Nisaren's Art - New WIP - Updated - 2/10/13

[Psy]

The shadows on her face make it seem like she is older than she probably is (kinda droopy skined and sagging). Im fairly sure she is silling on a root of a tree right? If so then the treee needs some texture or pealing to make it look a bit more tree like and organic. Allso i have no idea how she is sitting on there since it looks fairly steap and the way her feet are she could go sliding off any second. The hair is a bit to loose in the ribbons unless she has extreamly thick hair (especially at the ends). The top of the head where the pony tails are split off have a couple of humps that shouldnt be there. When you put hair in a pony tail the hair is drawn fairly flat to the head and you dont see them bulge out unless the tie is not that tight but even then it would fall flat and bulge out a bit at the botttom of the head not the top. The trident in her hand (im assuming its for fighting) looks kind of bothersome because if you tried to fight with it the flags would get in the way allot. The symbols seem over done to me. You have the trident and its symbol on her shirt but you allso have the cross on her neck and a tattoo? They seem to conflict to me because its like having affiliation to two totally different groups. i think you should loose the symbol on her shirt but thats JMO. and those spikes on the belt buckle are gonna hurt if she moves her leg the wrong way.

I think you have a good foundation going and go with it how you like and what feels natural to you. These are just things that i think could be improved upon.

[nisaren]

@Psy Thank you for taking the time to look and write such a thorough critique. I do plan on using the suggestions everyone gives as long as it gels with my own vision for the piece. I may take your suggestion of removing the shirt symbol, it is rather unneeded and she probably would look better without it. Her hair is also as you have intimated, thick and barely restrained. I wanted her to feel more relaxed in a nice setting rather than having a severe hairstyle.

As I have given no background to the character it is rather difficult to fathom how she would use that trident. Since she's supposed to be a magical girl, I was thinking she would more use it as a talisman to focus her spells with any swinging or stabbing purely a last resort. I should probably change the design at the top to make it more obvious that it's for casting spells and not stabbing.

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Guys, I just wanted to emphasize that I really do appreciate the suggestions. Since I've been working on this piece for so long already, it's easy to get lost in the details. Or I look at it and am unable to objectively see what needs to be improved. Having these suggestions really helps me to focus on various areas that need fixing more than I would realize on my own. So thank you all again.

[wyvern_stroke]

hey wow thats amazing
i prefer the face in the first illustration though.or try to keep it a little smooth near the mouth area.

[Scarletlight]

oh wow you coloured it! I really thought it was going to be a black and white piece.
Jesus that looks awesome. Im always a fan of the fantasy stuff anyway so it goes without saying that I love this!

[nisaren]

@wyvern_stroke Thanks for looking. I think I've fixed the mouth problem that everyone has been commenting on.

@Scarletlight Yep, I had always planned on coloring it. It's actually fairly common in the concept art arena to paint all the values in a piece before adding color. I'm actually planning on changing my method a little bit as this one is soooo slow for me. XD Glad to hear you like it.

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Update with a few changes. I'm getting closer to being done. I need to tweak the background and then go over her staff/trident and finish painting over her lower body.

[nisaren]

Alright, so it's done. I'm sure you'll all be happy to hear that I'm moving on to other projects. Here's the finished product - well finished as far as I'm concerned.



I've also made a process animation so everyone can see how I went about making this. It's under the spoiler.

SPOILER! :

[Egoslip]

Wow.. that's awesome.. can't find anything to crit really >.< cept maybe her arm looks a little short... but it's hard to tell.. the elbow could be bent causing a foreshortening effect... awesome stuff.. gnarly progress animation as well

[Gedeon]

Im sorry but i noticed just now......THE TREE OoO!!!!!!!!! ITS ....so....so.....so MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!! ALL THE PORES!!! I didn't notice it until the animation BUT THE TREE!!!.....ok enough with my tree fascination, I have to say that those pores around here mouth (the shades) Make the little magician girl seem quite old..........and thats that! ......What you expected a smart and a good critique? Peapol its me we are talking about!

[nisaren]

@Egoslip Thanks for looking. I believe you are correct, I should have made the elbow a little bit higher than I did. It wouldn't take long to fix it actually, but I don't know if I'll bother... so tired of looking at that piece. D:

@Gedeon Lol, I'm glad you noticed the tree. It's amazing what a decent texture can do to help a painting or background really pop out. I agree the shading does make her look older than she would under different lighting, however, that can happen. I think the only thing I would correct on her face at this time would be to tough up underneath her eyes a little bit. But meh, I'm tired of fiddling with this piece, lol.

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So after spending a month on one piece (longest among of time I've ever spent on a piece), I decided to try to knock out some speed paintings using what I've learned over the past month or so. So I gave myself a time limit of 90 minutes to complete these(although I didn't actually time the first picture). At any rate, in order to keep my thread PG, I decided to censor the nude girl study. :X





They're obviously not finished. Since I am trying to constrain myself to a 90 minute time limit, anything that isn't done when the timer goes off is left as is. XD

[Sparky-J]

I really dig your painting style, very solid.