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VGiselleH β Enchanted Home
Published: 2009-04-09 22:02:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 1998; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 23
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This has been my pet project since about November, but unfortunately I decided I couldn't get it to look like I wanted about a month or two ago. Since then I've just been playing around with it for fun, but I'm getting a bit tired of it now, lol, so I'm calling it finished. It may not look like I wanted to (mostly her, her markings/coloring aren't what I wanted) it still looks nice I think, kinda pretty ^_^From scratch in Photoshop, 30+ hours.
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Comments: 53
It's like this DA feature was specifically designed with you in mind, lol, how long did you have to nag them before they added it? 
Some of the things you just said made me laugh: the flowers in the top right corner with their transparent petals were made when I was so frustrated with this piece I just decided to make crappy transparant flowers that made no sense...then when I had calmed down again I liked em enough not to hit the delete button
Also, for the first 3 months the wings of these unicorns were meant and designed to be transparant. I just thought it look so ugly I changed it. I know that's not what you meant, but still, I thought it was funny ^_^
I tried to make the unicorn as clean and precise as I always do, it didn't occur to me that this may clash with her surroundings, interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. I'm so used to doing it this way it never would have occured to me to be honest.
The light really is supposed to come from the upper left, but this is not why it's left open. There was actually another big heap of flowers there, but I felt it was a bit too much, like I was suffocating the unicorn in the middle with it so I took it away. I guess it's kind of hard to judge without a comparison of a before and after version, but I think it's better this way. Is the shadowing really inconsistant though? I tried to get it right but shadowing is still partly a guessing game to me when I'm applying it. Could you tell me where it went wrong?
Anyway, thanks a lot for the critique, Griatch, it's always welcome! 
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Heh, it's a useful feature. Only thing annoying is that watchers get informed when a person post critiques which I find odd, why in the world would they be interested? ... But on the other hand maybe it helps to guide people to the piece being critique'd, so ... 
I guess the flowers stand out so much from your usual crisp and precise style that it in itself makes a difference, it's worth experimenting with that too though, in this case you really hit a cool effect!
It's a good point that the upper left filled with flowers could have been a little claustrophobic. Not if you went along my idea of it being a flat portrait mind you, but certainly true if this is supposed to be located in a 3D-space. In the latter case, maybe vaguely hint at some dark areas between tree distant trunks (like that forest background tutorial I did), just to break up the monotony up there?
As said I'm not worried much about the light inconsistency in here since the entire image has such an otherwordldly feel to it. The unicorn is practically glowing from its own internal light though. Take a look at the far right, the tip of his/her wing tips and tail. Where is all that bright white coming from - if the light comes from the top left? If the wing was transparent one could imagine it being sunlight shining through the wing, but light that bright would have a much starker effect on the rest of the unicorn and the ground behind/below it (which is why it also looks so otherworldly).
It also looks like you portray two separate rays of light in the upper left (it's hard to judge, but it would make sense if it's sifting down through dense foliage) yet this pattern is not at all visible on the unicorn; it is smoothly shadowed with perfect blurred transitions and no sharp dark-light edges anywhere. Light passing through foilage has structure, and lots of it.
Finally, the colour of the light, both direct light filtering through leaves as well as reflected ambient light from the surrounding forest is green. So if one wants to be fully 3D and not go for the flat-painting aspect, the unicorn, regardless of it's "true" colour would appear to have a palette influenced by green. It's not hard to do actually, as long as you have the character on a separate layer from the background. Just lower the opacity of the character layer just a tiny bit to have the background colour shine through and affect its palette. This can actually be enough to merge the foreground and background colour-wise. I tried this with the image of the jester lying in the forest [link] ; she stood out like a self-lit beacon with all that red and purple. Just dropping her opacity a bit was surprisingly effective.
... but I mention this only because you specifically asked; I don't think you need to change the lighting in this image. It may not be realistic, but that is one of the things that really give this its fantasy feel and mood.
.
Griatch
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I wasn't going to change it but yes, I did ask, so thank you for taking the time to expand on it 
One last thing, that bright white you mention on her wing and tail, that's not because of any light, those parts of her body just really are a "clean" white of color, it wasn't meant to show as particularly bright or anything, just her coloring! But I seem to have messed up with the shading and her darker markings as well, so it isn't too odd to imagine it went similarly wrong with her lighter markings and the highlights, lol ^_^
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I still think this is so stunning~
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Thank you ^_^
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Thank you! I definitely think it's the colors that give this one it's appeal, lol ^_^
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Indeed, the colours you chose are awesome!
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This looks so much more like a 500 million dollar painting than a digital art! Incredible!
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*puts a price tag on it* Thanks
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Holy COW. This is mind blowingly beautiful! I LOVE it. The colors all play off of each other perfectly and I love the glows off the wings and body.
My only critique is that the mane doesn't really strike me as...a mane. It looks a little stiff.
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Thank you
You're right about the mane. It underwent so many changes (color-wise) that it's flow completely suffered. I may go back and see if I can redo the manes...only takes a few mins anyway ^_~ Thanks for the critique
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eets puuurty, even if the flowers in the upper-right make me feel like I've had one too many with their rotating transparency.
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Thans ^_^ Rotating transparency? Are you sure you didn't have that extra one before looking at it? ^_~
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Shush, or I'll blame your picture for making me dizzy as the reason for falling and breaking my toe.
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Now that's flower power, baby.
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My mom was a hippie, I know all about flower power. and magic brownies, but I'm not supposed to talk about those. >.>
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aw... supermooie kleuren gebruikt! Just love it!
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Dank je! Iedereen heeft het wel over de kleuren, vind ik wel leuk
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KJDGHZKLTJZHKJ This is GORGEOUS Gaeva!!! The colors are like 8O
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Wow! That's beautiful! 
It does seem a little weird that the foreground plants and flowers are slightly transparent, though. O.o
Wow, five/six months on a single picture?! I'd've given up on long before then!
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Though it's not the main theme or inspiration, I had fire in mind yes. I didn't want to have it be too present though so I tried to stick to only the fiery colors and played with the manes to make them look like flames a bit. Nice catch ^_^
The flowers in the upper right corner are transparant because they are pritty and very speshul! The ones at the bottoms are transparant because I was lazy
I think I "gave up" on this image about twice, but I kept coming back to it because I'd already spent so much time on it
Thanks Foalie!
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Noooo idea what that means but I'll guess it's something positive, thanks
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You speak a secret language!!
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omsos! the secret net speach ftw!
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Gah! Now what are you saying??
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OSM= Awesome. Gah, get wit da program G :<
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Gah, seems obvious when pointed out!
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Thirty hours of scratching, painting, and toil
To solve a mystery that is in art;
Lines refined and colors are smooth as oil;
Shadows and shades of the woods are a start
On a fantastic trip through enchantment
Of leaves and flowers oh very pleasant;
To be like from a dream, a fairy tale
Of homelike warmth, feel or a warm glowing;
Or after waking from a heavy ale,
It began and finished with lights flowing,
Presenting a blending of radiance,
And that is part of its significance;
No matter the number of revisions,
Whenever itβs called finished or enough,
That it's done or complete, such decisions
Do make a work of art of any stuff;
So let it be as it is meant to be
Another artwork fine, nice, and pretty.
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Wow, Herz, lol, now there's a unique comment! I do like it very much, describes what I see as well. And you're right, even if it isn't what I wanted, it's good as it is ^_^
And if I saw something like this after a heavy ale I'd know I'd had enough
Thanks! ^_^
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Awesome work!!! Its really beautiful ^^
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Thank you! ^_^
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I haven't got a chunk of time to write a critique, but here are some things to consider for future projects:
-- Her horn appears to be fully in the plane of the screen, while her face is slightly turned out toward the viewer. It's not a huge problem, but there is a bit of dissonance there since the horn should realistically follow the face.
-- For as much wind as her mane and tail indicate is present, there's surprisingly little indication of it amidst the background and in her posture (especially with consideration to her wing).
-- The diffuse glow around her is a bit confusing, logically. It could be a play of the light, but it's seen in shaded areas just as strongly (underjaw, for example). It could be a magical effect based on her lighter markings, but her wing has the glow on red portions and not at all on the white. The end result is that it seems to be random.
-- Despite the impression that the main light source is up and to the left, the lightest portions are the back of her wing and the end of her tail, at the bottom right.
-- Certain shadows are quite dark compared to others in places where you'd expect to have the darkest shading.
-- She appears to have only one wing.
All the nitpicking aside, though, this is lovely. ^_^ I'm particularly fond of the tail and of the lighting effects in the background. The whole piece definitely has a more experimental feel than what you usually show us, and it came out nicely. ^_^
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My jaw was somewhere on the ground, I never noticed in all these months that she only had one wing!! Nobody noticed! 
As for the wind, it's not really wind, just a magical...something, which is why her wing(s) isn't disturbed by it (nor her posture and surroundings, which I hadn't even considered!). Maybe that's a bit of a vague idea though, lol, but oh well, I liked it ^_~
The glow isn't random, the way I had it in my mind when applying it is this: whatever causes the glow is everywhere around her, but is only visible when she walks into it, so only the "front parts" of her body have it. I guess you're right about the underjaw then, so I removed that bit ^_^ I tried to exagurate it a little more, not sure if it's any clearer though.
You're right about the shading on the back of the wing and the tail. I thought I had too much shading there so I had reduced it again, but I guess I went overboard on it. I put it back ^_^
I though I'd angled her horn far enough, but I guess not. I don't know how to change it (because of the shape, I'm not used to this kind) so I'm going to leave it as is >.> Thanks for pointing it out though, I continue to have problems with the horn angle no matter what the horn looks like, lol, so I'll try to pay more attention to it in the next piece ^_^
I'm not sure which darker shadows compared to others you're referring to though...I don't see it >.> Could you point some out to me?
Yes, I know I didn't reply in order.
Thanks for the comment, dd!! It was really helpful
I still can't get over that wing though!
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Really? How funny. XD Still, she did cut a fine one-winged figure, so I suppose that might have been distracting enough to explain it.
Fair enough, on the 'wind' effect. I had considered that it might be a fiery idea, especially looking at the tail, but it was just too long and straight to be fire proper so I went with wind anyway. That does explain the lack of wind elsewhere, at any rate.
The glow is more clear now, aye, though it remains a bit curious that her hind legs are untouched. 
I approve of the wing and tail shading! That really helped tone down the brightness factor, and I think they look better even without considering the overall light effects.
The way you drew the horn is tricky, aye. Perhaps if you were to do a practice sketch or two with a corkscrew at different angles, you could get a better feel for it? (Boring but practical, me in a nutshell.
The shadows that really stick out to me are the dark ones along her neck and behind her shoulder (under the wing). They're both spots that need shading, but it seems to me that if you're going to shade that darkly it should be in other areas first (the top of her far rear leg, for example, or along the backline of her rump), or at least consistent across the whole piece.
Anywho, I'm glad I'm managing to be useful! Life is good when you're able to be useful.
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Corkscrew! Hmm, there's an idea...and to think all the trouble I went through twirling paper to get what you see above when a simple corkscrew would have been a much better and easier way to go about it
Oh those dark areas! That's not shadow! That's where her markings are darker: along her neck it's a darker red and behind her shoulder/wing it's a stripe of dark green. I guess that's not so obvious as it blends in with the shading... See, I knew her markings weren't right ('cause obviously it's the markings' fault, not mine
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In fairness, everyone in my family but my mom has a pocketknife with a corkscrew, so I see them often. If you don't see one regularly, you're not so likely to think of it.
Ah, that would explain it. I did notice the one by her shoulder seemed unusually green compared to the rest of the shadows, but I didn't even think to look at it as a marking. ^_^' Probably a different pose would have helped bring that out more -- something where those spots had light on them, rather than shadow. Ah, well. Live and learn, aye? ^_^
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Yeah, the pose and the markings do not like each other...which I still say makes it their fault and not mine. I'm the victim. Next time I must try to plan the markings and pose at the same time.
Pocketcorkscrews, no, can't claim I have one or know someone with one, lol. I still don't think I would have thought of it if I did however, I can be quite dense when it comes to logical connections like this. And that is not meant as a joke, I'm serious. If there's a way to make it harder for myself I'll do it, and be convinced I took the easy way out while doing so.
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Yeah, yeah.. you're always the victim.
Well, on the positive side, most people end up learning more when they go about things the hard way.. if for no other reason that once you invest a certain amount of time and effort into something, it tends to seem like it's worth more than it would be otherwise!
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*blink* And suddenly I feel better ^_^
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Wonderful! My work here is done. ^_^
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