@Chantal-Goetheer Its hard to put a finger on what makes something look âamateurish.â Itâs a combination of things working together that make them look professional and when your learning all the things at the same time, sometimes, certain components work better than others. Composition, lighting, line work, value structure, color balance⌠On one of the Podcasts they talked about it like a golf swing. Theres a hundred things you need to pull off to get a perfect swing, but you canât focus on learning all of that at once, so one day you focus on how to put your hands on the club and a different day you focus on your feet, etcâŚ
Sometimes I get discouraged and feel like Iâm never going to get there. But, it just takes a lot of mileage with your pencil and a lot of studying. Also, a lot of patience with yourself.
For this piece, I think pushing the value to your focal point would be helpful. I also like the draw over Asya did. I think fading that line of the rock and making the waterline go over it would fix a lot. Its a tricky perspective piece to pull off. As for the underwater feeling⌠Its a little harder working traditionally, but you maybe could do a light wash or something over top of the whole underwater portion. Look at some reference photos - like finding Nemo or something - to see how they did it. Sometimes its that the picture fades and gets darker around the edges, or particles or sunlight in the water⌠I would make the mermaid in the foreground have more floaty hair too. It doesnât need to stand straight up, but it wouldnât be laying flat under the water either. I hope thats helpful!