[Misc]

Hi, this pic is a couple of years old, made when I still took time to finish my pictures (the speedpaint thread put an end to that ). I like the concept, and when I look at it now I think there's room for improvements, but the thing is that I worked on the pic for a long time, so now when I try to improve things, I feel that I can't really see all the problems. So I put it here to hopefully get a fresh view on it from you. Thanks.

[Yarik]

The first thing I would say is that the characters and the sword look cartoony. Try adding more "texture" to it. The next question I have for you is, Why are your mountains orange? If this is an early morning shot, then shouldnt the grass and the rock be more orange too?
The image seems a bit over blured, and half the image looks like it is in fog....
And lastly, your mountains look a bit too smooth.

This was constructive criticism, please dont take it the wrong way.

[Misc]

Hi Yarik, thanks for the reply. That's just about what I needed to hear. I can see everything you say, and a bunch more problems. Sometimes I just need a "kick start" so I can get "above" the image and not be so involved with it.
I'm going to try to remake this sometime, when I have motivation.

[Misc]

hmm... made a try to get the values&colors right. The reason that the mountains are reddish is that I wanted a contrast between the "elf-land" and the "orc-land" but I'm not sure how to accomplish that...

[Ian Jones]

I like the idea of the contrasting colours to distinguish. I can remember the effect from LOTR where the Mt Doom scene's apart from the lava had a great feel. With the elf, the shape of the face needs work. The mouth in particular is off to one side. I know its early in the piece, so I'm jumping the gun a bit there. I'm not sure why the sword is placed like that, it seems quite odd.

Overall, I like the concept. The scene in the first pic works well. The blurriness is a bit distracting. Is that a style your going for? You need to be a bit more definite with some of your brush strokes. Don't be afraid to at least try leaving some sharp, its the digital meduim afterall and ctrl-z is never far away. My concern is because a lot of the edges / silhouettes in most artwork is where a lot of visual information lies. Removing this makes it difficult for an observer to understand the shapes and forms, which is a useful effect when intended but problematic when its not. I hope that is useful. Great concept, I'd like to see it continue.

[Misc]

Thanks for the comment! Good remarks there.
The blurriness was my way to get things to look like they where in the distance and in the mid-ground there is supposed to be some fog. I'll try to put more thought into the edges this time.
Working on an update, coming soon!

[Misc]

update.. Thinking of drawing it in B&W instead.. when i try to use colors with som kind of thought behind, I become such a coward ...