Jan 2019 - Random 4 - WIPs

Thats a good point Charlotte, do our heroes have to keep on the move to avoid being overrun or are the dancers forming a kind of defensive perimeter at some type of stronghold or defensible position.

I'm struggling a bit with mine too so while i work on laying down the background and pigeon I was wondering if any of you could also throw a bit of advice my way.

The type of clothing I'm happy with (as it's the kind of thing I wear) and yes I do still wear my belts hanging down the side of my leg a la 90s fashion. I'm struggling most with the highlight colour on a black t-shirt and convincingly portraying the creases in cloth as I've bastardised the original ref so much.

When I'm struggling finding a colour I usually just pick a tone that's already on the canvas somewhere to try and give the impression of light reflect and bouncing around. That's why I throw loads of colour on right from the start so that you have both variety and harmony before you get into detailing.
For black "highlights" I'd normally go for a cyan/blue (I'm still addicted to cyan!) but with your current gradient it may make him look partially transparent. It might be best to put more of the background/skyline in first and then more colour options will be available to you.

And speaking of worrying about clothing, I'm trying to work out what a gorilla pirate would wear!
He only has one sleeve at the moment because I'm not really sure if he should have sleeves. So he may end up having two... or none. But I've sneaked a spider in there too.



The fire will need to get better as well.

Thank you all for the feed back I have another incarnation.
Valence I would go no sleeves but maybe metal bands on the arms.
Atto I'm not a good enough artiest to offer technical detailed help but what Charlotte said sounds good to me.
My update

The dress of the foreground dancer looks better now, Oak, and it makes the whole pose look more convincing.

And I think I may be getting rid of that ape sleeve.

Thanks for all the advice people! I've tried to put it into practice (though still no skyline Val) and I'm a bit happier with where it's going now.

I absolutely adore that spider on his back and in flames you've added Oak and I second Vals point that the dress and the dancer in general looks much better now.

I also like the idea of some kind of metal bangle on your Gorilla Val, you could strengthen that spider connection that way too!

I feel I've cheated a little with the flame on the t-shirt in mine but at least the logo and band exist and it is the kind of thing I wear too. I've redrawn those girders more times than I would like imagine but I think they sit reasonably well within the picture (something I always struggle with) but I've still got to come up with a background that intergrates well.

Those girders look perfect!
The texture and those sharp, solid edges are very convincing. The rust and the weight and the coldness of touch are all there to see.
And that flame certainly isn't a cheat, it works just fine and you've integrated it nicely.

For the background you could try doing one of those bokeh/lens blur effects. That would push everything back away and let you focus on the character. And it would spare you painting all the details. That's my kind of cheating.