Chris' Art-showroom

[chris_r_art]

@ESL On my way with fixing ! But i don't really know how to fix the value issue because I know that the alien is more in the foreground and should get the most values but i wanted to kind of make her the main focal point so i also increased her values i guess ill try and make the focus a bit clearer on her.

I hope I did it justice 0-0

[cedricgo]

Following on what @ESL said about the values and their placement, I'd recommend you check those two articles. They're fairly short, but they gave me a new perspective on how to build a piece back when I first red them.

http://muddycolors.blogspot.ca/2012/08/composition-basics-value-structure.html

http://muddycolors.blogspot.ca/2012/08/composition-basics-temperature-structure.html

And I think that the reflection is a nice touch. I feel like it give a certain connection between the alien and the human character. But maybe I'm reading too much into it XD

[ESL]

Hey! So I did a quick paintover (mostly with a multiply layer on 54% opacity with a pretty dark red).
Basically, values refer to forms and how light plays with the composition/image. There's a ton of light that was distracting and too saturated, especially on the alien figure on the left. By limiting the saturation and value of the distracting parts, you can better direct the focus! A lot of it has to do with painting the lights, darks, and midtones (greys) so things are more 'realistic'. One trick is to go to 'View' on Photoshop and select BW preview so you can see the values!
Also, the reflection seems to make it look like her head is dislocated. Try painting her neck and shoulders so she looks connected!

[chris_r_art]

Wow thank you all for your input on this ^^! really feels great to have some listeners and also responders x3 and @cedricgo i really like what you said about the connection between her and the alien because i was also thinking that with the way her eyes are fixated on him and that reflexion really does add something, so i tried to also give her this glow in her eyes like the alien0-o. @ESL I tried to do the fixes that you did by myself and I really thank for helping a lot with this piece ^^ I hope this will/ can be the final piece for the weekly challenge xD

[chris_r_art]

Wind Catchers [wip's] ^^

So I actually timed myself by adding the time of background videos I've been watching while sketching this bird and to come this far it took me about 1 and a half jenna marbles videos xD so that would be ca. 10min ^^
I saw this photo of a bird and i knew i HAD to draw him because I love little humming birds or in general birds with just huge wings and so aerodynamic features

Color blocking and starting with shadow and lighting ^^

I kind of want to go further with this bird/ insect and I don't really know where it will bring me but I'll let the next day decide that ^^ g'night folks ^^

wow this is really taking me longer than normal but i guess thats because I really have art block right now xD I re-aranged some stuff smoothed things out and also started with the silhouette for the 'bird rider' thats the theme ^^ I might remove the arm in front of her face or let her so another gesture to free up her face ^^we'll see

Still need to add her mouth and refine ^^ progress shot >-< Today was a really long day for me because I had 10 hours of school and then I had to also learn for my english exam tomorrow ^-^ Aint that the life 0-=

Wind Catchers

What is a good complimentary color for blue ? Yup ^^yellow ! I also trimmed her hair and 'fixed' her face xD

I tried to take the Advice and apply it to this Painting I did with the Value structure and I wanted to make the blacks and half blacks to concentrate in the fore-ground and make the mid-ground more of a grey tone and then the background light because the viewer should kind of 'sit' in the tree and look into a bright scene.

Then I added some Structural aspects to make it a better composition i guess ^^ I will start a new painting very soon, but I want to try and make this one as perfect as i can and would also like to hear what you guys think

[cedricgo]

Cool idea man!

The first thing that came to my mind was to push the darkeness of the foreground even more. I made a quick paintover where I just made the leaves and foliage darker. I also added a soft dark gradient on the borders just to push the viewer even more towards the middle. I also added lighter spots in the background to simulate light coming through leaves.

Lastly, I'm not sure how to explain it, but I feel like there's a bit of inconsistency in the crispness and bluriness of some of the elements of the painting. Like some leaves are really crisp but others are blurry. Same thing with the bird. It's head is relatively well defined, but the rest of the body look less refined. It works with the wing in the background as it helps to show some depth (you could also blur all of the leaves a bit to create some more depth) However since the bird is also a main element of the picture, the viewer will tend to look at it, so it needs to be relatively well defined. Even more since the character riding it is really crisp. Basically, it just need a bit more consitentency.

Keep up the good work!

[chris_r_art]

I added some more darkness and detailed the wing of the bird and did some minor tweaking ^^ I didn't want to make it so dark because I mean yeah it is kind of in the tree but also at the very outer branches ..if that makes sense xD thats why there are also just a few leaves ^^ Well i really 'hate' this painting now because I kept spending time on it xD will just sketch now to cool down

[cedricgo]

Well i really 'hate' this painting now because I kept spending time on it

I know that feeling XD In this case it's possibly better to just move on like you said.

[chris_r_art]

Doodling around with shapes ^^

...and while playing with shapes I also played with colours xD

Royalty-C

I tried to paint her with a kind of galaxy theme in mind but also then saw this cool flower that my sister had in her room and wanted to implement it into the piece ^^
Some school doodling ^^ I saw this cool illustration of this girl with her long hair wrapping around her and i wanted to sketch it out and put a personal note to it ^^

I always tend to do these alien faces with the thin jaw line and massive eyes .. need to stop that >-<

..and lets bring her to life ! ^^ still wanted to keep it sketchy-kind of monochrome ^^

Loris

and for practise purpose some color ^^

[vadstart]

Cool stuff, i like your frequent process breakdowns a lot! Also, maybe the "alien" face is not super realistic, but it's certainly unique and interesting, reminds me a bit of Loish. Nice touch with dynamic hair shapes that swirl around her :3

[chris_r_art]

Thanks @vadstart yea I based the sketch around her illustration but i guess i just painted it in my style ^^ although i did some alterations to her sketch too ^-^
-quick note I had a lot of school projects the last week so I didn't have time to upload on here but I will cover that again ^^ on my Painting duty

[chris_r_art]

Super early stage of a painting I'm working on for the weekly challenge ^^blocking out some colors and trying to figure out the lighting Will keep you guys posted

still on the main bits and pieces ^^ *Yawn * This is where I will leave this pice for today >-< I know i have to fix a lot of stuff lighting etc. tomorrow I will work on the background more and the waterfalls/water ^^ Its currently almost 10pm here so good night all

[Liveman]

This is really nice. Like the lighting and the mood it gives

[chris_r_art]

@lawrysega Thanks !^^ I always like me some mystical-nature vibes

I want to add a Character for the fore-ground, still thinking about the colors or maybe even a boat riding down the little river thingy

Overgrown

I think I will leave it with this concept of just the cool cave statue and surroundings ^^ What would you guys add/ improve ? >-<

[cedricgo]

Good job on that last piece Chris! It looks really nice. I love the whole atmosphere.

[chris_r_art]

@cedricgo Thanks !^^ yea tried to make it cozy ^-^
I wanted to still paint a main character in the scene but I don't really have/had time today because I have to design a logo for our school sweaters

[creartive]

Hope u win the challenge... Viel Glück dafür!!! .... Keep on with it

[chris_r_art]

Thanks @creative !
I will do some studies now for some lighting improvements and maybe also color studies ^^

[chris_r_art]

Starting with a quick sketch for my new study ^^ Maybe some can already guess from who it is

Starting to fill in the blanks ^^

Now lets do the Mouth and some more detailing !

[goldentiger]

hello !
I did a quick paintover, there are a lot of things to fix, you chose a very complicated idea to work with
the first thing I want to point out is that the whole picture is unfinished, overly messy
here is a list of things I changed
1. value system. You use pure black for all the shadows, but with this many light and water there should be a lot of bounce light and moisture in the air that also reflects light
2. composition, the biggest issue is that you don't have a focal point, or both the places that can be considered as focal points are very close to the edge. I chose the riverside using rules of thirds, since I suppose this is the part that you wanted to work with originally too.
4. empty areas, some of the rocks are nothing but black patches, even if they are dark you still should add details like small plants or cracks
5. stone statue . it's hard to define it's shape and purpose, the upper body looks like a stone statue, the head looks like a motorcycle helmet . I pushed the design to the ancient statue direction
overall its a really nice idea, but you definitely need more studies on structure and light
hope this helps