Greetings travelers, welcome to my humble estate. Let's skip right to the point, I have a quest for you if your willing to take it. This illustration was created in a series with many others, today I call fourth an inquisition. An inquisition that will dissect my piece part from part, brave travelers of Cubebrush shall you aid my cause?

(The Scorching inquisition) : The male character in this illustration has lost something dear, something irreplaceable. A witch trial was carried by the holy see ; Strapping this "witch" down brutally and mercilessly burning her until that of her skin resembled the burnt back she rest upon...

Illustration Objective: I looked to portray brutality, vengeance and sadness through out this piece. I used Graphite to keep it colorless and void.

  • Critiques are definitely welcome, and tips and or advice I'd greatly appreciate. Also HIS HEAD IS SO HUGE.


Sorry for the rough paintover. Was using a mouse!

You have a couple things going for you. There is a sense of scenery, and you have a purpose for the piece, it has a literal meaning and it showcases a dramatic event. So, I kind of like it!

You do however have quite many issues related to form and texture and just shapes in general. The anatomy is off and it feels kind of like a hieroglyphic because of how you're portraying everything from the side, basically flattening the piece. I also thought the noise in the sides were supposed to be some rocky environment, before realizing they were supposed to be flames ( That is also why you'll see some rocky texture in my paint over, woops ).

So, just generally. I think what you needed, was mostly contrast. To show a dramatic scene, you need dramatic lighting that causes strong contrast. This can be seen in typical renaissance artworks, and it works. The idea with your piece, was to make the "rocky" background darker. Upon realizing it was fire, it also worked, as fire at this intensity tends to be smoky and quite black, with occasional light that pokes through.

Anyway. I feel like you didn't really use reference, and I think that would've helped a lot. Either way, good job! Hope this helped.

Oh yea, had to edit my post to say 1 more thing. I kind of cut out some of the sides, as bringing the characters closer makes the moment more intense and personal, therefore more dramatic!

Thank you so much for the critique! you've made some really great points and I'm definitely going to take notes! by the way, it's actually a plateau that's in the background I'll show you the illustration before this!

I didn't really want to show this one due to the over exaggeration in color. All of the pieces I've posted so far are from my high school AP exam this year. My school is really artsy in the aspect of fine arts and I really took a lot from the abstract works and such. Though I don't think this would fly in the industry I'm looking to get into :l