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marinaawin — Arawn, King of Annwn
by-nc-nd
Published: 2014-03-13 20:58:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 3695; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 4
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Description
Arawn, king of Annwn and leader of the Wild Hunt. He appears to be fond of gray so I limited to coloring of his shirt to gray, white and red. I did not found specific description about the color of the hair though so I decided on blond. I made his eyes green. According to the legend he is accompanied by his hounds which ride through the skies in autumn, winter, and early spring. The hounds are associated with death, as they have red ears, and their hair is white which is associated with the supernatural (hence the torque and the tattoo). Also swans seem to be associated with the wild hunt. They represent a link between the Otherworld and the world of mortals. The background is made in autumn colors.
Brushes:
hawksmont.deviantart.com/art/F…
roula33.deviantart.com/art/lea…
roula33.deviantart.com/art/SWA…
rach-resources.deviantart.com/…
frozenstocks.deviantart.com/ar…
maskimxul.deviantart.com/art/H…
redheadstock.deviantart.com/ar…
sancha310sp.deviantart.com/art…
sicilianvalkyrie.deviantart.co…
redheadstock.deviantart.com/ar…
nathie.deviantart.com/art/Hair…
nathies-stock.deviantart.com/a…
References:
bodystocks.deviantart.com/art/…
senshistock.deviantart.com/art…
cobweb-stock.deviantart.com/ar…
wintersmagicstock.deviantart.c…
wintersmagicstock.deviantart.c…
www.deviantart.com/art/tileabl…
clouds done in Apophysis following the tutorial here lindelokse.deviantart.com/art/… then painte d over it using as reference this picture marinaawin.deviantart.com/art/…
Tuts:
nathie.deviantart.com/art/Rock…
nathie.deviantart.com/art/Hair… (followed this tutorial for the hair and ended up painting 2 layers of single hairs with 1 px hard brush on top of my initial hair for the final effect for two days. Thank God for the tablet.)
rach-resources.deviantart.com/…
Related content
Comments: 41
I can see you put a lot of effort into your works.
I really admire you for that ^^
My only concern is that you're trying too hard to be "perfect".
This might sound really stupid xD lol
I mean.. every single nerve from your leaves is on there o.O' The satin blouse is really well rendered.. But then the hair is kind of too much info. It's like what Salokorai told you bellow me. It feels repetitive.
I think you could benefit a lot from "molding" your work. Starting with the roughest base you can possibly think of and add new detail layers on top of that.
Try to find your focus point in the picture.. and render that out like what you did here but then only in that area.. not the whole piece
Because everything in here is rendered so much, my focus is lost and too many parts are screaming for my attention. It also loses it's flare and becomes stiff.
Having a loose area in your work makes it so your eyes have a little bit of rest and it's much easier to look at and understand at first glance.
Right now the story you're using for this piece, isn't readable in the piece itself. It's really a shame because I know it has potential. Try adding storytelling elements in your composition. Like you can have those hounds interact with him or flying there in the moonlight sky.. sucking you into the world that's being portrayed.
It's a great example of what can happen when you loose the overall "whole" because you've been too focused on the smaller details.
Of course this is my personal opinion as to what makes something interesting for me.
I'm quite surprised you actually asked for my help on a comment I made almost a year ago 
I tried my best to write this for you. Hopefully it's useful
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Thank you so much for replying and it is indeed very useful.
You are so very right about the details I tried to put in every single one.
Flying hounds... there is an idea I will try that next time.
As for the hair I was trying for wavy without being too much out of place and it got repetitive in the wave pattern... I will see if I can improve that next time as well.
I am starting to feel my way around a tablet so I got carried away with details... and I guess the piece got a serious case of "not representing a forest because of the trees" .
I will take into account your advice for the next piece.
Many tanks again
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This is a really nice work with the textures! This time you used them decently and it fits in perfectly with the lighting.
The skin is very well done and the hair looks quite realistic.
But the skin is a little too smooth and doll-like (at least to be realistic) and the lips are too bright for it, I think.
They should pop out a little bit more. Also the eyes are lined a bit too dark. I would suggest you play more with the variation of the skin-colour. What helped me out a great deal, was to make the skin more red-ish, when I created the shadow.
Also keep in mind, that usually the skin gets a little bit of a red tone in areas like nose, cheeks and around the eyes.
I would try to refrain from using black in the face, because it might make it look more comic-like and less realistic, since we don't really have true black in our eyes or on our face in general.
Only, if you want it to be realistic, that is!
Also, while the hair does look great, it is also a tiny bit repetitive. But I don't think, that this is much of a problem.
But the background is really good!
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Thank you for the watch also
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So the eyelashes should be the base color of the hair if I do not want to make them blond? I did not find any good references for the eyelashes so I used black for them. I am asking this because I know that there are people that have blond eyelashes but most do not... I did not used black on the skin rather a very dark brown. I will use more red on the next piece, more on the lips also so as not to make them that bright. About the hair I tried to make it wavy I can see the repetition for the waves... I will see if I can apply a little more disorder next time. i sincerely appreciate your comments and I will keep them in mind.
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Well usually eyelashes have this kind of darkish-blond. Its like a brown. Some even are black. But if you use true black for them, they get too dark and pop out in a really high contrast. So I recommend starting with a darkish blond and then use finer lines to make a few black hairs.
If you get the feeling for the really fine eyelashes its also a good idea to add a little bit of a light colour to them, to make them look 3d.
And try to keep the inner eyelid in a bright pinkish colour. Just make the eyelashes around the eyes, like they naturally grow.
Looking at a mirrow while drawing is a huge help there, I think. At least, when it comes to common details!
Disorder is always good for the hair, because it never falls perfektly. But don't concentrate too much on detail there, because it will distract from the rest of the picture. a few disorded strands are a nice touch, though
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Thank you for pointing that out. It is a big help.
Note to self: treat the eyelashes as you do normal hair and eyebrows.
I put the pink wet line on the eyelid before the eyelashes unfortunately when I applied the eyelashes it got covered by them.
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Ah, I see. Do you paint on one layer or do you use different ones?
I like to use different ones, although its actually usually better to paint using only one, since you can create much nicer borders.
But maybe you could create new layers for new parts of your paintings and then melt them with the background-layer, once you like the positioning and all that.
It might solve the covering-problem!
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I use different layers for each piece (skin, hair etc.) but at the end I merge them for the final pass of shadows. I use seven shadow color going from the lighter to the darkest. When I reach the darkest I merge all the layers in one and apply the final shadow color. The last layer with shadows is usually the one containing the entire work.
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I will try and correct the problems present in this piece at the next one. I do not have any save work before with the different layers to work on so I will have to start over from 0 to correct this one...
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Oh, dw, I do it like that, too.
And thanks for all the faves!
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you are welcome I am quite partial to elves (be them dark or other color) Not to fond of vamps but I like the roses in the picture.
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hehe 
I love designing characters. I like to work on psychological aspects and work them in together with possible cultural background, depending on what would be most likely for their "race". So I have a deep kind of relationship to them and try to catch their personality in my pictures.
I find your elf-characters also very fitting to possible cultures.
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I know what you mean. I always have a story playing in my head for my characters, unfortunately I cannot always quite render what I have in my mind. Mostly because I am trying not to forget all the details and focus too much on them and the second reason is that I still suffer from "tablet fright" I am at the stage where I can render with a tablet without following my hand with my eyes but I still feel a small lump in my neck each time I connect it to the PC thinking that I will do something wrong with the next line or so.
But I try to improve all the time so critiques are very important to me. Thank you again for that.
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You are welcome!
I actually don't remember ever having tablet-fright!
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It will go in a couple of weeks I am sure once I learn how I can dismantle and put back together one. Same thing happened with computers and once I learned what was inside one all went well. Weird I know
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I realyl like what you've done in regards to texture and colors
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What a rich use of color, I love the tattoo and great job with the background.
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Many thanks and appologies for the late reply. It was a crazy period for me latelly with troubles with the computer to top it all off. All the best to you and your loved ones for the holidays.
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He has a very beautuful face and hair.Also great work on the clothing and background.
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Thank you. The hair I can say that I am happy with it. Still I have much to work regarding backgrounds (I have trouble with the perspective - always had, hated the trigonometry basck in highschool
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Incredible work, I love the details and the colours
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Thank you so much. All the best for the holidays.
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Absolutely stunning work! Especially with the hair detail. Beautifully done!
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Thank you. last two layers were a pain to finish.
Note to self: "do not get mad at the tablet. It is not its fault that painting each strand is taking two days".
I like Vanessa Update it reminds me of a cartoon I watched a while ago Gargoyles (favorites Goliath and Puck).
Thank you for the fave also
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Urrgh, I honestly don't understand how people use tablets. I've tried it. They just seem...broken.
Oh my God, I LOVE Gargoyles! That show was a MASSIVE part of my childhood. Too bad it's too expensive to get on DVD...
By the way, I really appreciate your looking at my work. :3
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Yap, strange to get used to a tablet that's for sure. I took me around 6 months to get used to mine. The tricky part is to get used not to follow your hand with your eyes Unless you happen to have a Cintiq which is very expensive.
I know what you mean and you are going to laugh but that show lead me to Shakespeare and it was fun when all my other classmates were impressed that I managed to read Macbeth and Midsummer Night's Dream way ahead of them - all because Gargoyles cartoon show
No problem send you a watch too.
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Really? I would never laugh but REALLY?? How did Gargoyles manage to inspire you like that?
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I am very curious so if you throw any piece of information my way I am most likely go and check out the source and everything that is to know about the topic. In this case there were a few episodes in the show talking about Macbeth (him making a pact with three witches in which was bound to Demona if I remember correctly), so I saw it and I was intrigued and I told mom about it and she gave me Macbeth by Shakespeare to read. Then along came Puck a few episodes later so I went reading Midsummer Night's Dream. So that's how Gargoyles lead me to Shakespeare... and it is a tad funny if you think of it so no worries there if you smile at it, I am glad if I can make someone smile.
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Oh, I'm the same.
(Sorry for the slow responses)
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No problem. I had problems with my computer lately. It is stable for now but it might require some maintenance in the near future.
This is way I was a tad absent.
I am not particularly fond of Dracula because when I was 12 I watched a movie with vampires and the last scene was something that sent chills down my spine for a month afterwards therefore every time I see "vampire" in a movie or in writing I run for the hills so to speak
Anyway I might try a monster in the future (maybe a troll).
All the best for the holidays.
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Ah yes, computers and all the terrible issues that come with them.
Oh, I can understand that. There were things I watched as a child that gave me chills, like Goosebumps and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Do you mind if I ask what it was you watched?
Ooh, that sounds interesting. I like trolls because, as opposed to almost any other creature, they can always be portrayed differently, so every artists work of a troll looks totally different.
Hope you had a great Easter! :3
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Thank you. I love the hounds in your brush-
pack. I had a storybook about King Arthur in which there were hounds like these in your brushpack unfortunately I do not know where it is at the moment.
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Oh, it's sad when you loose a file! I have lost many of the older ones because I lost the backup :S
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Yap this happened to me sometimes too , but in this case I was talking about a real book (paper and covers) which I have no idea where in the library is supposed to be (got a lot of books over the years and it is a tad hard to look around two walls and a cabinet full of them).
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