My little cotton picker (WIP)

[Gary Wilkinson]

I felt that I may have rushed too far ahead and gone into the value painting before I had a good sketch of the whole scene. The sketch lines wont be visible when it has been painted, but Will Terry seems to get the scene right before painting, so what is good for him is good for me.

[Gary Wilkinson]

Slowly working on it, tried out few color schemes and I think a simple orange sunlight and blue ambient light would work well. Building up a good value painting first before I push on into full color though

[Andyg]

@gary-wilkinson ok, looked at this an thought ‘awwww! That is so cute! Little character tucked up in bed of a cotton plant’. Then I read your description. I can see what you’re aiming at now. Still awesome. Unfortunately I have no suggestions what so ever for how to separate the ‘wool’ of the creature from the cotton of the plant. Don’t take this as a criticism though, it’s still a beautiful piece and gorgeously rendered.

Edit: looking more closely I think the way it made me misread it is the arms maybe look like a pillow?

[Gary Wilkinson]

@andyg I see what you mean about the pillow, but hopefully that will be translated well when I color it up (I'll keep a sharp eye on it though). Thanks for the comments Andy

[Gary Wilkinson]

Slowly building up the color. trying to go for a warm cool feel and there is still quite a bit to go, but it seems to be working so far. Any advice on going forward would be great!

[Andyg]

@gary-wilkinson a little more blue on that right arm as we look at it tokeep the creature separate from the plant perhaps?

[Gary Wilkinson]

It's not completely done I feel, but almost there with some final touches required. I want to give it a little more depth and touch up the light a little more, but any advice in this final stage would be appreciated, thanks

[JamesH]

This is really cute! Really like the warmth of colour you’ve used!

[Jason Kilthau]

@gary-wilkinson This is looking superb! If I had to make any kind of suggestion it would just be to make the main creatures outline a little be sharper to better distinguish the body from the cotton it is on, especially that arm on the left (right arm). But that is just me, and I haven't done enough studies and painting on my own to know if that is even a smart move!

[evilrobot]

Really beautiful work. Love this one.

[Gary Wilkinson]

@jason-kilthau thanks. You're right about making the arm separate from the cotton, @Andyg also mentioned it and although I have tried to work on it a bit, perhaps it's not there yet. Thanks

[Jason Kilthau]

@gary-wilkinson I would just pull some of the shadow that is right on the side, maybe just a little bit lighter.

[Gary Wilkinson]

I think i'm going to call this one done. It only began as a quick exercise to design a new creature and ended up as a painting. Thanks for everyone's advice and I hope you like it. Merry Christmas

[Jason Kilthau]

This looks awesome! And the arm definitely looks a lot better, but the whole piece is just, really cool!

[Andyg]

@gary-wilkinson nailed it. Awesome work!

[Andyg]

Isn’t it weird though....it’s was pink that solved the arm problem because of the reflection from the ear. Innovative solution. I’ll put that in the bank for when I hit a similar problem. Great stuff.

[Gary Wilkinson]

@andyg yeah that was interesting actually. I was playig around with the cast shadow and thought that it wouldnt be so strong due to the bounce light and with the ears being so lit up, it must spread some of that color elsewhere. This piece was definately a learning experience and it would have been much harder to do without a lot of what i've learnt here

[Andyg]

@gary-wilkinson I have to agree, I don’t think I ever felt so inadequate amongst a group of illustrators to feel I need to up my game, nor learnt so much from seeing feedbacks on people’s work, and the value of the video side of things. It’s like all the stuff I e read over the years suddenly making sense and becoming more intentional rather than lucky guess work. I am amazed now that people even published what I used to do. Svs rocks on every level, incredible community, interactive ‘Lecturers’, being able to mix it with the pros as well as encourage those coming through, and university level education about what matters without the pressure of passing and failing. And the cost is essentially zero. My only fear is we need to keep this quiet otherwise we will end up with even more quality competiton who have gone through svs.