Saliva solutions

[Griffin McPherson]

Hey folks!
Just had the idea today to add saliva into the monsters mouth and tongue and I have some questions.
Is there too much saliva/is it distracting?
Do the highlights look right? I’ve never illustrators something like saliva and found references hard to get
Is the way the saliva rendered fitting in with the way the rest of the illustration is rendered?
Here’s an image without the saliva just as a reference point. If I don’t go with saliva I’ll still be adding more detail to the monster like highlights on the tongue and making it look more wet. Would love to hear your thoughts! And as always, any feedback on other parts of the illustration are welcome, there’s still handful of things I’m working on.

[Asyas_illos]

@Griffin-McPherson I think the fact it’s rendered differently makes it stand out out too much, I screenshot some slimy things from Pinterest that might help you get an idea of different ways to try. These are some illos I imagine your slime would look like.

[Griffin McPherson]

@Asyas_illos I think slime like that might be too viscus since saliva is more watery and thin. I feel like it could be the way I’ve don’t the highlights that makes it feel disconnected from the rest of the image but it could also be that the textures on the saliva are softer so maybe I just need to rough them up a bit. Here’s a version with highlights removed to see if that looks any better

[kirsten-mcg]

@Griffin-McPherson For me at least the saliva makes the area with he beam of light and your name a little confusing. I like how clean it looks without the big gob of saliva in the background. Maybe try leaving it on the fangs and lower tongue, but removing it or toning it down on the upper part? I think I might actually like it better with highlights if that distracting bit was cleaned up a bit.

[Asyas_illos]

@Griffin-McPherson it’s a bit better, but I think it’s the overall shape that might be throwing me off. I imagine, because it is a monster, it would be overly slobbery, very clingy and long and stringy. But that’s just my preference on a giant salivating monster mouth. I’m sure you’ll make it work no matter what you always do!

[Griffin McPherson]

@kirsten-mcg cleaned it up a bit. How’s this look?

[kirsten-mcg]

@Griffin-McPherson I think that looks great!

[Sarah VanDam]

Yeah, what @kirsten-mcg said is along the lines of what I would comment: I think the saliva could add a lot if you refine the gesture and shape of it. But then, I also think you might want to knock back the value of the monster and saliva in general so that it doesn’t compete as much with the type. I also notice there’s a bit of a tangent with the monster’s tongue and the bottoms of the the “G” that you might want to break up. I DO, however, like the general translucency of the saliva. How lovely to be in a professional field where you can debate this type of thing.