my first pen tablet painting, the Bug Charmer

[Andail]

My first try with my new Trust pen tablet.
It's done without any references, so I'm aware of his anatomy being a bit distorted. The guy can handle some zooming in, the rest is pretty slovenly done.
Don't be too hard on this, my first attempt

[kaaZ]

I'm pretty impressed with that guy...I disagree with you on his anatomy...his pose looks damn convincing and natural to me especialy if you didn't use any reference...
I'm not to keen on that dragonfly though...linework is just to undetermined...It looks 'childish' compared to the guy...
As for the background...the trees in the far back work out pretty well in that somewhat undefined style but you should realy build up detail as it aproaches the foreground...it's a pity you trew away all the depth created with the trees by just using a few strokes on the foreground...it just looks flat now...it's to grubby and the guy doesn't fit in.

I'm sorry if I been to harsh but I felt this piece deserved more than just a 'WOW!' or a 'neat' or anything like that...

Cheers
kaaZ

[DanClarke]

I would recommend blurring the trees, the amount depending on how far back they are, it will hide the doodle-look and give you a good depth. Apart from that it's cool, the guy is particularly impressive. 

[loominous]

Some modifications:



(i) Added a backlight to make the lighting more interesting and to give a contour to the man, who blended in too much with the background.

(ii) Removed all bluriness. Working with larger brushes with softened edges usually yields ugly results imo. It's preferable to work with larger, fairly sharpedged brushes on lower opacity levels to give an organic and "painted" feel.

(iii) Added gradients by hand on all singlecolor parts to remove flat unorganic looks.

(iv) Expanded the right rock to create contrast at the bug.

(v) Modified some head features, most significantly his jaw and chin and ear (which I moved further back), but also eyes and, facial shadow and forehead.

(vi) Changed skintone

(vii) Modified bugwings. Made the reflexions less spherical and more linear (spherical reflections don t occur to my knowledge on these kind of surfaces).

(vii) lowered the saturation.

(viii) Added yellow to the green surrounding. Doing this seems to give a more realistic result, however I m not sure if it s actually realistic (I never paint outdoor themes so I have no knowledge or experience in these matters).

(viii) Some things that I ve forgotten.

[pixelcat]

I thought it looked good to begin with, but it looks so much better now.  Only suggestion, the angle of the bug's right wing looks a bit off to me.  Very nice work. 

[Andail]

Great, Loominous, that's so pretty

I'm not sure though, that the piece deserved that much attention, since I haven't worked very much with it myself.
Now I will certainly put more effort into adjusting it the way you pointed out. Thanks a lot

[Nacho]

Sometimes Loominous modifications are like...

"Ok... fuck you for being so great" ¬_¬ "and for remembering me how crappy I am"



thanks for the lovely edits Loomie... And Petter, I really liked the image, it's just that loomie's edits are so damned cool.

[Pessi]

Good stuff!

The thing that kind of catches my attention is the skintone. Too little red in my opinion. Looks a bit dead or plastic even though it seems it might not be the intention of this image. I think you could put some red there.

Perhaps some hue variation could liven up the scene also. It's partly a style issue but I think generally it makes anything look better.

Heh, trying to keep it brief. Keep it up!

[Andail]

I changed most things the way Loominous suggested, apart from some stuff which you can see for yourselves.

I kept his facial features the way the were, since I prefered him slightly gnomish or elvish; to emphasize this I added a pointed ear.
If you zoom in and compare our versions, you'll see that Loominous' face is more human and more heroic.

I also removed the dragonfly; it was just an eye-sore. Now the image is more subtle and more focus will fall onto whatever the heck he's holding in his hands.

This will be the final version, going straight into my portfolio.
Thanks a bunch, Loominous!

[loominous]

Glad I could help.

[stuh505]

i really liked the effect you had in the butterflies wings, even if the shape of the wings could do with a little work.  if i would make one suggestion, i would just say...i'd like to see his index finger outstretched instead of pinching.  i just think that would look a little better.  nice work.