The moment before - April WIP

braden H

@Aleksey I suppose when in doubt, you can always use reference Whenever I do a 'hiding from the bad guy' pic I can't help but think of Lord of the rings.

Both Mr. Jackson and Mr. Bakshi know their stuff!

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This one by John Howe's pretty cool, too

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steph_artist

I'm really enjoying this image! What if you have the fox a little closer or have the spear just right about to touch the mice?

ArtofAleksey

@Braden-Hallett i was actually just thinking about these scenes! Ty for the images

ArtofAleksey

I was trying to do a low angle shot from the point of view of the mousies. I might lose the clouds. I’m trying to use the trees as a way to make the view more dynamic.

MichaelaH

@Aleksey I really like the last version, there is more tension, great composition. Maybe I would make the mice bigger.

djly

I prefer the most recent version as well. You are getting a more dynamic composition by changing it to this angle.

I do agree with @MichaelaH about the size of the mice. Or it seems to me that the hole has some unused space that you could either show maybe the foreground of the cave or add a bit more interest so that it isn't completely black.

ArtofAleksey

Good point I should make the mousies bigger. The black space in the tree hollow I’m using to contrast with the white mice. I wanna make all this in ink. I might leave it in black and white with tones of sepia in the back.

burvantill

Ooo. I like where this is going.

ArtofAleksey

Chipping away at it. The orange is a place holder

ArtofAleksey

Ok so this was what I was thinking. I’m gonna attempt this on paper next. Any feedback?

Ooooh love it that mouse with the glasses is amazing, i love him haha! The way you've framed the fox too is brilliant, i can't wait to see this in colour!

MichaelaH

@Aleksey You did so well with the last composition, I like it a lot.

burvantill

Wow, this is looking great!

braden H

@Aleksey Nice! I think the sepia ink'll look really cool!

I almost want to se the fox looking not quite at the mice (up and away, maybe?) to show that he hasn't QUITE found them yet, but that may put his foxy face at an awkward angle to draw. Super nitpicky thing looks really cool so far. I get a wood-cut vibe from it.

Also, the little mouse skulls hanging off the spear is an awesome detail. a DARK awesome detail, but an awesome detail!

OOH! have the spear tip end in that nice empty space between the foxes paws instead of over his bracer. Stronger silhouette that way I think.

Lookin' forward to the finished version!

MichaelaH

@Braden-Hallett Ohh I missed the mouse sculls...ty for pointing it out.

jaepereira

@Aleksey me too. Especially the sniffing they do in Jackson’s

ArtofAleksey

@Braden-Hallett ohhh good idea. Yeah i tried to do that with the face it was a tad awkward. So i left it. The spear is a doable thing tho.

ArtofAleksey

So I did this in ink. I also made the sepia ink behind it and hated how it looked. So I’m gonna practice more with that later but for now I’m going to just choose values and will create a background digitally. These values might change as I play with it.