The Pied Piper - my newest painting
-
As I mentioned in my introduction, I have done fine art oil painting for over a decade, but recently decided to switch to what I loved as a child - scifi/fantasy illustration. To that end, I started teaching myself digital painting a few months ago. My style isn't usually children's illustration (The only 2 children's illustration I have ever done were the 2 for third Thursday.) but I think there are a lot of lessons here that are still useful to me like design, perspective, color theory, lighting etc. - so please forgive that I am a little out of place and any and all feedback is always appreciated!
So this is my most recent digital painting - The Pied Piper - I think this is my fourth (?) one so far - as I tend to jump back and forth between projects. It is not quite finished, but I hope to have it finished by the end of the week. Mostly I still need to finish the lower part of the cloth golem and the sky is a mess still. But the lower half of the painting is pretty much done and the upper half of the golem is as well.
-
@Jeszika-Lee I love the concept and the psinting looks amazing! the only thing that bother me is the moon, it looks to like a sticker and feels does not belong in the painting.
-
incredible piece of work, well done. I agree about the moon.
-
Agree with the other commentators...soften the moon. There is so much detail work!
-
I love your take on the pied piper, very original, beautiful painting as well!
this is super nit picky but it is a wonderful piece so I feel it deserves it some of the strokes in the pied Pipers dress feel a little too soft. It feels different from the rest of the painting.
Well done very moody piece!
-
@Rob-Smith @Steve-Young @Ricky-G Thank you so much for all the kind encouraging words! And yeah - the moon is definitely one of the most unfinished parts. It really is a sticker right now because I just used the shape tool to block it in and haven't gotten to painting it yet. Hopefully, I will have the sky finished in the next few days! And thanks for all the feedback!
@Kimberli-Johnson Thank you very much! I agree about the dress - that has been the most challenging part of the painting, trying to get it to fit in with how realistic and detailed I tried to paint the girl and grass. I actually have really softened the girl's face through out painting this to try and make them fit together better as well! Hopefully I have improved it. I will probably try to push the dress a little further tonight. And thanks again!So getting closer to the finish - still have to paint the sky and the pointing golem arm. I will still soften the moon - I just made it a little smaller and moved it but haven't yet painted it.
-
still haven't painted the sky - lol - not sure how to edit typos on here.
-
This is truly a beautiful piece! Looks just like a traditional painting. I love your work!!
-
Hover over the little cog in the bottom left of the post.
-
Wow - love it! I know one thing I always forget about illustration is to leave room for the text. It doesn't always apply - there are several ways to arrange a book - but it's a good thing to keep in mind. Awesome piece!
-
Wow very impressive painting! love it
-
So, I think I finished it - though I am open to any suggestions if something really needs to be fixed. I am really happy with how this piece came out and starting to feel like I could really do well in digital painting. This is my fourth one, but up till now, I felt really unsure and awkward with the new medium. This was the first that just felt really natural to paint.@Thrace-Shirley-Mears - Thank you! I actually have been a fine art oil painter for well over a decade, and just in the last few months have tried learning digital painting - so it is nice to hear that my traditional work shows through in this piece.
@Steve-Young - Thanks! That should save me some frustration in the future.
@Carey-Bowden - Thank you! That is great to hear!
I hadn't actually thought of putting this in a book. I am a traditional painter so I think I was just thinking about how it would look hanging on a wall. Though, I would really love to get into cover design - so I should really think about how text would fit with an image like this. Though I have no real knowledge of graphic design or typography...@Naroth-Cow - Thank you! I really appreciate that
-
Beautiful piece Jeszika.
-
I can't believe this is your 4th digital painting! You are totally Rocking Digital Painting!
-
@Jeszika-Lee Truly gorgeous. Your mastery of oil painting definitely transfers well to digital.
-
This is really cool!
I can't help but feel like some magical misty lighting might take it further. Here's a sample if ya like. Just a thought...
If you want to play with this idea, make a new layer at the top of your layer stack. Set the blend mode to "Vivid Light", then pick saturated colors and lightly spray them in using the soft airbrush setting with opacity control turned on. : )
I then made another opaque layer on top and sprayed a bit of those colors on top to knock some contrast back a little bit.
-
@Jeszika-Lee beautiful! Fantasy artists always amaze me.
-
So cool!
-
Adding on to what @Lee-White said. It would be cool to add some glowy wisps.
-
@Ben-Rudnicki142 @Craig-Babin and @DanetteDraws Thank you!
I really appreciate all the positive feedback!@Kimberli-Johnson Thank you! That is so encouraging to hear! To be fair, I have been an oil painter for well over ten years, and I just decided to begin learning digital a few months ago - so I have a lot of experience that helped the process
@Maile-McCarthy Wow - thank you so much!
@Lee-White Thank you so much for taking the time to give feedback and do a paint over and everything! I really appreciate the time and willingness to help! For this piece, my initial plan was actually to have the wheat around the girl lit up by fireflies in a more teal range - so I think it is interesting that you added a blue green glow to this. But as I painted it, I actually really fell in love with the more austere cold desaturated colors. Because the piece is about the death of a child, or the loss of a child, I felt like it fit much more with the mood I felt when painting it. Also, my goal as an artist is to really focus on realism, but also be a scifi/fantasy painter - so the intensity of those colors loses some of that realism I really tried to create with this image (though I don't know how well I succeeded at it).
But I went back into it tonight, and I did try to add some mist and some fireflies into it, and everything I did felt like it moved farther away from my direction and mood. Also, I know I do have a tendency to be biased against bright colors - esp. if they are on the warm end of the spectrum, so that might be part of the problem as well lol. Either way, thanks for looking over it and offering feedback! It made me really think about the choices I made and why.
@Javier-Diaz Thanks for the feedback as well.
Yeah, I tried tonight to add some more stuff like that in, and I just kept mourning the loss of the stark cold feeling I had to the piece before. It's funny, I had initially wanted to do that as well, but the piece kind of came alive to me emotionally and went in another direction.So I went back in tonight and tried working on all the suggestions I received, and even though I didn't add more glowing or mist effects to it, I did add more detail to the dress which I thought might help tie it together better. And thanks again to everyone who left feedback or advice. It is so encouraging to not just get the silent internet in reply!
