Thomgirl's Digital Ruminations

Hey Thomgirl, looking good on both of these. If you havent done a male to any detail since college (and I feel your pain its been a long time for me too) then I don't think you've anything to worry about, the pose and anatomy are looking good so far.
One thing that did strike me from your notes, I would avoid dragons for your good side in a biblical piece. Traditionally they are the spawn of satan with their close links to snakes and Wyvern. It was after all the serpent that talked a certain young lady into eating an apple

Two things on your newest image.

1 - Follow his right arm up and image where the shoulder will end. From the present angle of his torso, mostly seen in the backs directional angle, it doesn't appear it will be anywhere near to lining up properly.

2 - I'm guessing you want the blade to be side-angled like it is to show off all it's gorgeous details! Which I'm sure will be quite cool indeed. Just make sure to give your man a nice shoulder guard to complete the package. Else he may find he would rather be carrying a stick, then a sharp edged blade on bare skin.

Look forward to watching them progress...

Thanks Atto I did do some research and found the same thing about dragons which makes me sad, but you're right. I'll sort something out in the end for it.

Dave: Thanks for the crits, as for the torso, I agree. I'm going to be sorting that out tomorrow hopefully. In my reference, he's not holding a sword and I don't have a super muscle man just hanging around to draw... soo.... I'll figure it out though As for the sword, great broad swords like that weren't super sharp. You could rest them on your shoulder and they wouldn't cut you. Most swords are actually kind of dull, particularly of the European type. Sharp type swords were mainly an eastern thing for a long time (katanas).
European styles are supposed to be as sharp as a particular job requires. And especially the first foot-two feet of blade on a Euro style greatsword is going to be unsharpened because there are a lot of techniques that require handling that part of the blade directly.
The last third of a Euro blade is where you'll get weapons sharp enough to draw blood casually, most killing is ideally done with that portion of the blade, or the point.

Hope that helps clear anything up

Wow... almost a year since I last posted. A little something I've been working on so I don't go crazy from lack of painting. Hope all is going well with everyone! Grats on the 2 year anniversary of the site and thanks to everyone who keeps it up and running!

Almost a year? Seems like only yesterday!

And another nice pic. I may have said this before somewhere, but you do always paint such elegant faces! That pinkish tone right next to the cooler shaded side really helps to "turn" that curve round the cheek and define the structure of the face.
The only tiny thing I'd add is a lighter top edge to the lower eyelids, especially on the distant eye to show off that upward curve onto the far corner.
Lovely braids too!

Thank you, Valence! The sad thing is other than having missed you guys all this time is that I haven't really touched any of my paintings until this past week.

That being said, thank you for the tip on the eyes. I'm actually getting ready to hit them pretty hard today on the wacom so things should get interesting! This painting is so far outside my comfort zone with color I'm actually pretty terrified about it. She still feels like she has such a long way to go.

This has been through a ton of work, still not quite done though. It's all in the details now

Looks like all that work is worthwhile, Thomgirl.
The hair looks even better and I love the way that you've got the tattoo/pattern to fit against the geometry of the face. That's always tough to do especially around that cheek and eyesocket area.
Well Done!

I agree, that tattoo looks pretty awesome, like the cross mix of designs as Charlotte pointed out Thomgirl, although for taking a year off she is looking pretty great overall The more realistic her eyes the more she will look real rather than enhancing any other feature.