My Biggest Project Yet
4d
Dan Blodgett
I've been wanting to do a movie poster for forever now, and I figured, why not start with a full-sized, 1:1 piece? 20in x 30in! This is grown-up size art right here, haha, and I feel like I'm finally skilled enough to tackle it with confidence. So, diving in and getting dirty is what it's all about.
The image: white chalk, acrylic, and gouache on black gessoed illustration board. Haven't dipped into the color yet, obviously, but I have a pretty solid idea for a color palette to make this sing.
The composition: after a few iteration sketches, this is what I've settled on. My main idea was to direct the eye from the lower moon up through Paul's face and back. This is the meat of the picture and if that's all someone does when glancing at this image, they'll get the gist of what it's trying to say. I feel like I've struck that notion well enough. The line of motion for more inquisitive eyes wraps from the dune in the lower right (cropped a bit in the pic) corner through the worm, up to the moon and through the faces, starting with Paul and Paul/Chani, to Duke Leto, then the Baron, around a nebula which is cropped out back to the upper moon and ending on Paul's face. I know I didn't do it perfectly, but it feels pretty good. My intuition tells me it's good enough for government work, haha. But maybe y'all have other ideas! I know the lighting on the Baron is the wrong way around (should be coming from the right), but... I like it better this way. Feels kind of like he's outside looking in, separate but still lending his uncomfortable, if not menacing, presence in the picture. Anyway, that's my excuse for accidentally doing the lighting wrong, haha.
And before anyone might pick on me for doing fan art, I'll add this note. My dad loves Dune with a capital L. We just rewatched the Denis Villeneuve movies together in 4K with my surround sound system and subwoofers bangin', and I actually think the sound design of those movies is the best part. Hans Zimmer's score... Dang! So, this is going to be a gift for my dad!
Critiques welcome! Thanks.
Well guys, I tried to apply some of the heaps of amazing knowledge plopped on me yesterday, and this is what I came up with. Except now I got full-on artist's curse, haha. Maybe the poster is better? I can't tell, haha. It's certainly different. My little Dunning-Kruger bubble burst so hard yesterday I'm now blinded by a visceral allergy to this image. As far as I know, I've literally just made this worse, haha.
Alas! Ignoring that annoying impulse, we plough onward...
First things first, goodbye, Baron! He was redundant for what I was going for, anyway, so done and done. Instant improvement, I think. Next, I attempted to vary the sizes a bit, blowing up the over the shoulder moon and shrinking the bottom moon a bit, as well as chopping the romance heads to their bare minimum. Still a lot of similar (sized) shapes going on, but this is about as far as I can figure out how to rework it without just gessoing back to zero and starting over. Might do that anyway... I played with the contrast, too, trying to fade Duke Leto into the sky a bit more to disguise at least one repetitive shape. Dunno if I like it or not. Something feels off about the values now, but I can't figure out if it's my artist's curse or a genuine problem. I did love that magical vignette Patrick came up with, so putting that in feels fun.
But overall, I'm pleasantly displeased, haha. Must mean I'm learning. Thanks for schooling me at any rate, gentlemen.
Always a pleasure!
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3d
Really fantastic comp! The likenesses are all great, and I love the atmosphere you achieved. As far as the composition, the first thing that strikes me is this kind of stacking effect of the characters around Paul, they're all a similar size/weight in the comp and all fit into this very clear cut "L" to me. They feel slightly compartmentalized rather than integrated into the visual montage. You have a few cues built in here for a nice triangle/circle comp with Paul as the center piece, and these important characters in his orbit. Try to vary the sizing of each of these elements so they don't read with the same weight, and try to draw focus back to the center of interest. In the current comp a couple of the eyes are leading out of frame, rather than focusing somewhere specific. Try using the eyes of these portraits to push us back into the frame, and keep the viewers eye orbiting around the picture. The moon behind Paul could be enlarged to mimic a religious icon/halo effect, but with the looming Baron between, etc. I think you can play a bit more with overlap and sizing to play with the visual story a bit more. There's also a great deal of weight given to the Sandworm at the bottom, which is a cool foreground element you could use to echo the larger triangle motif of Paul above. Are you planning on adding the title to this piece anywhere? I could see sacrificing some of the sandworm image on the bottom to fit in the title, but even if not adding the text, I think you could vignette the sandworm scene a bit to keep the eye from drifting off the bottom of the image and focus us back up to the main area of interest. Just a few thoughts, hope they help! Really looking forward to seeing this one develop!
I knew I'd hear from you! And... damn. This is beautiful. But I mean, damn, Patrick! This is such a clear example of Dunning-Kruger I'm almost embarrassed, haha. So much to learn, even just from this crit, I can't express my gratitude! Thank you, Master. I need to study composition wayy more!
I'm tempted to just copy your version and finish it digitally, but I'll resist that urge. Maybe I'll just clip the Baron altogether. He seems to be the unbalanced portion, and that would clean up some room for text, too. Don't know... Gotta kill your darlings, right? Insert crying emoji. He dominates the image too much in your version, I feel, and in mine he's just kind of tacked on. So, yeah, I'm talking myself into it.
In my defence, the Baron and the Duke are technically looking directly at the viewer, but I see where you're going with that. I think a simpler fix will be just turning the Duke's eyes a little towards the center. Easier than gessoing over him and redoing him completely, facing the other way. Or maybe I'm just lazy. We'll see.
Anyway, thank you so much! You and your immaculate eye!
The image is nice, it is well drawn and rendered. The one issue is the composition. Almost all the shapes in the image are the same size, and without variety, it looks static and doesn't create any interest. I would suggest varying the sizes of some of the heads. Also, the 2 heads and the planet line up in a straight line also causing some stiffness. I hope this helps :)
Good catch! You're right. I still have so much to learn. It's crazy. So glad I posted this before moving on. I'll have to do something about this!
Thank you!
