February WIP!

Kali

Update!

xin li

@Kali beautiful composition and very interesting shape you are using. I can recognize your design instantly.
I think there might be room for improvement in the value arrangement in this piece. I took your image and changed it to grayscale (hope you do not mind).

The overall value is quite close to each other, you might want to just add a bit more contrast.
Depending on the story you want to tell, If the girl on the rooftop is the main focus of this piece, I would try to have the most contrast around her in terms of the value - I would make her a darker figure and against a lighter background for example. I would also move the tree behind her a bit towards the right so the tree is not overlapping her. In this way, she will have a clear silhouette. Right now, the girl gets disappeared if you shrink the piece into a thumbnail size, or squint your eyes.

Hope this makes sense.

Kali

@xin-li Thank you for your feedback. I think you’re definitely right about the values! I’ll keep defining the values a little better as the piece continues.

I think you’re right when it comes to the story being told- it’s rather unclear right now. To be honest, I didn’t intend for her to be the protagonist the piece, but it definitely reads that way with how I have it now. I think I really have to make the decision to make her the main character since she is the odd one out and sticks out from the shape of the composition. Thank you for the advice!

chrisaakins

@Kali I love this. I reads really well. I agree with @xin-li about the value. I would make her lighter in value.

burvantill

I love wonky perspectives!

Kali

I started over... kinda. I wasn’t liking how it was turning out, so I went in and created some more refined Lineart. Still working on it! Definitely taking the longest out of any piece I’ve ever done, but something about it makes it mean a lot to me.

Kali

Adding in value! Just saw the February critique- I wish I would have varied my tree size more now!!

My recorded time on this one so far is 19 hours... gonna have to hurry it up. My wrist has been feeling a lot of pain

Kali

Another update!! My Apple Pencil died during my lunch break

NicolaSchofield

@Kali it's looking amazing! I hope you have time to finish

Kali

@neschof Thank you so much! I'm getting nervous about timing since February is a short month!! However, I am determined!

Katie Kordesh

I love how you stylized this looks great!

Kali

@Katie-Kordesh Thank you

Kali

Adding in color! It’s getting there.

Kali

I feel like now that I’ve added color it isn’t working

jdubz

@Kali said in February WIP!:

I feel like now that I’ve added color it isn’t working

Sorry I don't usually like to tell people that they're flat out wrong, but you're off on this one

I'm curious - this is Procreate, correct? Are you putting your color layers right over the top of your b/w values with layers on different modes?? The under-painting really seems to be giving it a lot of vibrancy and I've definitely struggled with Procreate on coloring over values without it coming out really weird.

chrisaakins

@Kali I think you were going in the right direction with the blues. I think the pinks are too bright.

Kali

@jdubz Thank you! Trying to do my best

I think it's important to not layer on top of anything that is completely black and white since you'll lose out on some saturation and you may come across a "dull-ness", which I think is what you're experiencing. Before coloring the line art, I changed the black and white values to have some color on them using a blending mode, and then painted on top of that. I hope that helps!

I personally don't like to have a black line art by the time I color just because it can be a bit harsh too, depending on the style you are working in!

Kali

@chrisaakins I'm too addicted to making everything warm... maybe I just don't like cool colors but they're probably important to have in a portfolio I'll try toning things down a little. Thank you!!