I made this blogthing for the purpose of seeing what you good ol' SVA folks have been up to. I don't know about you, but I hardcore miss being surrounded by art nearly 24/7 and having the "feedback circle" be possible; It wasn't just about getting feedback about my own work, it was about seeing what everyone else was doing.
So, that said, I really hope that this blogthing becomes a place in which to show off your latest, but also see everyone else show off. Please, post up anything you've been doing, drawings, sculpture, comics, your brain, whatever.
However, I do ask that the responses to the work be at least a little more than "It's good," etc. We all went to art school, we all know how to crit, whether we like it or not, and we've got to differentiate ourselves from Deviantart, at least a little, right?
Right?
But anyway, here's some junk I've been doing:
(CLICK FOR BIG.)
I have a superobsession with mythic creatures, and I finally had the chance to use them as subject matter after a very, very long time.
4 comments:
I like these. Mythology is nifty, particularly really foreign stuff. Have you read American Gods by Neil Gaiman? I'm rereading it for the first time in a few years and it's awesome. Anyways.
The only one that bugs me is the Lamia. The cropping on her arms makes the whole composition more claustrophobic than it maybe should be. The idea is that these were potent, larger-than-life beings meant to inspire, scare or teach. With the Phoenix and the Dragon, they seem huge and important because they're so closely cropped; there is so much left out you have to use your imagination. They dwarf the viewer in scale because you can't take them in in one glance.
The Lamia, by comparison, looks like she's been forced into a box, the way the elbows are both cropped. Also, her left hand (our right) has two fingers sitting right on the edges of that choker/necklace thing and it makes the whole area more static than it maybe should be. Overlap the fingers on the necklace. And the snake lower half looks much more flat compared to the woman half, because there isn't as much attention in shading. It's a tough format and the strange thing is that it works better for the more animal-like pieces, rather than the composite figure lamia, with her human upper body. Dang arms.
I kinda want to do some now.
I read some of American Gods, and I don't know, I couldn't really get into it. But then again, I'm not too keen on Gaiman's writing anyway, so I'm sure that played a big role in it.
I get what you're saying though. That's a really good point. I kind of made the lamia as the "breadwinner" of the group because naked chicks with blood on their hands are always the breadwinners. So with that in mind, I moved the "camera" far away enough to make it clear that she was obviously a nubile young female, probably as a detriment, as you've said.
Interesting what you say about the shading, though. I actually went crazy and painting every scale individually. Although that may account for the flatness, since I didn't just go into it with a large brush like I did her skin.
Thanks d00d!
For the Lamia, if you wanted to try something else, maybe do some thumbnails of a profile, three quarters view or even from behind; that might even be sexier to have her back, hair down the front and then her lower back blending down into a snake tail. Or even torso twisted so the lower half of her face is in profile along with her bewbs and upper body and the lower half makes kind of a J shape or something.
I think what may be flattening the snake part is the pattern; it doesn't conform to the shape. You could actually just start light on the snake part with temperature shifts to indicate where the shadows will go, then paint in the actual tail and lay down the scale pattern on top of that. You may only be able to really note the scales in the light areas; let the color and form do your work. Scales are a pain.
Sorry for the delay, dial up = slow connection = makes me not want to go online much, and much slower to download.
Anyways, overall, I love the stuff Margo! I happen to like the first one - I guess the Lamia one - only I see that you already pointed out the flatness factor. The only thing that makes it feel "boxed in" is the bottom part, the way that the tail curves over - it seems very forced on the bottom left section.
I'm not so into the cropping of the last one - I could only tell it was a phoenix by James' post. Perhaps lower the head of the Pheonix a little bit to reveal an eye?
I totally dig the color selections on them, particularly the last two, and especially the middle one. Kudos - I wanna do water color now! (I'm guessing that's what you did 'em in, right?)
Anyways, James, you're up next - be back for you later!
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