EASEL OF Lindsay Gravina
Lindsay Gravina
Currently at Academy of Realist Art Boston working on my skills and portfolio.
I am open to critique
I WOULD LIKE HELP WITH
I need to make it look more finished, and the arm/hand anatomy looks odd to me. I could also use some ideas for the background.
The base values and drawing looks great! If you cover up the underdrawing that is showing through and render the soft/hard edges out, I think it would look more polished.
Thank you for the feedback.
I really like this. Lovely use of reflected blue light on the left of the face, and the reflections in the cat’s eyes are a great touch.
While I love a visible pencil line, I think this could benefit from blending them away, but I get that this is a WIP.
I really like the cast light around the nose and eye – but I’d increase the brightness of the globe / orb and give the index finger a strong inner glow on the right, with a deep shadow on the left (on the seond finger too. Same for the thumb – the side touching the globe would be almost as bright as the object, with the opposite side cast in shadow. Same for the shoulder and bicep -at the moment it’s quite flat (and very thin due to the rucksack strap?).
The first things I noticed are that the lighting is convincing, but the shoulder area looks too flat and thin. Could the strap be moved further in to show more shoulder, or better yet, have the strap being “crunched” in a bit by the shoulder emerging over it and coming forward toward the viewer? I can try a paint over if that doesn’t make sense.
I think I would go quite darker with the shadows. A focus of the image seems to be to feature this strange light, but it’s not standing out enough. You’ve done a good job simplifying the shadows into a tight group and darkening everything that’s not in the light even more would go a long way towards honing your message. Also, the cat’s expression sort of feels like it’s looking off the page. When you’re looking at something so close to your face, typically your pupils will be turning inwards towards your nose more. Also, when cats are afraid, freaked out, surprised or even curious, typically their pupils are HUGE. Just those simple changes to the eyes might help us engage with the cat character more.
Lastly, something about the way the light is hitting the cat’s fur is feeling chalky. I’m not sure if it’s that the light mixing with the local color is wrong (I have a feeling it’s this) vs the quality of the material (fur) and the way it catches light, but it’s something to think about.
For her arm. I’d either draw the insertion of her bicep a little higher up, and/or thicken her up through the triceps. She feels to me as though her arm might break there. (Admittedly, I like to draw woman’s arms with a bit of muscle..)