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A-Teivos — Special Elite Brigade speedpaint
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Published: 2012-07-13 23:57:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 1469; Favourites: 60; Downloads: 0
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Description
An attempt at speedpainting! I don't think it's anything overly awesome, it's also pretty dark and lacks a lot of details / colours etc. buuuuut one has to start somewhere
Background photo is mine, of a sunset in the harbour of Bremen
SSR ©Skalar and Teivos
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Comments: 13
Hello, Marek!
Though I'm on vacation, I wanted to tell you two important things…
First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
I wish you all the best in this new year of your life! Good health, happiness, success and love! May your new year be artistic, lovely and peaceful. ^____^
Well, not too peaceful, since you like a good portion of action, too! e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s… " width="15" height="15" alt="
And the second thing is a large comment to your recent artwork… a small, huble “Birthday Gift”, if you like. ^^”
I don’t have an artwork or present right now… but I hope you’ll enjoy my comment. I’ll try to make it good and break my own “record” here, hehehehe.
Well, then I shall start my usual comment, also known as “short story”! *snickers*
I will work myself through different aspects of the artwork and give comments about it.
COMPOSITION:
It’s a basic “head to thigh” composition of a character and some additional, blurry background. The character fits very well to this horizontal canvas; it’s position at the left side with the rifle pointing to the right side is simple and efficient. His hands, holding the rifle, can be found in the centre of the canvas. I always like artworks, where the character’s body is NOT in the centre, but slightly beside it. That gives the composition a good tension and it’s not boring!
The character’s design is sharp and crispy, while the background is blurry due to the reduction of the perspective.
CHARACTER:
You call it “Speedpaint”… that might be even true, but in fact we can recognize character, body armor, helmet and rifle pretty well! You’ve used all the brush strokes and quick colour “splats” very intelligently, to build up the character out of nothing. ^^
And yet, we still get a very good impression of this “Special Elite Brigade” soldier here. I love the helmet, which looks highly believable and more realistic than before. It’s a huge, bukly helmet… but it doesn’t look out of place. It provides a huge amount of protection and looks like a real part of the strong armor here. Also, the viewing windows of the helmet just rock… great shape and cool colour!
The rifle’s design is very simple and I think you could’ve done better – but this is a speed paint, so shut up Patrick! XD
There is another detail, which I find interesting: these small “brush spots” along the armor. You can see it on the leg and lower arm. I think it’s just residue of the brush… some sort of trail, eh? But though it may look like little railroads (train, ha ha)… it gives the metallic armor some certain flair. I can’t really describe it… well. Yes, I know! It looks… forged. It doesn’t look like a normal, boring drawing or armor… this armor looks forged, indeed. Also, all brush strokes – a little bit scrubby and quick in shape and trail – look quite fitting to the expression of strong, hard armor shell! I really like it. ^^
DETAILS:
This may not be a “detail” in term… but I want to point it out, anyway: the small light attached to the character’s helmet is dragging my attention. It’s not too bright to be confusing or annoying. It’s just a part of the helmet’s construction and seems to be an important item.
BACKGROUND:
You’ve used a photo for the background and blurred it afterwards. I can say, that’s pretty cool and I’ve used photographs of real settings myself. BUT in this case, you’ve intelligently merged and blurred the background so that it’s a believable part of the artwork. I didn’t even expect this to be a photograph… until I read the describtion. XD
No, seriously. You’ve merged it pretty well to the composition and the picture’s intention. Also, the colours of the “sunset background” work in your favour once more. ^^
The little crane-like constructions in the background are well chosen, for it gives us an expression of… a warzone! ^^” This industrial setting fits to the character and the thematic of war and battle.
FLAWS / ERRORS:
1) The small lamp attached to the helmet:
The cone of light could be a little bit less “geometrical”, though. It looks like a triangle at the end of the ray of light!! I can see what you wanted to express here and since that’s a “speed painting”, I won’t argue on this. But I wanted to point it out, anyway.
2) Depth of focus:
I’m now talking about the fact that the character and it’s outlines are sharp and crispy and the background is not. That’s all well done, yes… we have a different sharpness – depth of focus – here. This is a famous topic in “photography”, as well. Anyway, I think that the upper parts of the character are still TOO sharp and should be a bit more blurry, too.
The orange lighting of the background “fights” against the torso and lower body of the character and gives him a well-deserved sharpness… but against the DARKER PARTS of the background, the character should look less sharp! He looks “cut out” in the upper part of the body. While it works splendid for the lower body, the upper is a bit too sharp.
I’m sure that I would’ve done it the same way… ^^” But you know: other eyes see more than the own eye.
Still, a very excellent piece of art! A great digital painting and an excellent use of light and shadow once more. Though you seem to be a great fan of “pruple/blue-yellow/orange” colour tones, I can say: “Hell, why not? It looks awesome!” e.deviantart.net/emoticons/w/w… " width="15" height="15" alt="
So then… this is it! Another large comment for a masterpiece like that… and happy birthday again!
Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!
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Oh damn, the critique is longer than in the preview window xD Didn't notice that before
Thank you for the birthday wishes once again! Honestly, I didn't await this critique to be a "double gift" as it happened when I clicked on it xD
*puts the glasses down* Mother of Critiques!
The composition setting is something I actually read some time ago in some book - that placing the characters less "straight in the middle in a stiff pose" makes them more believable and especially when you leave more space in front of the face - so the person can "breathe". I was about portraits, yes, but it can be very well used in anything where "front" and "back" are distinguished
Well, the art of making an armour "worn" and with a patina is still rather new to me in the sense that I lack the needed experience so far. But finally I at least tried
You know, I couldn't leave a picture without some little detail xD I like to do that, even with "speedpaints" as it seems!
That stupid light gave me a small headache xD I wanted to have it there for the sake of realism but couldn't manage the light cone to be less ugly fast and didn't want to spend time with it. Oh well
Good point! When one uses the depth of field, one should push it consequently through!
Altogether, I'm glad for the critique, cause now I can see things I wouldn't've noticed after finishing it, simply because one gets used to the picture and doesn't notice flaws even if they stare into your face x)
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I DEMAND MORE, this is great, and the atmosphere of this piece is brilliant! I like the lighting pretty much
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K'paaau
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