[eBoy]

Hi there.
Tried to make this look old and gothic... did I succeed?

eBoy

[Professor Oktan]

WOuups! My bad. First time posting.
Really good painting eboy...
But I have seen better from you

[Hase]

looks great, although I�d rather say it looks old and ... pirate ship?

[keredleung]

Yours look great,but do not look very old.
If u use PS, then try filter noise and blur

i got a reference from internet, hope can help u.

[Darkliege]

looks more victorian to me than gothic. Very nice lighting though.

[Gecko]

very nice fairytaleish look to it

[BooMSticK]

nice drawing Emil... But there's something about the perspective and the shading that bothers me - everything looks layered within a few centimeters. It is a fairly straight-on perspective that can give quite alot of headaches when defining detph. One thing I would do is to remove the general light to dark feeling from the left side to the right. May even more let all the light come from the lantern? Push the middletone even more into dark and work some more form into the main characters... yeah.. well.. I dunno

I dont't know... It doesn't really yell 'gothic' at me, but hey - im no expert
,boom

[Gecko]

damn, man. i really want to learn to paint like that.

damn

[General Confusion]

I have to agree, it doesn't look gothic, if in fact you are defining gothic as the European architecture, found in cathedrals and such. And not defining it as the teenager who weras all black and lace and listens to Sisters of Mercy...

Gothic architecture from a practical standpoint, when and where it is found in history:

click here

Gothic architecture from a philosophical standpoint, defined by religious ideals, and so on:

click here

hopefully that helps.... but as you can see there are certain important aspects of the the term gothic that you didn't hit upon, but perhaps those links could help ya.. from an artistic standpoint... everything looks flat, and I think that hurts the pic in general...

[eBoy]

HI there...
Thanks for the crits...

First I want to say, that when I said gothic, I was not completely clear about what that meant, but a feeling I had, of old heavy carpets, dusty air, and a dim lighting
... maybe more victorian/pirat/sisters of mercy mood
Sorry bout using a phrase that wasn't completely clear for me in this forum... but thanks for the links General Confusion!

Boom... you're right about that, it is somehow so much harder when you haven't got colorvalues to deine depth with I think...
But I'll try to darken the middletones!

Everything looks flat?
well... if you mean what Boom said, I understand, but otherwise I disagree.
I mean... the curtain has volume dosn't it?

I'm not trying to make a realistic timeperiod
The setting is a fantasy world, inside a biiiig tree, where this old lady lives... - just wanted to give it that "old" feel.


Cheers

eBoy

[ahw]

It looks like fantasy art, but not gothic.
I think "eldritch" is the appropriate, non ambiguous word for that in English
It reminds me of some French comic book artist, for some reason (you dont know Loisel, do you ?).

I was gonna say add some dust and cob webs, bones and more stone. But if it's set in a tree...
One of the thing about gothic style is the sense of smallness (?) of people opposed to the world around them. You can get that with huge overwhelming, brooding, dark architecture. Which is probably why the word "goth" was adopted : because the gothic architecture is so characteristic and symbolic of this.

I am thinking you could turn this into something more goth by simply changing the perspective.
Make it a plungeing perspective, you looking down on the scene. But rathe than add tons of details, make the rest of the scene very dark, and only the area directly around the bed lit.
This would create the sense of oppression through the use of shadows.

You could also those patterns you use and make them a bit more "pointy", and angled, to make it look more aggressive. But I have a feeling it would detract from the theme, which you describe as being inside a tree.

May I ask why you want to make this perfectly cool drawing look "goth" anyway ?
I mean, it really looks cool like that already !

[cptoonz]

eBoy, beautiful "monochrome" coloring. I like the style and mood. "Gothic" to me would imply more stark blacks and whites...minimal mid tones. The work stands on its own, but not really gothic, to me Regardless, keep up the good work!

[iByrn]

hmmm... if I remember from art history, tall, pointy spires were characteristic of gothic architecture. I guess that doesn't apply to your painting much, since it's not an external view of a building.

I'd suggest cutting down the sharp highlights of the curtains and pillows. Things just don't look old and dusty when they're shiny, ya know?
Also, if you want to make the whole thing more volumetric-looking, make the outline of the weird person lying on the bed less defined, and add more detail to the pillar on the left.

almost forgot, I think the perspective on the vase may be off. Less of the opening should be visible to us.

Hope this helped some!

[ September 16, 2002: Message edited by: iByrn ]

[eBoy]

Hey thakns alot... really helpful crits and nice suggestions! :-)

ahw > that�s just about the biggest compliment you can give me... I'm a HUGE fan of Loisel!

Really good point about the perspective!
Sometimes I forget the simple but true things Will Eisner wrote in his "how to draw comics" ... the perspective is the ultimate factor to define mood and suspense... and to tell a story in one picture!


And why goth... well, like I said... I was way out there and just tried to define the MOOD as "goth"...

cptoonz > good point... and thanks .-)

iByrn > hmm... I guess you're right about the curtains... good point!

I'll fix the vase.
Thanks... it helped

eBoy