I worked on this piece for paypal-commissioners group contest -working from minimal detail. Using 3 key works - bookworm, brown hair, Female. The sktech was done in ball point pen.
Um.. my theme was,.. reading=fantasy-ish? Well, I don't have good speech skills so find it out on my piece! ^-^;;~ And she's my OC Anastasha. Personally I really love her eye colors and skin color!
The download pack includes: Original Painting without font/with font, the photoshop file, and ball pen sketch.
[Paint tool SAI,photoshop CS3]
It looks like you spent a lot of time and effort on the shading and details in the face and hair, but as you move to the clothing the same level of detail is not consistent. The shading becomes less defined, like in the bow, and the coloring in the body of the dress doesn't blend as well as the rest of her body.
The proportions are also quite a bit off. Her arms look very small and short and her chest and waist are inhumanly thin. Her head is thicker than her waist.... It sort of gives a bobble head appearance. Her legs also seem to be coming out at us, but they're not foreshortened, which makes them in turn seem a little on the smaller side. Because her feet are significantly closer to the viewer, they should be larger to convey this distance. However, overall I think the bright colors and enchanting features of this piece made the issue of proportions less noticeable.
your work has a lot of great qualities and is overall very eyecatching and captivating. However, as almost everything in life, I find there are some things you could improve on - but first things first.
What is really outstanding, fascinating and simply wonderful about this are the colours - you have a great eye for bold colours, for glowing, vivid colors - it just draws the viewer in. Hand in hand with the colours also goes your great sense of visual effects - the interplay of which in this work is just great. Big contrasts, soft, flowing shadows, highlights where highlights belong. The effects, such as the "glitter" around the words, spraying up like little flames, just works great as well. I don't even know how to copliment that; it's simply... perfect.
Another good point about your work is her hair - the soft way it falls is very realisitc. Also, her face overall looks fantastic - her eyes are eerily captivating, and her lips look quite real; the soft colours only emphasize this.
Coming to her, here is also where most of the problems lie. I know, the way she is sitting is quite a hard perspective, and, considering that, you did your best - but the sense of perspective her legs are invoking stops at her upper body, which, in comparison, seems very... flat and not "bodily" enough. The proportions, especially in that area, seem a tad off as well - I'd advise making the upper body, the chest and the waist a bit wider, but shading as you normally do.
What especially bugs me about this are her arms. The way she is holding them, especially considering she has a cat in her lap, is very uncomfortable, to say the least; I find it hard to figure out where her right hand is supposed to be, and for her left hand - pardon my bluntness - well, her left hand seems to seperate the cat's head from the body.
Speaking of which, the cat - I presume it to be one of those extremely fluffy, grumpy looking ones - looks small. As in, proportionally hard to figure out and somewhat hard to place perspective-wise. Cats are rather large animals, compared to, say, a bird, and I think that should be considered. Also, in making the cat bigger and more... bodily, the placement of the hands would be easier.
On the other hand, my favourite part about this overall has to be the idea behind it. "The portable magic of life", exsisting in books, all those fantasies and stories coming to life in the reader's head, and your truly magical depiction of it through little fairies, glittering lights, sparkles and the overall way you let your vision play out on paper is full of life and wonderful.
The blurry towers of books and the soft, sunrise-esque colours in the background only add to this; on that note, I just like the bg.
Overall, the good things in this are the idea and execution, the colours, and the interplay of light, shades and visual effects; but you could improve on anatomy and proportion and, in some places, perspective.
Keep up the good work!
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