Mushroom Village WIP
-
I thought I would go with something a little dark themed but also cute and fluffy this time. My idea is to have a mushroom hunter creature who itself looks like a mushroom to disguise itself. Here it has been eating it's way through the mushroom village whilst the residents flee (the residents still need painting in). I wanted to be a bit more free with my painting style so I just dove into color without any tonal studies. How do you all feel about the color choices and theme of the painting? Advice is appreciated
-
@gary-wilkinson Love this theme. So funny. As you flesh out the hunter's body, it would be good to distinguish it from the green in the back more, and add some textural details that will let me recognize that it's a caterpillar.
Re: color, assuming you want us to focus on the hunter's face, my eye keeps wanting to stare at the red mushroom that it's holding a bit more. Perhaps if that mushroom's tone were less vibrant/intense, I could focus more on the main subject. The red mushrooms to the right are also drawing too much of my attention. The tone of their upper surfaces could also be dampened.
Lastly, the composition feels so still. It might be good to add some movement to the hunter. Of course, the villagers fleeing will add some energy. But perhaps if there were mushroom crumbs flying or falling from the hunter's mouth?
-
wow! it's always so interesting to see the idea from you. I like it so much.
Just some idea, maybe some light coming through will look more interesting so the main character didn't blend too much with the background. Looking forward for the final piece!
-
I love this idea! I agree with the others though, you should try to make your character stand out more. Lookin good though.
-
Love it. I like the idea of the double read to see its a caterpillar... maybe you could have some villagers in the scene too?
-
This is some great work!
-
Thanks for everyone's advice, I'm sure it will help the piece move on in a good way!
@johanna-kim Thank you for your feedback. I agree about trying to tone down some of the red that is taking away to focal point, maybe if I cool them down more on the shadow side and go more orange on the top it might help.
Mushroom crumbs sounds like a great idea, I will be adding villagers to the scene and I might adjust the piece slightly take have the villagers attempting to fight back or run away (not 100% on either yet) so I hope that will add more energy to the piece.
@lenwen I think you're right about pushing the main creature out from the background, I will try to work on the depth a bit more and the color/light of the background to achieve that.
-
Very nicely drawn and painted.
-
Slowly moving forward with this piece. I added in some villagers to make the scene more interesting and am slowly working on giving it more life and readability
-
I really like the addition of the attacking villagers. I think you could add some cool light effects though coming from the house being eaten. If you add a bright upward light on the caterpillars face coming from the house it would give him a more ominous appearance I think.
Looking good though.
-
This is great. I love the addition of them trying to defend the village!
-
Genius.
I also really like the villagers. I'm so looking forward to see how this turns out! -
I left this piece alone for a few days and on coming back to it I didn't feel that it was working right and the angle was too static for the scene (originally the mushroom was just going to be by itself acting inconspicuous so maybe that would have worked with the old angle).
I sketched out a new idea, whilst trying to keep the theme of a mushroom hunter, but keeping the piece relatively simple, whilst telling the whole story, what do you all think?
-
Love the updated sketch. I really like the original design as well but the new sketch angle makes the overall image seem a lot more dramatic. Instead of us looking over the scene it now almost feels like we are in the scene itself. Very cool, love your style can't wait to see where you take this one!
-
@gary-wilkinson I like the new design, too. I suggest you show some bite marks on the one it's eating, to make it more clear, and I like the previous suggestion of having bits / crumbs of mushroom flying off or falling down.
I'm not sure what your plans are for the figure in the lower right, but I think it should either be fighting or fleeing (and maybe add another figure or two? Maybe this one could have a child with it?).
-
@gary-wilkinson I think that the new idea has more dramatic storytelling. I do like the first iteration as a character study because I feel it really focuses on the camouflaging quality of the monster rather than the eating of the village. But the new direction could turn out quite splendid!
-
@gary-wilkinson Hey Gary - i really like your original painting but i can see that this new one will be great too - i do have an idea that i think is worth sharing - i was thinking you could paint the bite mark out of the first painting and have the mushroom be fully intact and the little folk on the ground not reacting to the creature - (maybe crop a bit of the left of the canvas to get away from the centered composition?) this could be your first of three paintings - the moment before. Your new composition could be the next moment and then maybe you could do a final composition with the moment after.....but somehow have an interesting or surprising story sprout from the final image? Great work as usual!
-
So I
adjusted the design of the mushroom hunter as the shape of the previous one wasn't fitting in well with the new composition. There is lots of detailing left to do and still need to add the character at the bottom left (he has just arrived home from work). I'm thinking to add another character in the mushroom house who is taking a shower or lit by a light. What do you think of the colors of the monster? I want to cool the reds that aren't hit by the light a lot more, but I still want to keep it quite simple. -
Hi Gary, fun project I like the colors and fish-eye perspective, and the voluminous shapes that you do so well. looking at your past work I have confidence that this will be amazing too.
--so just in the spirit of friendly banter I have a question; is the mushroom hunter oblivious to the denizens of the village? if the little guy on the path was scolding it would it take any notice? or would it be embarrassed at having accidentally exposed the one in the shower?
-
@w-coats So the mushroom hunter is colored so that it be somewhat camouflaged, although in this situation it's pretty much spotted after devouring most of the village. With the little guy on the path he will have a shocked pose after just seeing what is happening (poor guy even dropped his briefcase), as for the shower idea I will probably change that as it could be interpreted that it is looking at the one in the shower rather than at the homeowner on the path.
