ponygirl's sketchbook Needs crit

[ponygirl74]

I'm wondering mostly about the wood on the star. Does it look like branches ?  

[Kalistone 13 Crystal]

COol!!!! Dragon!! I wish I could draw a dragon like that. I think the wood on the star look like branches.
Let me show you one if my images.
[edited by Errol: Make your own sketchbook to post your art. Do not post your art in other people's threads. Ever.]  

[ponygirl74]

Blackstone Crystal

COol!!!! Dragon!! I wish I could draw a dragon like that. I think the wood on the star look like branches.
Let me show you one if my images.

You'll get there one day. I really like the eyes esp the left one, it's different in a good way. biggrin  

[Errol McGillivray]

Please use this one thread for all your artwork.

Thank you.


And on to critique. What tools are you using?

Lines:
Colour:
Digital (Scan cleanup/save):

It does look like branches, but the dragon is ******** confusing. If you let me know what you're using, I may be able to give you tips to help make things more clear and easy to read.  

[ponygirl74]

Errol McGillivray

Please use this one thread for all your artwork.

Thank you.


And on to critique. What tools are you using?

Lines:
Colour:
Digital (Scan cleanup/save):

It does look like branches, but the dragon is ******** confusing. If you let me know what you're using, I may be able to give you tips to help make things more clear and easy to read.

I'm using inktense watersoliable pencils and the outline with prismacolor pen/marker. I'm not finished, I still have to do shading on the body and the wings.  

[Guaif]

This is an enjoyable piece to look at. I myself have a hard time dealing with anything that isn't a human body, so bravo. Although I believe you should work on line thickness variation. Being able to make the right lines thicker and others lighter helps improve the qualilty of the work. Hmmm wood on a star? I'm not sure what you were going for when you say that. Is it wood on a metal star frame? I think it looks fine, although working on shading could help. I think the fact it looks like nature formed a natural star is awesome. Keep up the good work and always strive to be better!  

[ponygirl74]

Bohemian Hybrid

This is an enjoyable piece to look at. I myself have a hard time dealing with anything that isn't a human body, so bravo. Although I believe you should work on line thickness variation. Being able to make the right lines thicker and others lighter helps improve the qualilty of the work. Hmmm wood on a star? I'm not sure what you were going for when you say that. Is it wood on a metal star frame? I think it looks fine, although working on shading could help. I think the fact it looks like nature formed a natural star is awesome. Keep up the good work and always strive to be better!

Thanks! The star is branches formed in a shape of a star, I always strive to be better. biggrin  

[lea florens]

You have a lovely design going on with the dragon. What it needs is more color.

The shading on the branches have nice highlights and shadows and is off to a good start...which makes the usage of one single color on the vines, dragon and scales all the more flat. So much potential there!

Highlights and contrasts. Put a touch of grey/blue to the eye to give it shape. Have dark shading next to stark white on the horns, maybe the claws to give it the smooth, polished shine. Use white from a gel pen if you have to.  

[Errol McGillivray]

Sorry for the long delay in reply.

Before you begin to put in your colour, make a photocopy or scan it and print out just the lineart. Make a value proof in greyscale.

This will help you create your focal point and also separate your levels before you spend time colouring.



If you greyscale your image, you can see that it's all around the same grey. That's very confusing and makes it all very flat. When I black it all in, you can see what the silhouette looks like. You can't tell one thing from another. The silhouette is the REAL information people read, so keep them clear and separate them with different values. The more contrast between them, the more they pop.

Here, I gave the darkest value the the dragon and made the eye white, because that's the biggest contrast and it will draw attention to his face. (Which is good. You don't want a centered focal point.) Then I chose another, lighter value for the bark, so that there was less contrast with the eye, but still a lot of contrast with the dragon. He really stands out and you can see everything clearly. I used a lighter value, but not close to white for the leaves, so they stand out and are clear too. Still the only white in the image is the eye. If I wanted to add accents to the dragon, I would do so in a value close to that of his skin and the same goes for the branches. High contrasts will separate things.  

[ponygirl74]

http://ponygirl74.deviantart.com/#/d4roxzd
This needs a crit if need be I can upload it here if some don't have an account with them.