Dec '19

Thanks for all the nice comments and thoughts!
So here's a little update. Still not sure what element the enemies will be. Leaning towards fire at the moment, having some metal and machines on this front. Lightning was another thought, but as the general design for them went a bit more rounded, I thought fire or water could be better (going with this design as I like it). The problem is of course that fire is generally seen as strong versus "earthly" elements, but will try to use more of the amethyst and rock stuff, like the giant in the background bashing an enemy "goliath" machine. Otherwise quite happy with where this is going so far.

ArtWar4EarthDancerAmetistel.png4000x2500 2.32 MB

Dec '19

That leg doesn't look right to me, it's very small, even when foreshortened like that.

Dec '19

Hmm, you're probably right (I assume you mean her leg). I'll for sure have to check that everything's good eventually. Right now I'm trying to spread out my work over the whole piece, and when everything's roughly in place, I'll go through everything before starting with details and color. Thanks for pointing it out though :+1:

Dec '19

Love where this is going. I do agree with @moirae's observation about her leg, but you got it. :ok_hand:

Dec '19

this is looking soooo cool!!

Dec '19

Thanks for the comments and thoughts again, really appreciate it!
Everything's not gone through yet and I'll still be adding and changing things, but I wanted to start using some colors now. Most of it still looks quite horrendous with just the rough overlay coloring, and some values are bonked, but will try to fix most of that until next update.

About her design, I'm thinking I want a more "ethereal" or "not-so-human" look. Will try to experiment with her skin and hair color to achieve that, in addition to having parts of her skin look like wood or bark that shifts over to stone + amethyst. That's my current thought anyway, let's see where it goes...

Dec '19

I've put a goal to post an update at least every other day, mainly to keep a fire under my butt to work hard on this, but I still need to up my game. Didn't get done quite as much as I would've wanted today and yesterday.

Dec '19

I think one big problem right now is it's very hectic, and not sure if good enough focus on her, so that's one thing that might be a challenge once I start finalizing it.
I've tried quite a few variations for her dress-ish thing but still not really sure.
Felt like she needed more thistle stuff on herself, will try to spread out the design elements a bit more over her. Amethysts in the dress could be nice.

Jan '20

Adding and polishing stuff, slowly but surely...

8 days later

Jan '20

Was on a bit of a break from this, but now back to it! There's still a lot to do here...

Jan '20

Wow it's coming along really nicely! The colours in her design are beautiful, although the amethyst to me doesn't seem like a major design, more of a secondary thing? Either way it's beautiful so far O:

Jan '20

Thanks, I see what you mean and there are still some ideas I have for more of it on her, like along some of the dress "tails", more in her skin, a bit in her arms and some separate ones floating around her. It will also be more prominent in the ground spikes eventually. I'll try to make sure it feels amethyst-y enough :sweat_smile:

Jan '20
1

Really good work, i like the epicness over here. I have little problem with saturation of the sky, which is strong in compare to your main character (check it with color picker). Value contrast in B&W is also similar with the clouds and white hair so thats why your focal point is maybe lacking some more attention.

Jan '20

Thanks!
Yeah it is quite saturated but I do like the look of it. I have some ideas for making her more prominent, and will experiment with other means than lowering saturation of sky, at least for now. This is one of the most fun things in painting, working with weird "odds" and trying to force it to work the way you want, bending the painting after your will and not after what would normally make sense :smile:

Also about values, that's another really fun thing to experiment with, trying to use the contrast between colors instead of values being on point, though I do want to be able to have good values as well. I just like trying out a lot of things when it comes to painting "theory" and stuff.. :sweat_smile:

Jan '20

At this point you've done a lot to it, but it's so busy. There's a bit of a fight going on for the focal point currently and there aren't really any places for the eye to rest. At some parts as well there isn't a clear distinction between middle and background so it all gets a little chaotic and lost in itself. If I were to give some feedback, I'd actually suggest taking out some of those malactites and soldiers just to give some space for the eyes to rest and a flow into the main character. I think even getting rid of some of the mass of islands in the background would help too, and give her a little more contrast. The rendering is very pretty though and the details are charming!