BIG WIP

braden H

@kat it's more shadow from the clouds above

braden H

@heather-boyd Thanks for the feedback

I think that shadows from the sun stay more or less the same size (since the sun is, well, super far away) but become a little bit more defined as they get closer to the ground. I'm planning on using a bit of atmospheric perspective to make sure the loose feathers read as far away. You're right, though, they are out of proportion for the size of the bird. I shall fiddle about with the sizing

ArtofAleksey

What if you put a big feather on the ground somewhere that can show us its size in relation to something. Also the birb shadow feels like it’s being cramped by the big shadow of the cloud on the left. Maybe making it a snall cloud shadow will help with both size and still have a cloud? What do you think?

Kristin Wauson

So cool! I love seeing your thumbnails and process. So glad it’s a tradition!

braden H

From rough values comes a kind of heat map/light map. I dunno if this step is necessary, but I find it sort of helps.

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And then from there rough local colour and a bit of fiddling.

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And from here on out the linework gets flattened I get to paint my heart out

braden H

@aleksey Thank you! Great suggestions I think I like the feathers in the air, though. We'll see! I may later on paint them out and put them on the ground somewhere.

Heather Boyd

@braden-hallett

I really like the power of the blue and orange. Reminds me of other worldly, the northern lights and the dawn of the new day.

Erin.Cortese

@braden-hallett Oh wow! Clearly that step is working for you, so I wouldn't change it! I'm really excited to see this finished. Although, I'm only assuming it is not finished because of your last line "I get to paint my heart out". Do you have more detail to add?

Chip Valecek

Its looking great! What if he was holding a feather to show the size of the bird vs the person/dog?

KathrynAdebayo

This is so powerful. I love where it's going so far. I think someone else already mentioned the larger feather, but to add to that, I thought I'd throw in my impression that it looks like it's more in the foreground than its shadow suggests. It looks to me as if the shadow might even belong in front of the bird... in case that's helpful. I think this is one of my favorite pieces that I've seen of yours so far.

NizhoniWolf

I also think there should be a feather on the ground next to/held by the person/dog ^_^

Also, i don't know if its just me, but the Mountains look too smooth to be mountains(?)

The Orange/blue wip is beautiful and very eye catching! And when i see the silhouette i think of a Phoenix!

The other wip is (again very beautiful) calm and serene, i think i prefer this one.

braden H

@heather-boyd It does look pretty cool There's a local person who does paintings using these kinds of simple super saturated colours on landscapes and they look awesome and other worldly.

braden H

@inkandspatter Oh, lots more details to add There's lots of lines to lose and find, textures to bring out, and lots of kind of pushing and pulling.

braden H

@chip-valecek Thanks, Chip I might try the little feather in the person's hand, but I'm gonna try and push the giant feathers back with some atmospheric perspective first.

braden H

@kathrynadebayo Thanks so much! I get a little better every challenge. I think you're right about that second feather. Movin' its shadow's an easy thing to do, thankfully

braden H

@nizhoniwolf said in BIG WIP:

Also, i don't know if its just me, but the Mountains look too smooth to be mountains(?)

True, but they look cool

Thanks very much for the feedback

Johanna Kim

@braden-hallett Very cool image. I'm particularly loving the way you've rendered the clouds.

braden H

@johanna-kim Thanks Clouds are one of my favourite things to render. So floofy...

braden H

Yet more paint. I really liked the idea of having an object to better show scale, but I wasn't completely sold on the feather (not a bad idea at all, though) so I figured a lone tree and local forest denizen might work.

Slowly fixing, pushing and pulling from here on out.

I may remove the chipmunk...

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Nyrryl Cadiz

@braden-hallett this is looking amazing!