Submission for critique
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)I'm an agented writer and illustrator who is incredibly frustrated with my lack of art training. Finding the SVS videos to be very helpful though. Will be making more of an effort to do the homework and submit them for critiques.
Did this one twenty times in an effort to learn the whole cool/warm thing to create depth.
Happy to hear any suggestions for the Photo shop stage...which....I also need to learn. (Sigh.) -
I really like the style of the flowing lines. It reads well. I want to know what the lady is talking about to keep all of those kids attention. As far as warmth, i would bump that up around the candles.
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@Ruby-T. Welcome to SVS. I'm a line guy so to me you have a great style and I really love your line quality. The main thing you need to work out is your values. Even just to distinguish between foreground, middle ground, and background. It will make a huge difference. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
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I'm not a "line guy" so take this with a grain of salt:
There is a lot going on here. To me, all the line work is competing for attention. I'm not sure what is going on with all the white but I don't think it serves to draw attention to anything in particular.
One thing that might help would be to turn it grey scale (in PS use a filter to remove all color info--let me know if you are unsure on how to do this) and then see if you can clearly distinguish the fore, mid and background. I'm guessing it will all kinda bleed together.
If so, a quick fix would be to use multiply layers to darken these areas as needed so that you have clear: dark, medium, and light areas.
You may not be able to simply leave it at that depending on how the piece turns out. In other words, you may have to paint over everything (or certain parts) again because often times, multiply layers give everything a very "digital" look.
Typically you would want to do this kind of light/med/dark blocking BEFORE any color work so that you can then start painting and, hopefully, avoid said digital look.
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Welcome!
One thing to try if you are wanting to push things back further could be to actually color your linework... I have been playing with that more lately. Adding a bit of blue to characters to push them back a bit.
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I have to say I like this one a lot as is, and I am not sure I can give any sensible advice. It depends very much what you want to do and where you want to go. As it stands this is strikingly similar to Quentin Blake art...and that style lives from being un-finished, un-rendered , sketchy and line-dominated. Quentin Blake himself says that he does not understand color and he does not like color, and his color washes are more afterthought than really part of the art. If you look at his work, you see that he does not really play with form or depth or warm and cool....he just really drops some color in, normally with a very limited palette. And yet, he is one of the most successful children illustrators in the world and has been even knighted for his work.
So maybe the only advice I can give is to embrace your style and let it be free of concerns with form, depth or color.... -
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Really nice. i wouldn't change a thing .
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@smceccarelli Thank-you for your gracious and encouraging words! Think I can die a happy woman now that someone compared my work to Quentin Blake.
I'll give your advice much thought. Perhaps I should go with my strengths instead of worrying so much about my weaknesses. (Perhaps we all should, eh?) -
You have a lot of expression in your piece. I like your loose line work.
You might want to try some more contrast. What would it look like if the kids in the foreground were darker? It seems a bit washed out to me.
Welcome to SVS
