Odyssey: C7
Okay, here is my next piece. I think it is really bad, but I will have to worry about it later and come back to it then..
The hand is okay, and the brain coral, but the jellyfish looks super off/weird. I think I got the "essence", but I don't think this piece is near good enough to be in my final portfolio.. But only I have the power to change that!!
Perhaps I can trace the hand and then work on a different technique for the jellyfish on a new piece.. Then we can figure out a better background, because really the hand being stung is the highlight here. But really I'm not sure if this is the conflict I want for my concentration. If I'm going to stick with jellyfish, I want to really capture the essence of the nature of a jellyfish. It has to be obvious, but subtle and still clearly a jellyfish. Watercolors should be the best for that but perhaps it's the way I wrapped it around the hand that throws it all off.. Also, the craftsmanship could be way better with outlining the hand.. The whole thing is just poorly done and overall looks rushed.
The reef is supposed to look kind of bare, but I never looked at it far away so it doesn't look rocky it just looks weird, and the sea urchin really just ruins any chance of it looking realistic. The funny thing is that it looks like I intentionally put a blurry filter on the reef to make it all fuzzy and blurred.. strange.. I don't want my concentration to look hyper-realistic, but perhaps part of it could be that it looks more realistic as it progresses?? Anyway, here it is...
You have a fair assessment of what you want to fix. It is very interesting with all the textures. I think the hand with the creatures was a good call.
ReplyDeleteMy main problem is that the composition is cut in half with so much clarity on both that there is no aerial perspective (like what is behind the hand in the sea). Think of Finding Nemo when the sharks and fish and sea creatures were way in the distance maybe? It is kind of like the one before, where we don't really feel like she's in water.(which could be easily fixed I think). I put some professional illustrator examples in your dropbox. Don't be intimidated as they have probably done this a thousand times, just take some cues from them. Such as, there is a layer of blue (like we've learned in aerial perspective that far-off things go blue because of the blue air between them and us). You can use that principle underwater as you may need to experiment with putting some blue washes over the scene but not so much as to turn everything green. The mermaid I sent you is a bit green and it doesn't feel too unnatural.
Mainly though, the brown shadows on the sand are so stark that they look like action (as if the urchin is squirting her like an octopus would -which might be cool too). If they are just shadows (which would also help make these scenes believable as you see from the pics I sent) then they should not stop at the edge and leave almost a halo. Extending them irregularly would help. Probably take 2 minutes, nothing extensive.
Another thing you need is overlap to help the pic from being cut in half. I sent you an example with your art. It wouldn't be much but bubbles on her arm (which get smaller as they ascend and are farther away) would help it be more believable. The sand too. Play with what is in front and back.
I agree with not going photorealistic, your style is better for this, more whimsical.