New and need some advice

[thenotsosanemax]

Overlooking Alien Ship

I've been trying to work on composition, this is one of my newer pieces and I wan't to know how it reads, what work, what doesn't. I'm a fairly new artist and any advice is appreciated.

[thunderdumpling]

Hmm, at first glance it looked like a turtle's head. However with some tweaks what I am imagining in my head, seem really awesome. You could remake it into an epic fight between two giant monsters locked in battle.

Or you could make the ship look more ship-like. If you remove a lot of the lines, then leave some to look like dogfights in the air it would add more drama. Probably some tiny ships exploding to. Also, color plays a big role. You could keep the colors they way they are. However since I am a fan of brighter colors. I suggest making the sky blue and bright. The ship could remain the same color, however making it a dark black would look nice to.

As for the distance, I feel like the ship should be farther away in the sky so that it's not super hidden. Now if you want to make it even more dramatic! You could widen the image and from a different perspective, depict people running and showing more terror by having the ship emit a creepy dark fog. However! Everything that I suggested is purely personal opinion and is definitely easier said than done.

[brohawx]

One of the best questions to ask myself when working that I learned from a teacher was, "Can a 6 year old tell what is going on in your composition?"

If the answer is yes, its simple its straight forward, to the point, it tells the story. If not then you may need to work on it.

And I'll be honest. When I saw this I didn't know what was going on. I don't know what the ship is in the image. What the lines are....let alone what your goal is here. If its design, or illustration and story telling, or just fun brush making sketch time.

If you have to explain it to me, then the image is not doings its job yet. I think it might just need more time in the composition phase.

[thenotsosanemax]

Thanks for the feed back, I hear that in that piece the subject was unclear and it was confusing as to what was going on. This is a newer scene that I believe makes the subject more obvious. Advice is greatly appreciated.