Swift_SCBWI September prompt and beyond
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@smceccarelli For me this is really great to see - i keep hoping you'll do another youtube video
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WIP - still need to render the goat and at this point, I am not sure if it should be in it at all. Actually, I am not sure about anything anymore, I have worked too many hours in a row and something is still not looking right, and I am running out of time... only about 4 hours of studio time left before deadline.
What do you see?
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It looks amazing, no doubt about that! I think there is enough going on in that picture that you don't need the goat - he is a lovely concept, but I think there is enough tension and excitement with the plane, the donkey and the monkeys trying to catch the donkey....if you took the goat out, your eye would travel in a nice circle around the three remaining characters, all edged by that gorgeous sunlight. And if it means you have more time to get a better finish, then maybe that will help with the competition!
One more thought...I keep reading the furthest wing of Donkey as a unicorn horn...even though I know it isn't....maybe if it were a little whiter it would help separate from Donkey's head a bit more....
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I think you should get rid of the goat (even though he's super cool) Then I think if you work on the shadow side and make it darker it will make that light pop so much better. I messed around with it in Photoshop and once I darkened the shadow side your rim light/ bounce light popped out way better. I darkened the cloud behind and under the plane in that corner and it seemed to work pretty well. Give it a shot on a layer above everything real quick and see what you think.
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I agree, as cool as the goat is he doesn't add anything to the story - he's just kind of "there". Once you take him out you have a great flow around the image. Let us know how this worked out for you! Working on a prompt for my SCBWI conference myself and disgruntled with it...
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@smceccarelli But i thought the goat was coming to the rescue? That's how i am reading it - he has a determined tilt to his head - he looks like he is going to solve the problem with the force of his brow to me - so my thought is possibly go a tiny bit larger with the goat if he seems ambiguous to folks - i could be way off of course
really great painting! -
If the goat is coming to the rescue, then I think he should be larger so we can see the expression on his face more clearly. Also, maybe something to tie him to the donkey: maybe the goat could wear blue on his head as well - that would create a link between them for the viewer. I love the dynamic action in this piece.
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Thank you everyone! Yes, the goat is coming to the rescue, and this should be (for portfolio considerations) one of three pieces about these characters. After a night sleep I am a little less negative about the goat staying in. I have painted it out and it looks like something is missing....which is no surprise, as the composition was built with the goat in. So I will follow your advice @Kevin-Longueil and @Dulcie and try to make it bigger and with a clearer expression, as well as think of a way of relating the characters. I have also made the furthest wing lighter and it helps solve the "unicorn" issue (thank you for that!). @evilrobot I have tried messing around with the levels of clouds and plane, but I have the impression that the value structure does not work anymore (the silhouette of the plane should stay dark over light). But I think you are describing the main issue here - the clouds are competing for attention. So that will be the focus of the next studio "window" - calming them down value and contrast-wise. And a lot of other things that are bugging me....
Thank you again - I will post the final when I am done! -
@Rebecca-Hirsch Being "disgruntled" is a good description of how I feel about my work nearly all the time ;-). It seems I can only like a piece (if it is any good) three or four weeks after finishing it...That gap between how you see things in your head and how they turn out on paper and/or screen....
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Great piece Smceccarelli. I hope you don't mind but I did An adjustment layer on your work. I thought that you could add abit of mist and get rid of a little detail off the back of the plane. I may be wrong but just thought I could give some feedback.
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my issue is the deepness of the saturation of the sky and the same color as the plane. I love this and i would hang this on my wall. I am a little jealous and will keep working hard until I match this level and beyond. Great job. I too, would liek to see the ram larger, you probably show him in other frames, so maybe that is not as important here...I want to read this book!
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Here is mine...
...not even close to what you produced. I am rooting for you. Great job! -
@Russ-Van-Dine This is a cool concept! And great color scheme, very clean and harmonious.
I have decided to leave the goat in, but only visible as a second or third read. And made a bunch of other adjustments to atmosphere, levels, details, etc....
Now it's submitted. May revisit it before portfolio upload, but needs a pause of a couple of weeks.
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very nice, I am looking forward to seeing more of your illustrations.
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Absolutely incredible!!
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The facial expressions of all characters are awesome! Hope you win, good luck!
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Does anyone know when the SCBWI gallery is posted, and above all, where??? The SCBWI website, I am sorry to say, is one of the most confusing, complicated and difficult to navigate portals I have seen in a long time...
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@smceccarelli - When you are on the main page of the SCBWI - the little banner of rotating images has one about Draw This!
When you click on it - it brings you to this page: http://www.scbwi.org/calling-all-illustrators-2/
From there they have a click here link to a gallery page - which currently shows you a blogspot page for Royal which perhaps was the previous months prompt? So I am guessing the Swift gallery is not posted yet.
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@smceccarelli Oh and I agree - the SCBWI site does seem much more complicated than necessary and I think limits my own awareness of much of what they really have to offer.
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@Rich-Green Yes, I agree - it is very difficult to understand what all their activities are. In my search yesterday, I accidentally discovered that they also accept submissions for a bunch of other promotional activities as well as a few different contest. I understand is probably a loosely governed body, which survives out of volunteer work, but boy it does hurt to move through a website like that (mind you, I have seen lots of European publishers with such websites, including the German branch of Penguin-Random House...somehow strange for a visual and design-driven business).
