I'm entering a Blizzard fanart contest (I don't expect to win or anything, it's just for fun ^_^), so here is my take on the dryad unit from Warcraft 3. I played up the plant aspect of the dryad, and tried to make the body look like it's composed of bark. I'm completely focusing on the character in this picture, so while I might add a background, it will just be a pretty backdrop, and not part of the character's environment.
As you can tell, I'm not done yet, but I would like to work on improvements while I finish up the rest of the picture so I don't get tired of working on it. So please make any suggestions you think of on the parts of the picture inside the red box (or outside as well, just keep in mind I'm not done those parts yet... and I know I need to fix up the tail) ^_^
(http://crabshack.bythegoddess.com/ags/Dryadwip.jpg)
(Btw, unlike what the pictures I have posted in the CL may indicate, I swear I do draw things other than half-naked fantasy creatures! ^_^)
Thanks!
EDIT:
Here is the newer version:
(http://crabshack.bythegoddess.com/ags/Dryadwip2.jpg)
I love the skin tones, but I think the fade from bark to skin could be better. Either make the change slower, or have the bark dissolve. The hair strands could be thinner and the eyes could use some grey shading to give them some depth. Over all the light source could use some tightening up, but proportion wise and style, it looks good.
Looks really good.Ã, I don't have a crit and this may be a little off topic, but I thought I'd share with everyone:
Blizzard is having an art contest for anyone who didn't know:
http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/contests/artcontest2006/
It's lovely of course.
I think it's too desaturated though.
I tried bumping the saturation of the green parts +30.
For the skin and wood I thought a hue +40 and saturation +50 looked better.
I guess it depends on your background.
Evil: Thanks, agreed on all counts, except about the hair... her "hair" is supposed to be made up of leaves, so if I made them thinner, I think it wouldn't look as leafy anymore ^_^
Russtaccio: Yup, that's the contest ^_^
Steve: I agree that the colour could use some more saturation (I don't like desaturated colours, myself)... happily, I was organized this time and kept everything on seperate layers, so it is easy to adjust ^_^. I would like to make her more colourful by changing the hues like you suggested, but I think her colour is the way the character designs are... kind of purplish and muted.
beautiful, as always, mashpotato! stunning! beats my entry by miles. ;D i love the way you textured her body to look like a tree.
crit: why is her hand covering her . . . er . . . you know ;D just kidding.
I think it's great!
But what is that in her hand???
I'd love to see a real powerfull strong weapon!! :)
Or a magic staff or something
n3tgraph, i think its a spear, but like she said, she isn't done with the part outside the red border yet. so its incomplete. ;)
Well, I think the face is a bit thin (especially around her mouth). Maybe you can give the face some thicker cheeks?
Other than that, I really love this drawing.
Rather off-topic: I really don't like Blizzard! The contest is only open to the selected countries (The Netherlands are not one of them -> I'm from there), while I wanted to participate. And (even more off-topic) they dare charge monthly fees for World of Warcraft!! >:(
Pity it was not open for all countries.
Your piece is very smooth and lush, but it lacks some contrast in the "flesh". The bark is dead on, very fairy taleish, and I like it much. The skin tones however could benefit from some clearer shades and hightened contrast. Especially in the face. It has no real characteristic and seem blend. The nose disappear and the shape of the ears are unclear. Also, you could go over the piece with some different hues, try to make it stand out more.
A solid piece, great concept!
yeah, my country isn't allowed to enter neither. :-\ i sent in an entry anyway. ;D
if they want you to buy their games, then you should be allowed to enter. >:(
You have a great sense for shapes and fine details, and the overall composition is great. However, it lacks regional highlighting and shading just like 2ma2 pointed out. Furthermore, I'd revise those eyes; either make them shine brightly, or add iris; right now she just appears blind.
Also...the hand...I mean, I understand the tree-esque aspect of her constitution, but in the same time the huge clawlike hands take away immensely from her beauty and femininity. Just a few thoughts. Great job overall!
Quote from: Andail on Wed 23/08/2006 16:05:54
Furthermore, I'd revise those eyes; either make them shine brightly, or add iris; right now she just appears blind.
Even though it's not my picture:
Mordalles: You didn't know the Night-Elves race has these kind of eyes? They're not blind, their eyes are different from ours.
yeah, shame on you Mordalles!
:-[
Quote from: Andail on Wed 23/08/2006 20:54:28
yeah, shame on you Mordalles!
LOL :)
Oh, BTW,
I think the tail should be a bit bigger too.... I mean... now it looks like a bunny-tail :)
forgive the ignorance but:
Shouldn't there be shadows? The shadow of the left arm cast on the body, or if the light is coming from the other side, shadow on the right side of the body, towards the other arm?
Other than that good luck :)
Sorry it took me so long to respond--I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday, and I was all drugged up from painkillers (I'm still pretty groggy now :P). All input is appreciated, and I will pay special attention to the skin tones and shading. Thanks ^_^
Quote from: Nikolas on Thu 24/08/2006 12:26:55
Shouldn't there be shadows? The shadow of the left arm cast on the body, or if the light is coming from the other side, shadow on the right side of the body, towards the other arm?
Actually this only happens when some hard light sources are lighting the scene (like spots, street lights or sun). But on overcast day there is only diffuse light and shadows are very soft. But good observation anyway :)
I like it a lot! Great stylization and colors. I love how you rendered her body and leafes. Actually there's nothing i'd really change.. everything works as it is- maybe i'd only put a bit more work in her face. It looks a bit less defined than the rest of body.. but it's great otherwise!
I'm finally out of my painkiller-induced haze (seriously, those hit me HARD), and have worked on the picture ^_^.
I changed the tail, changed the eyes, upped the contrast and saturation, added a little more shading here and there (I will be continuing to working on the shading a little more, as well as adding some more hues... as I post this, I can already see things I can improve).
Thanks for all the feedback you all gave me (not to mention, the kind compliments ^_^); I tried to take it all into account when working on this latest version:
(http://crabshack.bythegoddess.com/ags/Dryadwip2.jpg)
I'm still unsure about the background... I was planning on a simple floral pattern (EDIT: floral pattern within that rectangle thing in the background, not the entire background), but I'm feeling lazy--plus, I'm not very good with patterns. Any thoughts? Look okay as it is? (btw, I know the line widths are a bit uneven at the moment ^_^)
Thanks!
Well Marina, looking very better (<-o_O) :P
Anyhow...
What I'm a real practical guy, with no real talent in graphic arts, but I do try to come up with logical feedback. So here's my next comment:
Everything is great except the spear. While she is looking fantastic and kinda wooden (intended I suppose), the spear is made of what material? At the moment it looks completly fake and out of aesthetics because of the colour. It's not metal, It's not wood, it's not shinning anywhere. It actually looks very much ready to break any time now.
Somehow these kind of things (since it is for warcraft) seem to me to make a difference. While I can accept any mythical creature and anything like that, the axe/spear/whatever, since is part of our world, needs to have coherence and resemble our own spears/axes/whatever.
Am I making any sense here?
Anyway welcome back... I'd love to be in a haze for the last 3 days... I would love to...
I agree with SSH on the spear thing,
A logical material for her spear would probably be stone... :)
Or diamond (if she could afford) :P
As for the tail
(http://www.heyokamagazine.com/horse-galloping.jpg)
I think it still looks weird with the short tail :)
It is edited a bit, but I still think it could be a bit bigger,
maybe use leafs for it?
Anyhoo,
I love your edit and I love the art!
Wish I could make something like it!!
Good luck!
Agree with me? But I haven't said anything?
Anyway, I think her left arm looks a bit longer than the right, perhaps its just the angle.
I was agreeing with you on anything!! :P
Whoops
I meant Nikolas ofcourse
Thanks for the feedback ^_^
Nikolas: believe me, it wasn't a nice haze... I think I took too much, and I think it made me feel worse :-\. Anyway, you are quite correct about the spear looking ambiguous ^_^. It's supposed to be made of stone, so I will have to work on making the texture look better (to be honest, I was hoping no one would notice! ;))
n3tgraph: she's not based on a horse, but a deer. How can you tell? The only hint (due to my limitations in drawing animal anatomy) is pretty much the cloven hooves, so I'm not suprised it wasn't noticeable ^_^. I'm not completely happy with the tail either... if it was a horse, I would have definitely made the tail out of leaves, but since deer tails are shorter, I was worried that it would just look like there's a tuft of green stuff growing out of her butt :-\. I'll experiment and see if a green tail looks better...
SSH: I think you are right ^_^. I will shorten it slightly... btw, what happened to the dancing jelly-guy avatar? ;)
Quote from: n3tgraph on Tue 29/08/2006 10:17:42
I think it still looks weird with the short tail :)
It is edited a bit, but I still think it could be a bit bigger,
maybe use leafs for it?
Anyhoo,
I love your edit and I love the art!
Wish I could make something like it!!
Good luck!
I like the short tail; it makes the creature more original. Looking at the hooves it seems more related to the order that goats, deers, antelopes, ect... are in rather than that of horses (most animals in the order Artiodactyla have short tails). Check out these links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloven-hoof or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artiodactyla .
On a side note, I saw a documentary on whether unicorns possible did exist and was just a species of animal made extinct by man, early depictions clearly showed that unicorns are not a kind of horse (order Perissodactyla) but a kind of Artiodactyla (goats, deers, pigs, and llamas are examples of animals from this order).
(http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3166/ohcy4.jpg)
I was bored :S, so I edited your creation..Hope you don't mind.
I just added more volume to its hair, different eyes, different colours, I've reduced her ears and I've ruined the tail so don't look there :S
And..I like your version more =P
I like Mash's more, The whole color scheme and the ears are awesome.
Also I would suggest putting some of those funky green leafs at her tail
or even making her tail a shrub or hanging leaves like her heir is!
Great work mash!
Would love to know how to do this...
Afflict
Nice colors, but I still kinda prefer the green leaves.
Ikari, if I minded paintovers I wouldn't post in the CL ;). Interesting colour combination ^_^
Here is the final one, since people seem interested:
(http://crabshack.bythegoddess.com/misc/Dryad.jpg)
Lots of minor changes including adding some hardly-noticeable pink tones to her flesh to give her a somewhat more healthy glow, modifying hooves, adding a little more shading to the body, changing the spear a little, different background colour.
I have already submitted it to the Blizzard site, so don't crit anymore unless you want to make me cry ;D. I'm kidding of course, feel free to crit away so I can learn for next time... just know that this particular picture's not going to be changed ^_^
Well if this guys evaluate style you will win for sure =P
I would say the only "bad" point is PROBABLY (just my opinion) the originality, you could have created a new monster instead of making a centaur girl... well... in this case it looks like a (great looking) mixture between a tree an elf a human and a centaur... She could have born in a weird orgy....O_o
GOOD LUCK
A weird orgy indeed O_o. I see your point, but as it was for a fanart contest I didn't want to stray too far from the source material... basically, I mixed the Dryad unit with a Treant unit from the to make a somewhat newish nightelf character
(http://www.warzone.cz/~phobosus/images-clanky/1061242310.gif) (http://www.warcraft3.sk/pics/races/ne/units/treant.jpg)
I guess I could have gone a little further in the originality department, but it was never my intention to really try to win anything... I just drew what I felt like drawing, and what I thought would look nice ^_^. Thanks for the well wishes!
MashPotato, have you ever thought of making drawing tutorials? With art like this you'll surely get a lot of visitors on your site who wish to view the tutorial. (At least I would ^.^)
I wish you well in the contest!
~Yurina
I like the final piece, even though it could still benefit from some greater changes in values in the flesh. The pink gives a nice change in hues, but could have been even greater aswell. Nothing bad about it, I just feel you were afraid to overdo it. I think I see some variation in hues in the bark aswell. Looks good. My greatest concern is the spear, which seem a bit too blurred in some parts, not what you would expect from hard rock (badum-dish;)). The background is also a bit too eyecatching with the more saturated colors. The previous take had a better yet blender background IMO. I'd love to see that pattern you mentioned.
Quote from: 2ma2 on Thu 31/08/2006 18:12:47
The pink gives a nice change in hues, but could have been even greater aswell. Nothing bad about it, I just feel you were afraid to overdo it.
I think that's it, exactly... I am afraid to incorporate different colours, and don't really know how to go about blending them. I guess I am still stuck in cel-shading mode, except now I use a paintbrush instead of a lasso -_-;;. I think you are right about the spear as well. However, I think I must disagree on the background colours... maybe it's just because I love saturated colours, but I think the saturated background makes the picture "pop" more, and enhances the colours of the character because the orange is complementary to the purple. Thank you for the critique, 2ma2 ^_^
Quote from: Yurina-chan on Thu 31/08/2006 17:46:33
MashPotato, have you ever thought of making drawing tutorials?
I wouldn't feel comfortable making a tutorial, because, as you can see, I have a lot to learn... if I often don't know what I'm doing myself, I could hardly tell other people what to do! ^_^
However, since both you and Afflict asked about this, for a future picture I could post in here from the beginning of the process, and explain what I'm doing at each step. I could frankly use some critique while I'm working (not only to get some direction, but because once I'm "finished" something, I am often impatient about making revisions), and maybe others could benefit from this too. Would this help anyone?
looks lovely, mashpotato.
i would also like to see tutorial! and please mention brushes you use, eg opacity and flow you use in each stage, to get such clean work. ;D
Simply divine. And you don't expect to win...
I think this is very nice - a tutorial would be fantastic, but I'm sure even that wouldn't help me.