May Isolation WIP!! -My own Island- Critiques Welcome

[ngrass]

Hey guys!

I did an illustration for the May contest and I'd love to read your opinions about it before I upload it. It seems to me that something missing...sure theres are a lot of things missing, but I can not really spot them and I would like to hear from you. Thanks guys!!

[jdubz]

@ngrass I think what throwing it off is the values, which is compounding a 2nd minor issue.

Desaturating and shrinking it I think really highlights what's happening with the values - the main character is being completely lost in the background. Based on the values alone, this is telling me to look at the tree and that the tree is the most important thing in the piece.

I think that's compounding the problem because the tree's composition is throwing me off because it's such a tiny ball of foliage for such a large healthy trunk. You could probably keep the same spacial area and make the tree something that's more familiar to a smaller size like a bonsai tree, or a tree-shrub. Or you could do a stylized type tree with the thinner trunk and a more fantastical top (something you might see out of Dr. Seuss story?)

Hope that's helpful. Take it with a grain of salt

[theprairiefox]

@ngrass I would agree with @jdubz said. Especially that about values.

@Lee-White often says to try light on dark or dark on light. I think you definitely could do dark on light by just darkening your character. It is almost that already.

Good luck, I love the island.

[aprilshin]

What a fun concept! I agree with what the others have said regarding value. Another thing you may want to consider is what story you’re trying to tell with this image. Why is this character on an island in the sky? How did he get there? Is it his private island? Are there other islands like it or is this the only one? Maybe you could play around with different poses to tell a story as well. Perhaps have him sitting at the edge of the island with one leg dangling fishing for stars. Or maybe the island acts as a ship so there’s a steering wheel and he’s steering the island somewhere. Just some ideas to really help the viewer engage even more with your image. Hope this was helpful!

[ngrass]

@jdubz thank you!! great advice, the character was definitely losing within the clouds, I tried a darker color alternative for the character, since i want him to come out from the background...I'm still working on the tree though.

[ngrass]

@theprairiefox thanks!! I tried dark on light and was really useful!

[ngrass]

@aprilshin well sometimes when I feel stressed or overwhelmed I'd love to have a place like this to meditate or think about A, B or C, and then I figured that for the may contest would be cool to have an Island, so I thought, that giving our current isolation Coronavirus situation, this island could materialize an opportunity to be with ourselves, thoughts and all... also, when reading all your questions, I honestly have to say I didn’t went that far , but it is absolutely something I'll give a look at, because this process help compose and create a storytelling for our illustrations. Thanks for the Feedback!!