NDA Art Critique Message Boards

I thought I would imitate what seems to be a fairly common practice and, instead of creating a new thread every time I have a new picture I would like critiqued, I would create a single thread and just upload to that as I go along.
Thanks in advance for any and all constructive criticism, comments, and suggestions. I'll try to say thanks individually as things come along, so this is here in case I somehow miss you.

So, to start things off...
DA link: http://oreramar.deviantart.com/art/WIP- ... -138794317
Picture:


Figures are base-shaded, plan on working linework into the shading there and adding texture. Background is largely unshaded.
Do I have any suggestions for flow, composition?

Perhaps try to create a difference in the poses of the two figures on the right - at the moment, their similiar poses seem to bring on a sense of hostility, as I'm assuming from the title you want them to look welcoming. Add some leaf shapes, perhaps with a brush, lightly, when you start colouring/shading, to add a greater feeling of depth and forest-dom, (unless the forest is dead, because even in winter some types of trees have leaves/needles, eg pine)
If the character on horseback is someone of importance, maybe add a larger amount of people waiting for her. If not, that's it. :] This picture already looks fantastic and I can't wait to see it progress further!

Thank you for the reply.
I've not started adding foliage yet - shading the trunks comes first. But I can definitely see your point there.

As for the figures, they're actually supposed to be statues holding lanterns...like really, really ornate lightposts of the fantasy world. I've got to figure out how to make that really obvious, as you're probably the second person to assume they were real people.
Originally, I planned on doing only one statue-figure on one side of the path, but I changed it to two for symmetry. Do you think only doing one statue would be better, less hostile?

If you put them on statue pedestals, (higher or more obvious than the ones they're already on, I didn't notice those at first), that should make them look more like statues. :] And maybe a small wall gradually rising behind them, to sort of suggest the entrance to the settlement?

If they're statues, two is best - once they're on pedestals with some other form of building/structure (eg wall) near, that should iron out people mistaking them for real. Plus, if they look like statues, they probably wouldn't seem hostile.

A big thank you to GoredGuar and Stormwing93 for their critiques!
Here's the new version, along with a list of changes I made.

DA: http://oreramar.deviantart.com/art/WIP- ... -139559751



* Horse anatomy generally fixed: extended rump, shortened front leg, raised eye, and firmed up the muzzle. I did not shrink the horse's head, though. Does it look like I still need to?
* Smoothed out some of the shading on the statues. Considering adding more mossy bits and vines to really emphasize the fact that they are immobile, but didn't get around to it this time.
* Started basic shading on the environment and added leaves to the shorter, middle-ground trees.

-

Now, if you could help me out here.
The picture feels broken. You have the horse and girl on one side, and the two lanterns/statues on the other, and then a stand of trees in between, framed in three sections by bigger trees in the foreground. I've tried eliminating the middle section altogether, but I found that the image needs that length in it.
So, in short, I have a continuity problem. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do to fix this?
My ideas:
--Add pyrefly-like floating balls of light, moving around between the trees in a way that might draw the eye across this gap and back again.
or
--Add little white flowers to do the same.

Could I have opinions, please?

little white flowers! ^^

I think the horse's head looks the right size...but I'm not excellent at horse anatomy or anything so I dunno xD

I think I agree with you about the flowers.

And, yeah, the horse's head does somehow look smaller now. I guess extending the hindquarters really made a huge difference on porportions...

Hmm... What I would do is switch the places of the horse and rider with the big tree in the middle-left, then possibly just thin and lighten the tree in the middle-right. Big black chunks like that are really going to separate the piece and stop your eye from continuing on; so they either need to be moved out of the way of the composition, or removed entirely. Or, if you just made them a bit smaller and made them where you could see the base of the tree, they would blend in to the image more and stop the eye less.

But, either way, I would definitely get them out of the way of the path between the rider and the statues. You could even replace them with bushes that just cover the bottom left and right corners with darkness, but still allow your eye a path to, "enter" the piece without getting stuck between the two trees.

But apart from thems trees, it's coming along great! The horse anatomy looks great, and you've done a good job keeping the little trees tree-like and not just straight tubes with leaves.

Keep a-going! :D

I've not gotten 'welcome home' to the point where I'm ready to upload another WIP (But thanks for the critiques, all! They're very helpful.)
Anyhow, over last night and this morning, I scribbled out a quick digital image.
I'm done playing with it, but I'm open to any thoughts, should I choose to play with similar effects in the future.


http://oreramar.deviantart.com/art/Drag ... -140707796

Wow...thats really good for a quick drawing :D

The only thing i can suggest is maybe making the dragon stand out a little more somehow...I didn't even notice it at first because it loks too much like the background