Hansnomad:
Another fantastic drawing for everyone to envy, and I do envy it! The form and mass of the flesh is perfect. Even though you were uncertain about the colours, you made good, quick progress with this picture and perhaps because of that I feel that this image has a much more unified mood than last month's challenge. And you've managed to get that dark moonlit look to it!
All the narrative elements of the jewellery work to offer that sense of intrigue, context and backstory, as well as adding a contrast in form and colour.
If you'd had a bit of extra time I would have liked to see a bit of reflected light on the darker side of the face, perhaps bouncing up from the bowl, just to add a bit more dimension to enhance the shaded areas there.
I was very interested by your use of Rebelle. I love seeing people use software that I'm not familiar with and learning what new techniques it provides. And with that you seem to have added an extra sense of texture and consistency to the whole image that really pulled it all together in the end.
CherryGraphics:
I loved this all the way through. I would never have thought of producing this kind of picture from this particular subject matter. It's so innovative, imaginative and original, and right from the first sketchy lines I could see exactly what you were thinking and I instantly knew that, yes, this was going to work. And then with each improved wip, it got better and better, every choice you made was the right one. The fluid composition, the spiralling shape of the petals that follows through the splash of the water back to the arched spine: it all hits the mark. I loved the addition of the pinkish colours and loved it even more when you added the final dark inside it and added the sparkle of stars to the outfit.
One minor quibble is the lower arm. It looks a little stiff when compared to the rest of the pose. A softer elbow or wrist could enhance and continue the flow further into the picture. But it still works wonderfully well and the style of the figure suits the clean, freshness of this interpretation of the theme.
Tyl:
This is another picture that started well and kept on getting better. You instantly got the Norse, Viking look that you wanted and built upon that as you formed the hair and the fur. That hair is very well done, the braids just look so substantial and weighty yet still have the softer inner detail of individual strands.
At one point I was a bit worried about the harsh colour split of the foreground and background but you solved it by adding some convincing warmer tones to the skin and some blue ambient light to the fur.
The final pass of detailing really makes everything stand out further, especially the specular highlights in the eyes and on the medallion. These little touches add so much to the final image to give it that crisp, professional polish that I wish my pictures had. You're right to be happy with it.
Charlotte:
An aborted comeback is still a comeback! And a welcome one at that.
This was a lovely sketch, even though is was just a few lines and values it still clearly described the symbolism and meaning of the theme. The concentration of the face and the formality of the pose express the feeling of some profound and significant ritual taking place and I also like that mass of dreadlock-style hair.
Hopefully we'll have a longer comeback next time.
And so to vote.
I was leaning towards Cherry all the way through this month and then Tyl pulled out those final specular details to make it very hard for me to choose. Both Tyl's and Hansnomad's paintings have a very high technical quality and detailed precision while Cherry's has such a free expressive style to it. And how do you compare and judge pictures that are successful in such different ways? Hmmmm.
I think I'm gonna have to stay with Cherry and my first gut instinct. I think it's artistically the most complete all-round picture, in terms of composition and emotional impact, and that expression and feeling seems to connect with me without the need for more technical detail. Plus I find it hard to go against that completely unexpected originality of the concept.