Please critique my pigs

Matthew Oberdier

This is pretty much a finished piece and I have no perspective on it, as usual. Your critiques help me get better, and I appreciate that. I’ll try to throw some feedback your way too when I can.

Jeremy Ross

Hi @Matthew-Oberdier, great work!

The only comment I have is consider reversing the straw house and wood house, as it is implied the straw house was built first, followed by wood house, then brick.

Looks like the 3rd pig wishes he was chilling by the muddy pond too based on his expression.

Rendering is very nice.

Matthew Oberdier

@Jeremy-Ross I appreciate it! I never considered that chronoligical detail. For the third pig, I was going for a slight look of disdain, as he sees the other two pigs as being irresponsible and lazy.

carlianne

@Matthew-Oberdier I think it’s coming off as Jealousy because his upper eye lids are curving down, which communicates sadness. Disdain is more of an angry emotion so could try more of an angry upper eye

Judy Elizabeth Wilson

Just a thought, what about adding a few bricks on the ground where he is building his new home? Love these pigs.

Matthew Oberdier

@carlianne thanks, I might try to tweak the eyes. @Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson I think you're right, it needs more storytelling elements.

Fey Realme

@Matthew-Oberdier it think that @carlianne is right about the eye, another option could be like a skeptical face with a raised eyebrow, which I can kind of see already in the far eye, you would just need an arched eyebrow to complete the look.. The only thing for me besides the brick pig's look is the identical underbite of the resting pigs... they are so forced forward that to me their buck tooth (which looks like a single tooth from their bottom jaw) is uncomfortable and overly emphasized and identical in both pigs. I would recommend rethinking that tooth.
your forced closeness with the front pigs and the space you put with the rest of the piece work nicely, and your rendering is good too, like others have said. good work

Matthew Oberdier

I made some updates: added some more elements and worked on the expression. Thanks for the insight everyone!

Frost Drive

@Matthew-Oberdier said in Please critique my pigs:

tes: added some more elements and worked on

That new version looks a lot better!

With the first, I was really thinking about the pigs lips/chins. They were SO sunken in that the pigs looked real stupid and fat. Which totally would work if the pigs were the antagonists and you wanted the reader to look at them with a mild level of disgust.

They look much more likeable in the new version!

Matthew Oberdier

@Frost-Drive yeah, I was originally thinking that they were a couple of doofuses, but decided the image needed more cuteness to appeal to kids.