February contest WIP

ArtofAleksey

Ok there i am happy with this sketch, moving on!

ArtofAleksey

Heres my concept, gonna play around with the silhouette because it looks kinda out of place but this is my general idea

ArtofAleksey

@Aleksey i might do a like, a wing in the night sky silhouette too

KaraDaniel

@Aleksey really cool! Looking great

ArtofAleksey

Ok i think i figured out my composition more or less. Any feedback? I think the background will have some warm daytime colors but im going to keep them to a minimum.

ArtofAleksey

chrisaakins

@Aleksey I like the linework. What story are you trying to tell? Is he creating the night? Why?

ArtofAleksey

@chrisaakins yup hes creating night. He is night birb.

TessaW

Wow, it was quite a surprise to see the scene suddenly appear. I love where this is going.

ArtofAleksey

Ok im sorry it took so long to block out the sun, but here is me playing around with The local color. Im keeping the composition simple to focus on the night birb. Would really love critiques here im struggling with the colors. Please and thank you

ArtofAleksey

Lisa Pickard

Looking great. Personally I think after you've spent all that time creating a great character it would be a shame to loose it in all that background - need some air around it so it stands out. I like the one you started with yesterday with just the shape filled with the starlit sky.

ArtofAleksey

@Lisa-Pickard so you think no background just the character and the shape are strong enough?

Lisa Pickard

@Aleksey I think too much background is a bit distracting - your eyes wouldn't know where to look. There are a lot of elements to your character and by making it a lot smaller you might loose all the detail? Maybe just a subtle/knocked back background would work ok - I liked it within the shape of the swirly design.

Heather Boyd

I’d say the same. Unless your story needs the background or you thought about the background ongoing as you made the character, or if the character interacted more with the background or additional characters include it. But the character with your props and the addition of the sky stars coming out of the prop is enough on its own.
Right now the golden sun being warm is stealing us away from your bird character.

TessaW

While leaving it without a background is an option, I'd encourage you to play with the values and colors like so:

Use the color balance, levels, hue and saturation in your photo editing program to play around. Look at sunset pictures for color ideas.

Another couple of suggestions to play with:

Either remove the sun, or move the moon to be at a more diagonal relationship to the sun, to help with balance and focus.
Maybe add a little more of the night sky in the upper portion of the comp to help balance the scene.

I don't know if those changes would be effective, but it's worth playing with.

This is such a fun piece! Love it.

ArtofAleksey

This is very helpful thank you!

chrisaakins

@Aleksey I think you are missing the opportunity to let the night sky be more bird shaped in keeping your theme. Think of wings of the night kind of thing. I would think about adding some highlights on your figure to show the glint of the sun on its features and to emphasize its importance.

ArtofAleksey

@chrisaakins im not sure i follow with the first part, you mean the dark blob silhouette to be more birdshaped?
Also i havnt started on the highlights but I’ll keep that in mind for when i do. Thanks chris.

ArtofAleksey

So im gonna play around with the background colors but so far i did the local colors of the birdhero and i like the shape of the night blob.
The sun ill have disappearing Behind the cliffs rather than water. I think taking out the water is gonna make it easier. But i also dont mind removing the sun completely.

I like how the moon kinda looks like an eye