Moonlit moai WIP
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Ok, so I've gotten as far as painting the back/middle ground, but I'm getting stuck on painting the actual stone dudes. I painted the little one, but now you can't really tell where the water ends and his face starts because the highlights are the same color as the moon's reflection. Should I just use a slighter darker shade of that blue to highlight his face? And any help on how to paint the bigger one without losing my sketch would be awesome. I want to maintain all the contours, but it's kind of breaking my brain.
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You have done a really good job so far and have created a nice mood. The only way I know to keep your sketch would be to put a multiply layer over it. Good luck! Someone with more experience will probably come along and tell you more than I can.
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I would just say that the highlights on the stone will not be as "hot" has the highlights on the water because the material is not nearly as reflective. if you were concerned that the little stone against the water wasn't reading well you could darken the highlight on the stone a bit.
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Thank you! That's exactly what I wasn't sure of.
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There are a couple of things I can recommend here. The first is using blue reflected light to help define the form on the shaded side of the statues. All that light in the sky would actually luminate the top planes and backside planes pretty well. Then maybe shrink that moon reflection and knock it back a bit. It's drawing too much attention right now when you want the focus to be on the statues. I'm not sure the moon being in that spot is working great for this image. I love the layout, I'd just add a third statue and get rid of the dominance of that moon a bit.
Here's a quick draw over for reference.
Cool image!
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
Hi Mbore710
I went and did a quick work over on this, I think the same time lee was but I thought i'd post mine also for you to look at. lee explained it really well.! I don't know if the cloud was behind the statue but the cloud line was right next to the stone.
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@Lee-White Thanks Lee! This is my first genuine go at something that isn't colored line art, so I've got a lot to learn! It seems like I could kill 2 birds with one stone by putting a third statue right in the middle, thereby putting more emphasis on the foreground and muting out the moon, but I feel like it may just muddy it up. Thoughts?
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@Lee-Holland Awesome thank you so much! The clouds look way better in the work over you did. Not just the one you adjusted, but the way you lighted the rest of them. Did you just throw more blue down around the moon as well? The glow looks a lot smoother in your work-over
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Hi @mbore710
I Rolled my colour nearer to the light source. If your moon is a light greenish blue then make your cloud colour go more greenish blue and your coloures will have that glow feel.
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Great piece overall, made me smile when I first saw it. Has a very nice sense of atmosphere and lighting.
Nat Iwata
www.iwataillustration.com -
@natiwata Thanks! Hopefully I'll finish it this week with suggestions for improvement
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@mbore710
Hi M. The moon is backlighting so, for me, the more distant moai looks more natural in terms of lighting behavior. It looks more 3D. The main one looks flat. I think the flat style is more coherent with the rest of the image.
Moais are made of very porous volcanic rocks so they are nor too reflective and you will not see such rim lights. Then, it's an artist license. For me, that license gives a touch of romanticism.
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I decided to rearrange the moon, because I do want the emphasis to be on the statues and not on the moon, and as @Lee-White pointed out, in my first version it was a little too loud. I'll go in and re-paint the clouds and water, but wanted to post an update in the mean time.
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Ok...I wasn't able to work on this for a few days, but here's the revised (and hopefully finished) version. Thanks again for all the suggestions/advice!
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I really like the coolness of this piece. One quick suggestion...I feel like the grass directly behind the lower moai would not have a highlight, but would also be in the shadow.
