Dave's Digitals

Coming along nicely
You've chosen a difficult angle for the foot and shoe, but as Val pointed out it's a very nice little detail.

I would suggest making the wings closest to us on the dragonflybug somewhat larger than those further away (currently they look a bit smaller), and I would probably only have dots on the upper carapace and not the belly, if it was me painting (which it isn't of course, but it would be more realistic, I think... I can't recall seeing a bug with a pattern on the upper carapace wing thingies that carries on to it's belly...)

Thanks. - And yeah, I'm not crazy about that foot placement either. I actually contemplated making her right leg, cross over the left in a cross-leg position, but wasn't sure it would convey as well or be as innocent in it's pose? Plus, it might be too revealing as well with the current POV?

As to the 'dragonflybug', which is very cool you call him that, since I too referred to him as such as well ... I've been going back and forth on him since the beginning. Not sure what I wanted to do with him. I wondered if he should be furry-bodied like a bumble-bee, (why you see rings going around his body) or hard bodied like a beetle's? I also wasn't sure I wanted the dots on there at all, but he felt a bit bland when I looked at him. ... Lastly, I've been thinking of giving him a (smallish to medium sized) dragon-like-ish tail, that could hang down some, to give him a little more uniqueness?

Thanks again, I will look at the wings issue you mentioned too. I never did go back to them after the initial rough sketch, so it's still the same as it was. Also wondered about the style of wings on both characters too? ... Oh, and I forgot to mention, I did sketch out a Dragon-Fly at first. But it just didn't seem to have much character to it, and I thought this one might have more personality?

Why choose one or the other, when you can have both!?


That said, now I realise that if it had beetle wings and a carapace, the carapace wings would be lifted for flight as well... So, we'd mostly see the "bum" anyway. Furry then? Furry bums!

He's pretty cool. Don't think I've ever seen anything with both... And yep, who doesn't like Furry Bums. I had to take a ride with the wife to drop some produce off to some of her relatives, but a little tired not getting much sleep last night. ... Will try to revisit tonight or tomorrow.

Been battling severe Thunderstorms for the past two weeks, nearly nightly, and now we have a Hurricane coming in later tonight/tomorrow morning. ... But with the bad weather, I've been getting to put in some time on this image here and there, and think it's starting to come together more...

Haven't done too much, but did kind of lose myself in the details with the ground work in the front. (But I do have a lot of fun putting in all the rocks, crevasses, indents, etc. Almost got the front portion done, but I also worked her face up some, but totally lost the look she had. ... Somehow it changed her expression to something more like a sarcastic look, as if unimpressed. - So I went back to an older copy and I copied her face again, and started reworking it up, trying not to do what I did last time.

I always enjoy watching the detail work progress in your images I love the texture of the mushroom, especially! (Did that already, but I forgot to say anything last time you posted!)

Thanks... I really enjoy doing the details, but I also know I can go overboard sometimes. ... But I think I'm also getting in a bad habit of creating too many layers. I used to use very limited, so not sure why I am doing this now? I've screwed up a couple times and had to redo some stuff, so maybe this is why? Can't say, but I'm also using the 50% grey layers a lot now too, which can be problem, since I have to keep using new layers on top, so Light/Dark areas are not affected why working... I'm a mess right now.

I'm also loving the details of all the organic stuff and the ground. Very satisfying to look at.
The colour of the shoes appears a little vivid at the moment but I suspect the work you'll do on the values behind it will help to settle that down as it progresses further.

Thanks, Val. And yep, the shoes are already dialed down some and changed in color as well. I originally had them black, but thought it stood out too much. But they are going to match the rest when done. I thought of making them a bit different in color, but this didn't look right. I also think I will be lowering the shoe that's dangling too. I think it's a tad too high at the moment.