Okay, I need to go to bed and my hand is fast becoming stiff, so OPINIONS, PLEASE!My problem? Gold is very shiny. It's also difficult to color. Please let me know what you think of the lighting thus far in this thumbnail. There's something bugging me, but I'm having trouble finding and fixing it. The head in particular looks too messy to me on the shading.
So comment away on the lighting of this. Yes, that means you. And don't worry about hurting my feelings. I want constructive criticism! You are helping me to preserve my sanity!
I'd suggest looking up photos of golden statues on Google and look at what colors can be found in the light, medium and shadow sides.
ReplyDeleteMy first suggestion would be to look at the colors of your painting and compaire them to actual gold objects. (. . . I just did a google search to see what I could find!) Notice how rich the shadow side is and can have a very saturated orange hue to it.
My second suggestions would be to adjust the overall saturation of your painting. This will bring out a nice yellow color to the local color. Also, try shifting the colors of the creature slightly to the red. This will help out with the darker parts and make them more orange.
Thank you for the suggestions! I'll have to tinker with the hues on it so that it looks more golden and less brassy.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why I always have such a hard time with my colors looking so washed out. My best guess is that it's the screen I'm on :\ Anyway, thank you!
The overall color of the picture appears "cool" to me, even though you have yellows and light browns there, as well as green. I would suggest adding some richer warm colors along the highlights, like some deeper yellows, orange, and brown, maybe even red, while maintaining that metallic gloss. For shadows I would add some black to help give more contrast to the colors.
ReplyDeleteOn the far wing you might want to put some more shadow so there's more difference between the bottom and top of the wing. The same thing goes for the tail behind him, right where it curves out between his arm and leg.
Very lovely picture anyway. I imagine it's harder to work with a picture like this because the creature is supposed to be all gold, right? However, you can also add more texture to fur and feathers and such to make the overall color work, if that makes sense.
Hope I was of some help! Heh, sorry I didn't understand you much over the phone when I called today XD
Thank you much. I had noticed that the tail color needed some tweaking, so I'm glad to get a second opinion on that. I hadn't thought about the furthest wing, though now that you mention it, I think that's one of the things that's been bugging me.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it's supposed to be an entirely gold creature, and I know that gold can be an ultra shiny metal with a lot of light & dark bands on its surface, so it almost looks overwhelming to me.
Don't worry, I actually thought you did pretty good on the phone for how quietly I was speaking. I just can't really use my voice right now without setting off a coughing fit :P