Dave's Digitals

Great work. For the recent piece one thing that stuck out to me is the overall lack of contrast. The piece feels extremely washed out. Try sticking to 3 values and having the 3 distinct planes, bg, foreground and mid ground. Also bc she is back lit there would be a stronger rim light.

Thanks, Crank. I actually tend to build up colors, contrast, etc. as I work the piece. Not sure why, just always have? Maybe one day I will try jumping right in again, but each time I've tried in the past, it never seemed to work well or at least it didn't feel right to me? ... I know it may be weird, but it seems more natural to me? ... I'm also still under the weather, so I only hit a little here and there on this today, while mostly laying down. And from the feel of it, I probably won't be working tomorrow either, at least not if I still feel this way tomorrow morning.

Here's where it is so far, but again, really just trying to use this as a practice piece to get me back into things.

Oh, and I did fool with the eyes some. Not sure if this is what that was bothering me, but I actually closed her eyes some more. Thinking maybe she was too wide eyed for the angle she was looking?

The eyes do look a little better. If you still think there's a problem it may be the alignment. On another layer try drawing a line connecting through the centre of the eyes, then draw another connecting the corners of the mouth (and if possible a third line connecting the two nostrils.) All of these lines should then line up according to the perspective of the face. You can usually spot problems quickly by doing this.
I really love the pose and the overall mood of the picture, especially the submerged foot. It's all clearly expressive and understandable.
And crankshaft is right, it will look beautiful when you put some saturated rim light around the hair!

Thanks, Valence. Yeah, I did move stuff around trying out things, but wasn't sure. Decided to revisit her and work on the BG some today. I am just trying to work on the layout some more since it looked a bit plain. I drew a lot of the trees and branches in as I usually do, but then did add some pre-made branch tips to help it along some. (something I've never done, but in searching for some brushes recently, I came across some so decided to get them a try) It's not bad I guess, I just usually like doing them by hand. But being under the weather, I guess I was rushing some. ... I still work them some more, and plan to finish them up later.

Plan to go back to work tomorrow, so won't be spending as much time on this as I have the past few days. But it's been the only upside to being ill, getting to spend some time on artwork. Here's a small update.

Hey Dave glad you are progressing on your image, looks awesome, I was going to write a bunch of stuff also to show you my ideas to improve it, but I thought i'd show you with an image instead, hope you don't mind.!

Just played with the lighting, added high contrast and increased lighting in background and decreased lighting in foreground, added rim lighting to her to bring her into the background more, based on cranks comments. The forground could be darker, I realize it's a little bright at the moment tho!

Hope you feel better soon bro, I have been off work for almost a year injured and i've been practicing art too, great minds think alike.

Thanks buddy. And yes, I am feeling a lot better today. Think I'm pretty much over this stuff now, with just some minor sniffling and coughing here and there. ... As for the pic, sure, have fun! But yes, those changes are coming. I actually did a little on it last night until severe storms stepped in. (What I'm also dealing with today at work too) ... But for some reason, I woke this morning at 2:00am and couldn't go back to sleep, so work on it a little more. I will post an update whenever I get home tonight.

Thanks again...

Here's where I got early this morning... I still have many things to work on, just got it down for now. Didn't even get the setting where I wanted them, before having to leave for work. Plan to try to work on it over the weekend. ... I also plan to work on the girl soon too

This looks beautiful Dave.
The tones are now much better and the reflections work very well.
However, if I may....
Are you going to draw her feet back in? I know getting them right with beneath the surface of the water is an absolute pain but I liked the fact that we could see she was barefoot. I thought this played an important part in the story I had began to conjure around her, almost as if she had been skipping barefoot through the fields before she came to a rest by the river. Her lack of foot ware suggested a real familiarity and comfort with her surroundings, she had done this many times before but this time she has spotted a leaf being pulled along on the current, in some ways reflecting her (and the viewers) lack of control over her life. The image then takes on a more melancholy tone than at first glance.
So that was the other thing, the reflections are gorgeously done but are we going to lose the focus of her view, the leaf, against all that BG?
Well thats the way I saw it any how.
The only other comments were that her eyes have improved greatly but I'm sure you could get them better with some ref. and that her hand looks a little small (though I'm sure you'll figure that out too).
Awesome stuff.

Thanks, Atto. And no, her feet will return, if I can manage it. I basically worked on getting all the information for the reflections in place, but ran out of time and had to go to work. So there will be more adjustments & work done in that area.

I was actually going to wait until near the end to start working on the reflections part, but then realized it might be a good idea to have them in place now, so I can work with them for the other elements that I have in mind for the foreground. - I'm also planning to start working some more on the details for the girl, which I hope helps clean the little lady up.

Oh, and yes, the hand. I planned to have her holding her shoe/s. Another sale on her being bare-footed, but hadn't got to that just yet either. ... I also like you thought process for the piece.

Thanks again

Great work! I apologize in advance if you were going to do this. Some crit:
-The value of her shirt is blending with the bg.
-I would alternate between cooler and warmer temperatures, particularly the bg is too warm.
-The bg trees can use some atmospheric fog/depth separation.
-You can have her looking at something like a flower or frog on the tree log.
-You can use a filter and blur/ripple the water reflections. Don't forget the Fresnel effect.
-The bg trees can use a bit more asymmetry.
-The log she's sitting on can use more form/values.

I'll come back and but that should be enough. Keep going!