studies:


  


   

Next up I resumed work on the image, applied the feedback received and did some minor fine tuning.  I think I'm calling it finished now unless there is something really major that is off, so kindly let me know!  Here is the current preview: 

  

 

Did some final work on the illustration, mostly on the horse's armor for a more natural look.  I think I'm calling this one finished for now as I'm ready to move on to the next illustration.     


 

Next up is a new sketch I finished inspired by some reference stock photography of faestock .  This sketch was a bit more complex than usual as I'm trying something a bit more dynamic now.  Any feedback would be appreciated so if something feels off at this stage please let me know as I'm planning on painting it soon!  Here is the current sketch:  


 


And that'll be all for now.  I think I'll work on some lighting studies while I await any feedback, thanks again!

 

I like the way the dragon looks in the direction she's pointing. At first I thought the trunk behind the dragon was a pillar, making the scene look a little cramped for such a large creature but then I realised it was a tree which I think will be much more obvious after painting  

The one thing I do notice is that the perspective seem to point in various directions. Of course I probably didn't copy your choice of perspective perfectly, but I made a paintover with a single point perspective or at least a single point high up as we're looking upwards and it seems you have used a similar one. That's purple lines - and then I filled in your verticals with green. Some of the green lines match the purple ones whereas some are at an angle to them. And while trees can of course lean over in various directions, you've made them so tall and straight that I think viewers will be confused unless they're either straight or obviously leaning at a much greater angle. There's also some discrepancy in the corner of the structure they're on. 

 

There seems to be lots of tangents in that area with the lower hand. I'd just move all those leaves somewhere else to make it less of an issue.

Charlotte:  Great input and excellent point about perspective!  I intentionally took some artistic liberties to make it more dynamic but I guess it looks too skewed, so I went ahead and updated it.  Hopefully things look more natural now! 

Valcence:  Great point, thanks for pointing it out!  I usually take care of tangents more during the painting process, so hopefully it works better now that it's fully painted.  Please feel free to let me know!


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Went ahead and finalized the painting.  I'm pretty happy with it, and I'm open to hearing any final feedback as there's still time for minor changes if needed, so please let me know!  Below is the current preview followed by the steps for those interested: 


 




    

Next up is a quick study from Lord of the Rings.  These studies are great because I get to tackle lighting as well as fantasy architecture so I'm learning quite a lot:    

 


Finally I'm beginning work on a new painting.  The lighting and pose is heavily referenced intentionally as I want to continue with my lighting studies.  Any input before I begin color work would be most appreciated!  Here is the current sketch: 


   

The colours on that dragon picture ended up wonderful
Here's what I noticed/reacted to on your new sketch: 
The line from her inner elbow up to her shoulder looks very straight making it difficult to tell if it's her arm or a sleeve and how the shawl is falling... My advice would be to emphasize the curves a bit, make the shawl fall around the curve of her upper arm, and exaggerate the width of the jewellery some. 
Her raised finger looks a bit small compared to the rest of her hands and I think it might be a foreshortening issue, but that depends on the exact pose of course. Anyway, I suggest a bigger base to the finger and that we see less of the nail at the end. Also maybe emphasize the joints a little. 

Quick line-over:
   

Charlotte:  Thank you!  Glad you like the 'dragon' illustration.  Great input on the new illustration as well, thanks for taking the time to do the draw over, very useful in helping me correcting the image.  I went ahead and implemented  your input!


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I went ahead and painted the image in.  I pretty much accomplished what I set out to do with the image, which is to study dynamic lighting and I feel the illustration works well in that regard.  There's still time for some fine tuning if needed, so if something looks off kindly let me know!  Here is the current preview followed by the steps for those interested: 


 


 


OracleSteps.gif[/attachment]  Next up I started a new sketch featuring Athena from Greek Mythology.  This is my third attempt at the character and I feel the sketch is the strongest of all the ones I've done so far.  General pose for the figure was referenced from Satine Zillah's recent Greek stock pack as well.  Pretty happy with the sketch but I wanted to hear any input before I proceed to paint it in, so any feedback would be highly appreciated!  Here is the current sketch:


  
 

Nice colouring for the oracle One minor thing would be to perhaps darken that little triangle of trim we can see between her fingers (upper hand) as it blends in with the hand making the shape a bit hard to read right now.

For Athena there's something about the face but I'm not sure I can put my finger on it. I *think* maybe the diadem is a bit askew and also I feel like the jawline looks different to left and right. Maybe either narrow the jawline on our left or adjust the shadow line on our right to reflect the squarer face on the left side?

Just some quick reflections