WIP, Critique Requested!
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Hi everyone, I'm watching the lessons at SVS and trying to absorb all the great information here. I'd like to revamp my portfolio to be more kid-friendly, and I have a couple of rough ideas for children's stories, etc.
Here is an image I've been working on for a bit. I've been looking at it too long and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. I wanted to do an aerial scene/landscape and also trying to draw some cute characters, which is kind of new to me. Trying to work this out in grayscale first.
The idea is, a prince is visited by this little dragon, and takes him away from his small, isolated village on an adventure, expanding his world. Not super original, I know, just trying to get the wheels turning in my brain.
I've been looking at Will Terry's work and love how he lights his compositions, and the detail. I thought about adding spotty sunlight on the ground from cloud cover, or something like that, but not totally sure how I want to render it. My work is usually very graphic, without a lot of atmospheric lighting, so I'd like to explore that. Any tips or feedback is appreciated.
Thanks!
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Wow, this image is so fun! The dragon is so adorable and the perspective makes it really thrilling.
I'll throw out a few ideas, but please take them with a grain of salt-
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I'm putting on my composition 101 hat here- the image is balanced almost equally in half, with the characters at the top half, and the landscape at the bottom half. I'd see what it looks like if you moved the landscape lower so it rests more in the bottom third, giving your characters more breathing room and attention.
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Consider making the landscape less contrasted-give it some atmospheric perspective. Currently it has a larger value range than your characters and is competing for visual attention.
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Consider exploring a few more gestures for the dragon. It looks very still compared to how much the prince is being disturbed. Giving it a more dynamic gesture could give us a better sense of movement, speed and excitement.
Hope you share the final with us, it's shaping up really nicely!
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Thanks for the reply! Great comments, I'll definitely give those a shot. I was thinking of trying a different pose for the dragon while trying to keep him simple, and need to emphasize him and the boy more. Really want to fine tune my working process, I feel like I'm all over the map when painting in Photoshop, lol. Thanks for the help, I'll post an update here when I can.
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That aerial view is stunning! And the perspective is so well done it makes me jealous, lol. I do agree with Tessa that at this point the ground is drawing more attention than the characters. I cannot stop staring at this adorable little village! Lol. I love the lighting idea too and think it would look really cool.
My suggestion would be to maybe try pushing your designs a little further. The castle and the prince feel a bit generic to me. I'd like to see more personality in both but especially the prince. Is he bratty? Is he shy? What is his backstory and how does that influence his character design? I love the dragon's design. Your dragon feels like a specific dragon. One that I haven't really seen before.
You have great skill and I'm looking forward to updates on this thread!
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@aprilshin Thanks for the kind words. I think you are spot on with pushing the designs a bit. I'm going to explore some character sketches with the boy and add some personality to the castle. I think I also need to reduce the values on the village and push it back some more as Tessa suggested.
I'm glad you like the dragon. I was specifically trying to avoid it looking like every other dragon I've seen lately.
I've had to take a break from this and work on other stuff, but will post an update as soon as I can.
Thanks for taking the time to type up a response. I love your work on instagram! (you too, @TessaW!)
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@tomparsonsart Aah thank you so much~
I know, with Thanksgiving around the corner, too, there seems to be so little time, haha. I'll be looking forward to the updates! 
