Leontine's Winter Challenge

[Rob Smith]

Okay all and @Leontine here is my challenge piece. Comments and critiques are very welcome. Working digitally has been a steep learning curve.

Changes made to the original image based on suggestions by @seanwelty(ice made more subtle), @Leontine(warmth added) and @lonelycatpress(darkened a few areas to improve contrast)

[Bobby Aquitania]

I'm in, I'll do this tomorrow morning for my warm up. I need to step away from my 3T piece, too much elf stuff in my head. I think I will do some fan art piece more to my liking. Hope everyone likes Red Sonja...

[Naroth Kean]

@Rob-Smith that is beautiful, it reminded me of Pascal Campion work! love it!

[seanwelty]

@Rob-Smith Hey Rob, this is a great image. If I may give you a bit of feedback, I think the skate marks are a bit overstated. The image is so strong, I think a softer transition from ice to trees and a more subtle treatment of the ice is warranted. I like how well you simplified the characters. Well done!

[Shelley_Couvi]

Hey there! I love this piece. I really like the flat pastels and the washy trees. The only thing that I think it needs help on is some contrast. If you're working in photoshop, try this trick: make a new layer at the top. fill it completely black and set it to saturation. This will show you when you're having some problems.
For instance, her face is almost the same (shade?) as the trees behind her. I think you could also use some darks near where their hands are clasping, just to bring that forward and bring his face forward and then around the left side to keep you in the picture. (Not sure if that makes sense...) In the picture below, the top images are unedited besides the saturation on the left. Hope this helps! It's really a nice piece.

[Leontine]

@Rob-Smith Ow wauw Rob, This is so nice! Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity, and friendship! (I feel challenged to do one more, but in a view day's I am going to visit my sister in Brazil. ) The illustration feels so winterly, but warm! chapeau! You might want to warm it up just a bit, and then, send them as your Christmas card! Ive shared it on facebook!

[Lydia M]

@Rob Smith Were you watching Eternal Sunshine? Reminds me of one scene.

[Rob Smith]

@gimmehummus Nope...just a scene out of my head.
@Naroth-Kean @seanwelty @lonelycatpress @Leontine Thanks for your comments and critiques. They are very appreciated!

[Joy Heyer]

@Rob-Smith Very lovely! I'm in awe!

[Dulcie]

Such a beautiful piece @Rob-Smith, you should be really proud of it! Love the feel and atmosphere with the soft winter light, and all those textures.

[Bobby Aquitania]

@Bobby-Aquitania said:

I'm in, I'll do this tomorrow morning for my warm up. I need to step away from my 3T piece, too much elf stuff in my head. I think I will do some fan art piece more to my liking. Hope everyone likes Red Sonja...

Sorry it took 2 days, spent my whole day listening to you tube videos from the Voice (US, UK, Holland, Germany, Australia) and so today I had a lot of inspiring music to work with... in the end I think I used too many colors. I don't usually work this loose, but this is a warm up and not a finished piece, so I just went for mood. I had fun over all though, so thank you Rob and Leotine for the fun!

Line work was done in Mischief, the coloring was done in Photoshop.

Here's a close up...

My blue line under drawing...

[Rich Green]

I really enjoyed this challenge as it forced me to really be mindful of a simple color scheme and also pay closer attention to values.

I love the look of paper cutout art and decided I wanted to recreate that look on this scene. I also like to imagine that this could be a holiday window at a major department store - wouldn't that be fun.

The scene include me, my dog Annie, the rabbits that she constantly chases in the yard and my house back in the distance.

(which I am also using as my Christmas card this year)!

I will create a post to include my original sketch and some of my steps.

But thanks to @Leontine and @Rob-Smith for putting this challenge together, I really enjoyed it.

[seanwelty]

@Rich-Green fantastic job!!

[Rich Green]

@seanwelty Thank you Sean - I appreciate it!

[Thrace]

@Rich-Green I love it, so home for the holidays!! Nice job

[Rob Smith]

Many thanks to the others who have posted in this thread. Awesome work! @Rich-Green that cutout work looks fantastic. I have a soft spot for anything that is actually cutout or digital cutout.

[Jana]

I was wondering if I should post an earlier piece here because I have shown it before, but after hearing you, @rob-Smith, saying that you like cut out, I was convinced to show it.
I love Richs (@rich-green) piece so much! You pushed it even further, Rich. I will try to make something in your style. Really great!

[Leontine]

@Bobby-Aquitania Nice work Bobby, how nice of you to join in the fun! I Really like the pose and the composition, What bothers me a bit is the linework, It seems out of place. Maybe you can push the rendering So you can get rid of the lines? Than the character can sart speaking for it self. If you do have time watch the Youtube video's of Istebrak-art instructor for tips and critiques.one that really helped me is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7EpXCnN0lo

Good Luck!

[Leontine]

@Rich-Green Hi Rich, is it digital, or in real life? I Love it! Thank you for joining in! Can you give the lights a warm glow? Than it warms up the scene and gives it a warm Christmas feeling ...

[Rich Green]

@Leontine Wow, it looks even more magical with the warm lights! I had been so fixated on the idea of keeping everything blue I never even considered a more traditional light color. I only wish I had seen this suggestion before I had submitted my card order with the printing company!!! (I just checked to see if I could cancel it so I could adjust it with the warm lights but they are already in progress). Lesson learned - wait a bit longer for feedback before going to print.

And to answer your question - this is all digital. I used a bunch of different textures to create the look of materials/papers. I did use the Photoshop drop shadow filter on most everything to get the base consistent shadow between layers but then I would also add my own layer on Multiply to enhance that in certain areas and help make it feel a bit more natural and not all completely perfect.

Thanks again for your draw over - I really do love it!

Finally - thank you to @Thrace-Shirley-Mears, @Rob-Smith, and @Jana for their compliments as well. Much appreciated!