Thomgirl's Digital Ruminations

Charlotte wrote: I like him better now with proper clothes I'm probably old fashioned or something but an elf with bare upper arms just seemed wrong somehow (though I should probably say male elf, and I bet there are plenty painted with just armbands or something... but, still...)

I can't help but feel that there's something slightly off about his face, though. Maybe his further eye should be a bit lower? Not really sure I can tell what it is.

You know, that's EXACTLY why he got clothes. I generally do all my base work of the character nude though because it helps me with anatomy and I try to be a stickler for armor being functional and plausible. The guy I'm doing the drawings/paintings for was initially fine with him shirtless, saying it could be him doing some practice with a pell or something. But since this work is intended to get along with the others I've been doing, and they were all in their armor/attire, he just seemed really out of place. Even the bare arm, we had discussions about as to how gambesons are fitted, what's worn under them, the plausibility of there being bare arms with that unless the guy is TRYING to show off (which is out of character for 'elf dude'). So yeah, he got full, plausible equipment

As for the face stuff, Val gave some good tips, so I'm going to do some adjustments to help sort it a bit. Thanks again all!

Flat work done. Now on to the fun stuff! Who to start with first...

Annnnd... got distracted.



But not to say I hadn't worked a bit on the others, though they're still far from where I want them.

Nice distraction and nice filigree type work on the last image (with very nice colours to boot)

Probably not done, but... pretty close. Going to add some lightning more than likely.

I think I'd like to see a bit more saturation in the shadows, and definitely a reflected light from that fire... in her eyes, on her face... The fire itself needs a bit more work too, but I like this distraction of yours

Thanks Charlotte! I did not pick up on the shadows in her robes until you said something! The whole fire thing is totally new for me and I feel is going to take some practice to get it like I have it in my head. I've already scrapped what I did before and am going to start again. Hooray for working in layers!

Layers are our friends! And the Ctrl Z command

Done! I think... I need to be!

That looks like a very well done distraction.
And great work on the hands (says the man who doesn't do hands!)

If you still want to be distracted for another few minutes then you could push the lighting a bit more, those magical effects "pop" a bit more against greater contrast.
And seeing as we're all loving layers I'd use a "multiply" layer to put some darker blues on the left side and then a "screen" layer with some saturated tones to give some more glow to the magic.

Oh, and super fabric folds too!