Willy Wonka

[Chip Valecek]

My kids due a lot of different plays/musicals and a few weeks ago all three of them were in Willy Wonka Jr. My oldest had the lead role of Willy Wonka/Candy Man and my two little ones were both Oompa Loompa's. I wanted to do a piece with them all in it. Let me know your thoughts. - Thanks

[K. W.]

@Chip-Valecek Hey looks like you put a lot of work into this piece! Lots of nice details. I like how the chocolate in the tube is bubbling.

Here are two suggestions for ya:

1. Wonka appears to be smiling at the ground while waving at the audience. It might make more sense to have him looking up!

2. The chocolate tube, which has some nice rendering going on, has incorrect perspective. Basically, your ellipses are "pinched" or pointed at the corners, instead of round. It might help you to play around with the ellipse tool to better understand the way ellipses "squish," if that makes sense. Also, the lower metal ring will be less squished than the one above it because circles progressively narrow the closer they get to the horizon line.

Have you taken any of the perspective classes here yet? I took perspective elsewhere, so I haven't watched these ones to know which one covers ellipses in perspective. I find ellipses quite tricky! But knowing the rules of perspective so you can understand how they're supposed to behave can help a lot!

Anyway, very cute concept and nice work!

[Chip Valecek]

@K.-W. Thanks for the great feedback. I was trying to get wonka to look at the oompaa in the background. But yeah the perspective it also throwing that off. I started to watch the videos on perspective on SVS but I need to watch things more then once for it to start to sink into my head. Mainly cause I watch while I am working and not giving it my 100%. Shame on me.

[K. W.]

This post is deleted!

[K. W.]

@Chip-Valecek Oh I see, he's looking at the Oompaa Loompa--that makes sense! All you need to do, I think, is nudge the irises up a touch.

No shame, man! Perspective takes some time to get the hang of, for sure. And honestly, it can be pretty frustrating to learn alone. Having an instructor to do draw-overs and correct mistakes makes a big difference.

I was trying to find an image earlier to explain what I meant about the cylinder, and now I've found one: http://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m92jk38o7f1qd5yv1.jpg I think it's from one or Ernest Norling's perspective books. Hope that shows better what I meant above. xD

[NoWayMe]

Hi Chip! Such a cute idea to do this illustration! I am sure your kids will love it!

I had a few comments on it and thought it would be easier to do a paintover, but then I got carried away and maybe I made to many changes. I hope you won't be insulted, I think there is a lot of awesome things going on in this piece! These are just suggestions

So this is my paint over

1. Composition : I moved wonka and 1 oompa to the left because in your image Wonka is directly in the middle of the image and it create kind of a division in your image - Otherwise I think the composition is really good!
2. Texture : You have a lot of texture/details on the grass and chocolate river which I think distract from the focal point. I would try toning down the details on these, and maybe indicating simply a few blades of grass closer to the foreground (as you move into the distance, you should have less details)
3. I think your image would benefit from a clearer light source. I think you wanted the light to come from the back (looking at your shadows), but it is harder to show form with lighting coming from the back (as oppose to, for example, a 3/4 light) Also, it seems like you have a 2nd light coming from the front which is a little confusing.

I think these are the main points!! I hope it helps a little

[Chip Valecek]

@K.-W. awesome reference on perspective. Thanks. @NoWayMe thanks for the paint over I get what you mean on the detail on stuff. I sometimes get carried away on pieces. I need to slap my wrist and tell it to stop sometimes.