Re: Crit / advice needed on this illustration please

Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on this piece when I was working on it in the early stages! I'm trying to work on building my skills and confidence with watercolours since I feel like i've gotten too comfortable with the ability to 'undo' mistakes in Photoshop! So, while I could spend longer on it tweaking bits and adding details in Photoshop, I want to show you how it looks in its 'natural' state. As always feedback and thoughts are welcome!

Sorry for the pic quality, I've nicked them off my insta

Hi,
Thanks for the compliments on the colour palette, it was something I was quite nervous about! As for the trees, I like to leave some things for the viewer to decide, though hopefully the coral and octopus indicate that the water definitely exists there normally.

As for the octopus, he was just going to be a mirror of her. Though I was concerned about his placement and colouring in relation to the whole piece, and I think it might all look stronger if I removed him from the image and left the bottom dark?

Hi sorry only just seen these messages.
The course is a year long, which for me was one of the reasons I chose it. A Lot is packed into a year which for me made it a really exciting course! Yeah if you have any questions feel free to message me privately

Hi,

I am super new here but thought I would brave some critique! I am trying to leave my colour comfort zone (if that's even a thing...) and do something a bit less natural with my colour scheme. This is just a quick colour rough to demonstrate where I am heading, but if this is too rough let me know! I am using the colour scheme from an older painting I did that never went anywhere. I want to create some depth using the trees and lighting, below the floating girl is coral like structures and an octopus to draw the eye down after first seeing the girl.

Any and all feedback welcome! I wanted to know before I took it any further!

Screen Shot 2021-01-29 at 11.42.29.png

@Pamela-Fraley Oh thank you but this is just a super quick colour rough that I did digitally! The actual illustration is being painted traditionally! Will share progress of it - probably on this thread - when I have it to share!

Re: Crit / advice needed on this illustration please

Hope i'm doing this right, I have never really used forums before! So here is some slow progress on my painting, but would like to know which colours you prefer for the plant life at the bottom? Also, what do we think of the bigger foreground plant life, and the darker fish?

Ok so again my feedback might not be relevant to you as it depends on the kind of thing you are aiming for. If you wanted to make it a little more 'realistic' I would consider atmospheric perspective, you have started to do it with the ocean. Use reference images to help you here - so often when there is a bright almost 'white' glow hitting the horizon line of the sea, you will start to see the colours of the sky and sea blend. But notice how you almost always have an identifiable line that depicts the horizon line of the sea. (I've attached a good ref image for this for you). The other thing that would help with this depth is to make some of your clouds pushed back into the distance too. I feel like the one touching the rooftop on the left is a bit uncomfortable to look at - almost like its too close to where the viewer is? I think you could try pushing this cloud into the background - maybe try dropping its opacity to see what it looks like when a bit more translucent - you might find it shifts the focus back into the foreground where your lights are - which I think would be nice. (Though of course that depends on where you want your focus!)
I'm also not sure about the colour of the clouds - I think they may be too lilac/grey for the scene? They tie in nicely with the colours in the buildings but I think they might need to be a different tone to make the painting more harmonious?

I really like how you've captured the light on the right side roof tiles - that's so nice and subtle!
Really like where this is going can't wait to see the finished piece!

@Navya-Raju I studied my Masters in London (Goldsmiths UOL) and loved every second of it. Amazing tutors who all currently work in the industry, super tiny class size (which is why I chose here over Cambridge) there were only 12 in our entire MA course! It was also a really nice balance of practical illustration, industry education and cultural education around illustration. Also, being in london you are at the heart of agents and publishers. Honestly couldn't recommend it enough!

@donnamakesart This is a very good point, I am going for a dream-like image. Calm and stillness is the vibe. Like she is very much at peace in her surroundings whilst clearly not fitting in with the 'norm', in a bit of a magical way.

@Frost-Drive I had corel painter x3 a few years ago but it made my Mac lag soooooo bad. Like I just could not use it! I wish I could though, seems like such an awesome software!

Re: Crit / advice needed on this illustration please

Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on this piece when I was working on it in the early stages! I'm trying to work on building my skills and confidence with watercolours since I feel like i've gotten too comfortable with the ability to 'undo' mistakes in Photoshop! So, while I could spend longer on it tweaking bits and adding details in Photoshop, I want to show you how it looks in its 'natural' state. As always feedback and thoughts are welcome!

Sorry for the pic quality, I've nicked them off my insta

@Melissa-Bailey-0 Yes that is a very good point, and why I originally had them as light fish. But I think what you're suggesting would help balance it better. I'll be sure to amend before I paint the 'final' thing!

Thanks!

@Tiffany-Thomas Thank you! Yes I see what you mean - seeing it with fresh eyes now I see how the colours in #3 pull the eye downwards, which could be quite nice...and makes me wonder if I could get away with adding the octopus back into the painting (if you haven't seen my other post, not sure how these forum chats work yet lol, there was a debate about the presence of an octopus!)
I might have a play around with that idea...

Thanks again!

Now seeing the variations as small thumbnails on here, i'm thinking perhaps the smaller plant life needs to stay how it was in the original version, so it stands out far less?
What do we think about this instead?
Sorry for all the variations guys...you know what it's like when you keep staring at something for ages and can't make the right decision!

@Abigail-Hookham This is what I started with:

Re: Crit / advice needed on this illustration please

Hope i'm doing this right, I have never really used forums before! So here is some slow progress on my painting, but would like to know which colours you prefer for the plant life at the bottom? Also, what do we think of the bigger foreground plant life, and the darker fish?

The change you've made to the cloud on the left makes a huge difference! Looks so much better.

@Pamela-Fraley Oh thank you but this is just a super quick colour rough that I did digitally! The actual illustration is being painted traditionally! Will share progress of it - probably on this thread - when I have it to share!

Ok so again my feedback might not be relevant to you as it depends on the kind of thing you are aiming for. If you wanted to make it a little more 'realistic' I would consider atmospheric perspective, you have started to do it with the ocean. Use reference images to help you here - so often when there is a bright almost 'white' glow hitting the horizon line of the sea, you will start to see the colours of the sky and sea blend. But notice how you almost always have an identifiable line that depicts the horizon line of the sea. (I've attached a good ref image for this for you). The other thing that would help with this depth is to make some of your clouds pushed back into the distance too. I feel like the one touching the rooftop on the left is a bit uncomfortable to look at - almost like its too close to where the viewer is? I think you could try pushing this cloud into the background - maybe try dropping its opacity to see what it looks like when a bit more translucent - you might find it shifts the focus back into the foreground where your lights are - which I think would be nice. (Though of course that depends on where you want your focus!)
I'm also not sure about the colour of the clouds - I think they may be too lilac/grey for the scene? They tie in nicely with the colours in the buildings but I think they might need to be a different tone to make the painting more harmonious?

I really like how you've captured the light on the right side roof tiles - that's so nice and subtle!
Really like where this is going can't wait to see the finished piece!