Hey, Dado, thanks for dropping by. Mainly now I am not completely satisfied with how the wolf's fur looks and it overall seems to be a bit flat, but I don't want to paint every strand and have it photo real. Some similar things in the environment, like the main trees lacking forms. There's also some other stuff, but I need to play around and see if it would actually improve the piece or not, like having some dappled light throughout. But yeah, without some things I want to experiment with, just give it more form without overrendering. Think Jaime Jones here ;]
Speaking about the process, I think it was a bit unusual how much the illustration changed while I was working on it. Here's some early wips:
You don't need to paint every single strand to make it look good. (:
Fur, like hair, isn't merely "a collection of strands spread evenly over an area", they tend to "clump" together. That's what produces the shape flow and that's the reason some paintings look somehow overworked. Under certain lights and distances you can't see the strands at all, just the flow. In case of fur this flow will often manifest itself through 'layers' of fur, which are quite noticeable on curved and bent surfaces. (see attachment for example)
Another reason to not get distracted by the texture is the danger of getting caught up in it and overlooking the shape. Try to define the shape and volume first, through light and shadow, saturation and fog. It's harder to correct the volume in a highly-textured area later. In your sketches the wolf's volume reads better than in the process shot despite having no shadow like the later version.
That happens because:
Your highlights are a bit off. You have highlighted edges but no source for them. I'm from the opinion that everything is permitted to achieve great results, however, in this case they're not helping to read the wolf's volume, they're flattening it. Also, the highlighted areas in his belly are of similar hue of other parts, they should have a bluish tint due the light bouncing on the snow. Experiment with subtler highlights on the edges, darker and more irregular. If you need to bring more light to help reading the image, bring it bit later on the painting process.
His colors are jumping from saturated colors to gray-looking shadows. The whole scene is highly saturated, even the shadows, but he isn't exactly following the pattern and doesn't seem to have that "eerie splash of color" look either. I'm mentioning this because depending on the look you wish him to have you'll obscure more or less of his fur texture, particularly on shadowed and far back areas.
There is a lot of light going on this scene. You've applied shadows to his hind legs, but a light blue looking fog + simplified texture might make sense there. Experiment!
TL;DR, take a look in the whole scene saturation too. It's too saturated and blue/purple, you might benefit from saturation variation, green/grayer shadows in the middle ground, etc. On a sidenote I loved those trees! Good call on their rugged trunks!
P.s.: I can't figure how to make the attach button work, it changes Attachment not found.
Vielmond, I can't thank you enough for great critique! I should write some of that stuff down ;] Thanks for taking the time and writing all that up. My illustration did change quite drastically again though, which also means I'm repainting the wolf. I'll try not making the same mistakes again.
Muzz, imgur in my case too, work great ;]
My friend did a nice overpaint for me (this is not his overpaint, but me heading in his suggested direction), so here's how it looks now.
Hey Razz. Nice work. It looks much better now. Way better sense of light (and thus space), also the mood is adding a very nice story sense to it. Curious to see how this comes out when finished.
Limeforce, it is an early work in progress on the wolf since I changed the whole pose, need to paint everything again. I'll go ahead and work out the wolf next ;]
Sorry for the slow progress guys, personal issues are getting in the way...here's something to keep this updated
I also had the previous wolf worked out a bit more before changing it completely. Was going in a better direction I think. I'll try and use what I've learned on the new one.
Hamstocks, thanks a lot!! Thing is though, it's more true that I don't have a style. I keep needing to change styles from one project to another and I do enjoy trying out different things ;]
SaboR1996, thanks! I think it looks much better too, I just need to render it out, ha. I like where it is going now, and I wasn't sure when I was painting the previous one, so that's good.
Valerien, thank you! That's a big compliment, cause it was exactly what I was going for, easy to read and simple. It will only appear for such a short time on screen, must be clear in seconds.
So, I'm in a bit of a trap where I have a lot of things started and that means all of them are moving slowly. Here's one, a study after Jeremy Mann, brilliant painter! WIP
That last study is looking great! That could be a final piece in places if that's the look you're going for. I may do some studies off of Manns' work, I had forgotten how good he was, haha.
Avanthera, thanks a lot! I do enjoy painterly looking pieces, but I am pushing this forward. Kind of have a wish to pick up oils after looking at Manns' painting for hours while doing this study.
Putting this on hold for a few weeks, it's exam time!
Lotet, thanks! Played around with brushes a lot with that one. Great exercise for sure!
Achillesian, thank you! Been a while since I did a study like that, it was nice. Lots of things to learn that way.
Started on a self-portrait, sorry wolf!
And this was a collaboration with http://kehlet.tumblr.com/, first digital, then I painted it traditionally. I lost this piece when moving to another apartment ;[
Replies
Speaking about the process, I think it was a bit unusual how much the illustration changed while I was working on it. Here's some early wips:
Fur, like hair, isn't merely "a collection of strands spread evenly over an area", they tend to "clump" together. That's what produces the shape flow and that's the reason some paintings look somehow overworked. Under certain lights and distances you can't see the strands at all, just the flow. In case of fur this flow will often manifest itself through 'layers' of fur, which are quite noticeable on curved and bent surfaces. (see attachment for example)
Another reason to not get distracted by the texture is the danger of getting caught up in it and overlooking the shape. Try to define the shape and volume first, through light and shadow, saturation and fog. It's harder to correct the volume in a highly-textured area later. In your sketches the wolf's volume reads better than in the process shot despite having no shadow like the later version.
That happens because:
TL;DR, take a look in the whole scene saturation too. It's too saturated and blue/purple, you might benefit from saturation variation, green/grayer shadows in the middle ground, etc. On a sidenote I loved those trees! Good call on their rugged trunks!
P.s.: I can't figure how to make the attach button work, it changes Attachment not found.
Muzz, imgur in my case too, work great ;]
My friend did a nice overpaint for me (this is not his overpaint, but me heading in his suggested direction), so here's how it looks now.
(Also, Vielmond's crits were right on the point!)
Alchimi, thanks a lot! I'm really looking forward to sitting down and getting this new version painted out, things have been busy lately.
Here's the stuff that kept me busy. Some style studies for the project at school.
Limeforce, it is an early work in progress on the wolf since I changed the whole pose, need to paint everything again. I'll go ahead and work out the wolf next ;]
Sorry for the slow progress guys, personal issues are getting in the way...here's something to keep this updated
I also had the previous wolf worked out a bit more before changing it completely. Was going in a better direction I think. I'll try and use what I've learned on the new one.
SaboR1996, thanks! I think it looks much better too, I just need to render it out, ha. I like where it is going now, and I wasn't sure when I was painting the previous one, so that's good.
Valerien, thank you! That's a big compliment, cause it was exactly what I was going for, easy to read and simple. It will only appear for such a short time on screen, must be clear in seconds.
So, I'm in a bit of a trap where I have a lot of things started and that means all of them are moving slowly. Here's one, a study after Jeremy Mann, brilliant painter! WIP
Lots of improvement so far!
Putting this on hold for a few weeks, it's exam time!
Working on a 3D character for the exam, check it out here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2074260#post2074260
Agree with Avanthera, lots of improvement.
Calling this one done. Now, back to the wolf, hopefully...
Achillesian, thank you! Been a while since I did a study like that, it was nice. Lots of things to learn that way.
Started on a self-portrait, sorry wolf!
And this was a collaboration with http://kehlet.tumblr.com/, first digital, then I painted it traditionally. I lost this piece when moving to another apartment ;[
Been a bit down these days, so haven't done a lot. Here's something though