Eager for suggestions - "Fearless"
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Hello, all...
I was really excited to find this forum and to see all of the expertise, knowledge and learning flowing from all of the artists here. To learn more from you all, it seemed helpful to make something for the "Fearless" competition and see what suggestions you might have. I don't have a way to edit things digitally at this point, so unless things can be changed traditionally, I will soak in your suggestions for future paintings.
What do you think of style and composition here?
Does anything look weird or off to you?
Note: This was done with ballpoint pen and watercolors. As a final step, I'm hoping to add some lighting details and a few raindrops with colored pencils.
Thank you to anyone willing to help me!
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Wow... great conceptual piece
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@kathrynadebayo for pen and watercolor you could have fooled me. Great piece.
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@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thanks for the encouragement. I looked at your website and was really impressed!
@Chip-Valecek Thanks also for the encouragement. I checked out your art and I recognized your "snake and mice" piece from an svslearn YouTube video. Really nice portfolio.
If either of you have any other thoughts or suggestions I'd love to hear them. Thanks again!
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Hey I hope you don't mind I did a quick paint over. Well done with the traditional media looks great. I think you can push this piece further to make it a stronger statement by allowing the light to fall where it counts, on the stars of the show
I did a bit of a change in head size and positioning on the girl and changed her eyes to looking down at the little girl. Gives them a stronger connection. Maybe that connection has created the glow around them.... I don't know but I think it looks dramatic!!
Anyway they are just ideas I hope they help you out
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@jason-bowen
This is awesome! Thank you! I appreciate the suggestion to darken the outer areas around the characters. I'm new to watercolors and am finding it challenging to get contrasting light and dark areas without just using black. Hmm...I appreciate the lighting effects you added from the lightning. I agree that the influence of the lightning might be more apparent than I have currently.
I also was contemplating having the older girl look down instead of up, but in the end went with this. Your point about character connection will be good to think more about next time.
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Here's an update...
Overboard on raindrops?
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If anyone has input on this, I'd love to hear it...
The older girl's face was looking too sunken to me, so I tried re-painting it. In the process, I tried closing her eyes since having them look up was just not reading well from far away. Do you think this "peacefulness", or look of concentration vs. looking up, conveys fearlessness?
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I finally posted a piece to the contest page, but I wasn't too happy with the color. I tried scanning the image instead of taking a photo of it like I have been in this thread, which I thought would improve the image quality before downsizing it to 1200 x something pixels. (I don't think this actually was the case.) The scan turned out quite bland looking, compared to the photos, and while trying to adjust the image colors in iPhoto, I think the whole image lost some of its warm tones. Also, it looks so grainy with the lower pixel count compared to the other entries. What did I do wrong?
How do those of you who do use traditional mediums digitize your artwork?
Maybe I can try another photo tomorrow when there is natural light available.
Update: I took another photo with a phone, and I think it turned out better, even with synthetic lighting. I'd still like to know how those of you with more experience do this!
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@kathrynadebayo
Yes, I'm missing the warm glow on the last one. I hope you get a chance to take another photo.I am not very experienced, but as far as I know, watercolors don't scan well. I saw a post where someone else asked a similar question, and Lee White said that he takes photographs. To make a high quality image, he takes more than one photo, then merges them digitally.
This post also gives advice on adding texture back in digitally: http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/3646/taking-photos-of-watercolor-illustrations/5
Here's a post from Lee with an image showing his process for making a digital copy. (The comment is reposted in the thread linked above.) In the comments further down, Lee says he prints onto watercolor paper (so the digital texture wouldn't be necessary in that case):
http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/1881/prints-of-traditional-artwork/10I think the closed eyes & peaceful expression show a steady, calm strength & fearlessness. It's great to see this type of fearless attitude depicted!
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Thank you so much for taking the time to share these gems! Thank you to Lee as well, of course.
