Reworked Halloween Image
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I have reworked my halloween image and would love some critiques. Thanks.
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Hello - this is looking good compositionally - there are a couple things i would work on on this piece - i think a good way to look at this is to think of Will's paintings..i have always liked Will Terry's work since i found him on youtube and checked it out - very saturated colors in his work very colorful - but i don't think it has escaped anyone who has been watching his work that he has level up a a bunch of times recently (not that he needed to) - for me starting with the cover illustration for the Creative Composition class it has been sort of a "wow" factor..his Illustrating Children's Book illustration is the same way..and the Mixed Media class too - oh and the somewhat the 10 Steps to Digital Painting - in these he started saving saturated colors for a focal point and they really look awesome - i would go look at these images and then look at his older work - i think that when an image has as much saturated color as you have on this painting it is hard to see it as a story and it is hard to spend much time looking at it ..there is nowhere to rest - so i would say first maybe desaturate the colors and decide where it is most important for the viewer to spend time - the witches face, the mouse, the cat and the spider most likely - also i would change the color of the moon to be closer to white or very pale yellow - this will be awesome because it will allow you to put a cool light on the right side of everything in the picture..the highlight of an object takes on the color of the light source and fades into the local color in the mid tones - you could even just add a rim light and that would look more believable..i would desaturate the sky - you could stick with purple but desaturate it (head more toward grays in the color picker)...and i would light the bats..even a hint or rim light will make them less flat..Nice glow on the house! looks good and i like the trail behind the broom though it seems it should come from the very end..and maybe a little pixie dust floating around it....i think it is ok to cheat for theatrical effect...lets say you do put the cool bluish lighting on the right side of everything - you could put a subtle warm light coming from the left also - does it exist..no..will it look good..most likely..light is often bent around corners in images for effect ..we could imagine there are houses below with warm lighting coming from them - or maybe if you add the pixie dust at the tail end of the broom that can be your warm light source -...but maybe it is a harvest moon...even then i would desaturate everything except your focal points and add the color of the light source or sources to where the highlights are - easy to say all this..if someone asked me to do all this i would have quite a bit of trouble ahead but i think it would be worth it in the end...i think your Charly turned out Very well - and all this input is with that level of finish in mind ..which may not be what you want for the magazine piece....oh and maybe some faint stars hear and there : )
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Something i forgot to mention is the texture of the sky - the texture is bringing the sky forward - you might consider smoothing the texture of the sky to push it back - the texture on the clothes looks great though
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the gentlemen on the right have the lighting i am suggesting for the Witch...this is part of a Nathan Fowkes color comp for Puss In Boots -
@Kevin-Longueil gosh Kevin I can't thank you enough for taking the time to give me so much feedback. Its funny that you brought up all you did about Will's stuff because I was looking at several of his illustrations on his website especially the one with the little boy roasting a marshmallow because the colors are similar and I was trying to figure out how to change mine to look more subtle like his. I will try to do some of your suggestions as best as I can. Thank you!
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Oooh...another fun piece!! Kevin covered a lot of excellent points. I'm a huge fan of harvest moon, so i would leave it orange, just use more of a warm rim light vs a cool moonlight color. The only suggestion i have is to figure out a way for the spider and cat to stand out a little. I didn't even notice the spider right away, and the cat is too close to the same color as her robes. I wonder if you add a purple cast to her robes if it would help, or make her blend into the sky too much? I recommend deepening the shadow under the cat for sure, and maybe lightening up the spider. Overall it's a wonderful picture! Nice work hun!
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@Lynn-Larson Thanks Lynn, I like it orange too because its like a pumpkin. I am sorry to be stupid but what do you mean by a warm rim light?
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highlights along her hat and such, like Kevin was saying, along the right side of her and the cat.
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@Lynn-Larson I thought you meant the rim of the moon. LOL
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oh lol, i can see that though hehe.
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@Lynn-Larson yea I thought maybe the moon had to much warm rim light. What do you think?
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I think the moon is fine
maybe take a bit of the brighter yellow around the witch and fan it out a bit more -
@Lynn-Larsonok ok, thanks
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Hi Thrace! first of all I really like your sky texture and the image is fun. Let talk about some of the inconsistency that stand out for me. I think you might want to give your cat and mouse some visible texture so they look they belong to the style/texture, also I feel like the cat is not very safe in its position and pose at the moment, I would do what you did with the pose of the mouse. I agree with Kevin on the moon color, it can be less saturate, and I would also introduce some of the moon light to the sky around it. Compositionally looks good.
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Still working but how about these changes?
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I like them! Oddly, it really draws your attention to the cottage, which is good
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Newest update
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Looking good! The spider definitely shows up as a spider now!
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@Lynn-Larson thanks!
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Looking good - i like the warm light you added to the witches hat - you might want to add a bit of warm light to the bottom of the witches shoes (just like you did with the elf playing mandolin) and to her bottom also ...and underside of her arm - ...and then possibly the same treatment to the cat but more subtly ....the tip of the broom has now become the focal point so you may want to not use pure white in that area - you could put a but of the transparent yellow over the white to knock it back a bit - i like the trail location and splash of light..i think you can use that light to give a bit more volume to things..the house looks great
