Oldest Man Alive


Yeah, it's late...sue me :D

7 comments:

Kelsey said...

Awesome lighting and great composition. I really like this one. Not sure I really know what's going on at the bottom though.

Nickster said...

haha, yeah I kind of ran out of time. I was going with a king and queen that was so old they've kind of become the earth. I don't think I really conveyed that really well, maybe with more time I could have fleshed it out better and make the faces more obvious

BIG t said...

I got to watch over your shoulder as you made this and I think one reason it is successful is that you started with a very strong, dramatic bold, composition. It also helps that your light and detail work were solid.

Sodano said...

Great work Nick, this is my fav speed painting of yours so far, the highlights are freaking awesome!

CP said...

agreed my favorite of the day.

Dave said...

Hey Man, sorry it took so long to get around to a crit for ya :)

Your piece’s character is a little ambiguous; defining some anatomy would not only define the character of your character but would also create more areas of shadow on your character which would aid in making it the focus. Often times the area of highest contrast (in all respects) most strongly draws the eye’s attention. Currently that focus spot is at the top of the page where your light is coming through the hole. Is that really where you want us looking? Where ever you end up wanting your audience’s attention to be drawn, that’s where you need to create the highest detailed area. That would be a good point to introduce new colors to your pallet if you want the piece to be more then mono chromatic. You also may want to consider framing the bottom area of your piece with some foreground elements to give a better since of depth…that being said, making that water, ice, floor, whatever your ground is more detailed could act just as well as a framing device. Your lighting is convincing enough until my eye reaches the bottom of your piece (which is where I wish my eye started, as that’s where your character is). Your luminescent lighting is not reflecting off the ground and bouncing on the rocks. Be mindful of your character’s heads running tangent with your horizon line. Watch out for dead space, like on the lower rocks on the left side; once my gets there it has no where left to go. Also, back to the lighting from the top, why is such a narrow shaft of light from what seem like such a big hole? Closing off where the light is coming in from, or adding more background and foreground shafts of light would help this.

On a subjective level: It feels cold like ice or water, I wish there were more shimmers. A creature, man, character, whatever in such an extreme place seems like it should be very powerful or very weak, choosing stronger, more iconic shapes in such a fast paced exercise would really help that.

That’s about all I got for ya man, good work, keep it up bro!!!
-dave

Nelson Brown said...

Wow, if you ever get to the bottom of Dave's crit, you'll find my little B.S. down here! Nick- this is the coolest thing I've ever seen from you. As soon as I brought up the page, I sat back a little :) you've communicated a lot of atmosphere with minimal strokes. I think like others have mentioned, it's because you were really accurate with your lighting and used it really efficiently. I gotta second the lack of clarity in the character, but you already know that. You do another pass on the character to draw that focus, and you'll have a helluva piece. Nice job.