Tree Painting

[joelphilippage]

Hey, I would like some general criticism for this peice. I know I'm far from done, so try to point me in the right direction because I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do at this point.

I do need some specific help on this tree branch. I just can't get the leaves to work right.
Thanks.

[Anian]

I don't have any good suggestions, just want to say it reminded me of this http://www.comics.org/issue/16762/cover/4/

Maybe you should try mixing in some textures of trees/leaves cause there's maybe a bit too much contrast in colors so the brush strokes are visible. Try doing the hand as it's on that comic cover (like his fingers are actually turning to branches, but maybe add leaves). Also check the anatomy, guys hair looks weird, but the girls limbs, neck and face are very iffy, though the face does look interesting.

[mode7]

Yeah the shading of the branch is ok but the contrast and saturation of the leaves are much to high.

I especially like the rock
The woman is unfinshed isn't she?

The pink/purple you added to the guy/trees shadow is also to bright and to saturated

You shouldn't use the grass brush or at least shade the grass.

[loominous]

Is there a reason why there's such a large rather empty area on the right?

As it is, composition wise, all the interesting stuff is on the left side, and the right appears to be filler.

So I'd experiment with a composition which focuses on the main subject/s, and where the background helps frame and draw attention to it/them.

For example, it took me quite a while to notice the guy's tree arm, because it gets muddled against the background (thought the tree belonged to the mountain.

An easy way to make things pop is to place them against a large plain surface, such as the sky, preferably bright if they're dark, and against some dark background area, if they're bright.

So I'd start experimenting with it on a very abstract level, before proceeding with any details, and once everything works on that level, start going into refinement.

[Darius Poyer]

Here's something that I have found amazingly useful to help understand composition and color use in general.

This facinating lecture on color theory and composition:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/472/Color-Theory:-The-Mechanics-of-Color

And this one, is a good basic introduction to understand how color interacts with things. This one is more geared towards 3D as well as digital painting, but still focused more on the digital painting part.
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/185/Practical-Light-and-Color

I would suggest starting with the latter if your interested in both, but if you watch one, I'd suggest the first one.

If I where to give some simple advice, that doesn't require you to pay money. Learn the difference between value, Saturation and Hue. Learn to use value as a base-compositional element and you can easiily draw the viewers attention where you want, creating clear focal points.
Closely tied to this is using a Monochrome Harmony. Look into these things and you will learn a lot.

Here is something I painted on my first day learning Digital art. It combines effective use of value with a simple Monochrome Harmony:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y246/otomosc/caves.png

[Tabata]

It's difficult to tell, what you could try to improve with this picture, because it's surrealism and you didn't explain, what you want to show to the viewer.

So  there are only some minor things to tell, like you chose shadings from different directions. The boy has the light a bit left behind himself, because of the shadow in front of him, but the lady has the light on the right side in front of her, because of the shadow-parts in her face on the other side. That's a bit confusing in my eyes.

It seems to me, that both of them has to have realistic parts like the head and half of the body. If so, the ladys head has a nice face, but her head/hair is flat and the neck/shoulders not in right position. The boy is well done with only his thigh a bit too big in relation the the rest of the body and the corpus is painted straight, but in this position it should be a bit twisted.

Well, I'm still learning, too (but watching and talking about it is easier, than doing it). I like the possibility of using different layers to do some experiments with changings. If it's near to what I want, I combine them (or delete the layer, without loosing the rest of the painting). This way, it's easy to move a person, a tree, a boulder or whatever untill everything is okay for you (and you don't erase parts of the background).

This way you can do the trees, too. First layer with trunk and branches, next one with dark leaves, next one with lighter effects. If you want another branch you don't need to redo the leaves there and same with darker aereas, more or less leaves. And when it's okay for you â€" combine the layers to get one layer with the completed tree.

I tried doing some of the things I told about (only to learn about it myself) â€" maybe it is of some use and hopefully the direction you are looking for: