Hey I did some paintings
2yr
@paper
Hello, I usually don't post here as much as I used to, but here's my second post in a month. First I did this fanart of howl's moving castle since I recently I watched it with a friend of mine. I was thinking of bernie fuchs and Moebius when I did this but I didn't have an image in mind when I did it, I was mostly looking at this image (2nd picture), I quite like it but I'm wondering if maybe the composition's a bit weak and if I added too much shapes and the image became too busy. (Feedback on this would be appreciated)
On the topic of the second picture (3rd image), I did that as a cover page for a fan comic I did of persona 5 (Which I have also posted here https://www.proko.com/community/topics/hey-i-did-a-comic), but anyway I realized some time ago that while I had illustrated the entire comic, I had not yet made a cover. At the time I was looking at moebius's airtight garage and was inspired by the simplicity of his work (here's an example from his Major Grubert series on the 4th picture), I was aiming for very simplistic style where I draw only what was needed (again, a very moebius design), but anyway, I'm not sure if I succeed, I like the simplistic composition and lettering because I haven't done it before, and I do like the calmness and the surrealistic nature of the picture contrasting to the crazy color and down to earth setting that's actually in the comic (though then again, there were some scenes that could be consider surrealistic now that I think about it). But I don't know, again, would love any criticism on anything that doesn't work >_< (oh also here's the reference picture I used for this painting; 5th image)
Well, anyway, thank you for reading this long post, I hope I didn't repeat myself too many times and thank you for the respond >_<
(Also, I know this is rare for me, and I apologize for asking a lot here but @Liandro any thoughts?)
Just wanted to say I like your style :) I've never seen Howl's Moving Castle, but I really like the fanart. I especially like how you changed the figures' poses from the reference--having one figure that much higher than the other tells a better emotional story to me. Thanks for sharing your work!
Hey, thanks a lot! Yeah I really like the change of pose too, make it all the more "harrowing" :D
I actually redid the painting, so if you're interested in my work, you can check it out below! (Also in case you want so see more of my work, you can check out my Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/confusepainting/, hopefully it'll at least be interesting to see my other work>_<)
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2yr
Hey, @paper, thanks for reaching out, and, one more time, thanks for your patience in waiting for my so delayed reply.
I think @Rebecca Shay has some pretty good points regarding gesture and clarity in shape design. But I believe she misunderstood by thinking that the 5th image is a painting you made - if I got it right, you only painted the 1st and the 3rd images, is that right? (The 2nd, 4th and 5th ones are references).
Here are my thoughts on what you asked feedback on:
1st PAINTING (Howl’s Moving Castle interpretation) - I like this painting. There is indeed a lot of texture and contrast in the environment and overall composition, but the characters’ faces still look visually dominant to me, so I’d say the “business” of the image is not a problem.
2nd PAINTING (the cover of your comic) - Me too, I like the somewhat clean page design and the “cut-out” aspect of the lettering. To me, the overall feel of the scene is not exactly calm or surrealistic; it’s more like lack of motion and artificiality. Somehow, it feels to me as if the character was standing “frozen” amidst a turbulent cloudy environment - maybe there’s also a bit of nostalgia or gloom. The lonely figure in the center, with their expressionless look towards the left side of the page, conveys a sort of coldness, like they’re a doll or mannequin more so than a living person. That’s how I read it anyway. I agree with Rebecca in this point: the character’s pose is indeed looking pretty stiff - this could be a good thing if it’s intentional, so, it that was the idea you were going for, cool.
Hope this helps! 🙂
Hey @Liandro , thanks for the respond as always!
you're correct, I only painted the first and third image (sorry to Rebecca if she's reading this, I feel bad correcting since I thought she would already read the message above when replying to my other comment >_<)
Anyway, I'm glad you like my first painting! I do admit, I have soften to it now that it's been a month, but at the time I was still so frustrated that I decide to redo it. Honestly, looking back, I'm not sure which one I like more, so if possible, I would like some opinion on this other one ( and actually, for this specific one I'm more curious at which one is more emotionally impactful, so I guess I'm kinda asking for less objective review this time-hope this isn't too odd from my usual question!)
On the topic of the second painting, I really enjoy the analysis you did on it! And this line, "as if the character was standing “frozen” amidst a turbulent cloudy environment", I think, and I'm saying this since I couldn't think of a better phrase, really got it! The stiffness was what I was going for, which I guess make sense since I'm not a particular energetic person, so all my characters just kinda turn into these lifeless husk, with not a lot liveliness to them. Standing all undynamicly (though I'm not sure if that's even a word >-<)
Well, anyway, thanks for the reply, hope to get some opinion on this new painting soon :D (also don't worry, the reply really did help!)
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2yr
Very nice work! If you’re looking for feedback, I think your poses tend to get stiff. In your 3rd and fifth uploads, they were standing straight up with legs closed poses. People rarely stand like that as it’s uncomfortable and unnatural. Moebius is great but his poses are on the stiff side, so you might want to add another art parent that have more exaggerated poses to balance things out.
I really like the shape design of your last painting. To go further, pay attention to the lighting of the character. She looks like she’s front lit evenly, but the shadow and the night scene indicate otherwise.
The first painting is a very cool idea. It looks like they’re jumping into flame. I can see you have wild imagination! I agree there are too many busy strokes that don’t really communicate much, and the shadow shape is very undeterministic. I would eliminate unnecessary strokes and have a clear vision what your shape is, not just the silouhette of the subject, but every small shadow or color shape. Marco Buccio’s course talks about that, and some of his free YouTube clips cover that too.
Hey @Rebbeca shay thanks for the critism! Sorry it took so long to reply >_<
I took your critism of the too many stroke thing and redid the painting with as efficient of a brush economy as possible. I think it's better than the original and would like some feedback on it (though I'm not sure if I'll be able to apply it this time, since this painting is for a friend's birthday and I'm a month late, so I already brought it to a framer ;^:)
I have to also thanks for the critique to the cover illustration, though unfortunately I didn't have enough energy to fix that one so I have no other image to share for it ;-;
But anyway, would love some feedback and thanks for taking the time to give critique to my work, very much appreciate it :D
