EASEL OF Rachel Perciphone
Rachel Perciphone
Rachel Perciphone portrays strong, diverse characters within fantastical and colorful worlds. She draws inspiration and symbolism from mythology, music, comics, fantasy and sci-fi. She wants to pursue book illustration.
I am open to critique
I WOULD LIKE HELP WITH
Normally I'd ask for a critique towards the end of each working stage, but I wanted to put something up on my "easel" to test the waters! Any critiques on composition, fundamentals, and depiction of the narrative are welcome! :) I will add that I do intend to make their faces more expressive and will be painting all of the roses in.
I am absolutely loving the concept of this piece! All the little details that are symbolic to the story really help pull it together. As of now, I’d suggest making a bolder statement with the lighting. They are in a forest, so darker contrast to the shadows throughout the piece will help everything “pop” much more. With the color palette the way it is, using much darker contrasting shadows will help create a larger sense of depth.
Honestly, that is the biggest thing I see that could really enhance your piece. Hope this helps. <3
Thank you for the feedback! 🙂 Lighting seems to a repeated suggestion, I’ll have to keep this in mind as I work on it! Maybe I’ll use a multiply layer to test out shadow shapes before committing.
I absolutely love the storytelling in this piece!
I think that more dramatic lighting will help tell the story in a stronger way. I often find it helpful to photograph objects and people in similar lighting situations to what I’m illustrating. How dark are the darkest darks, vs the lights? I may not copy directly from them but they provide me with important information such as how the different textures and hues are responding to the light. What do the highlights look like on the surface of leaves vs the satin of a dress or hair? Are the edges of the highlights sharp or diffused? How does the chroma shift as it turns away from the light and into the shadows?
The composition is also strong. I really like the way that your eyes go back and forth between the girls, the bear and what the ladies are doing.
Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the feedback! 🙂 I’m really happy to hear that the story telling elements come through and that you like the composition. I will work on the dramatic lighting.
Hi, Rachel. This is turning out so great! I adore the very graphic composition, and the whole thing just oozes character. There are mainly only two small details I’d adjust. I think making the bear’s head smaller, and resting it on great big sloped shoulders would help to make it a more imposing silhouette. The other thing, an even smaller detail, is the design of the scissors. I’d try giving the handles a round or oval shape to make them look a little more old fashioned. Just google something like “victorian scissors” to see what I mean. Really loving this, though. Keep it up!
Thank you! I’m glad you like the piece so far. These are great suggestions. Now that you’ve pointed it out, I definitely agree! I’m glad I haven’t worked on either of those elements yet, it makes it easier to adjust. 🙂
I love the old Grimm Fairy tales! This will be such a fun piece when it’s all done! The biggest thing that I noticed at this stage is that everything is very centered and in a tight triangle around the center. That could be solved very easily by changing the placement of the bear and refining its silhouette more. Also adding scraps of beard throughout the thorns would help with pushing the narrative . I think the lighting choices and a foggy forest will give you an excellent opportunity to add drama in the piece.
Do you have a style inspiration or time period for their clothing? It’s lovely but I also feel like if they were in the victorian era , having corsets show like that means that they’re severely underdressed. But if it’s a more modern interpretation then it’s fine! You might like this youtube channel filled with era costumes https://www.youtube.com/user/priorattire/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=1
If you wanted to be super finicky about the roses , roses come in all different types. If the red and white roses look the same in their petal shapes then the white rose is probably a red rose that has been bleached or genetically altered to be white. If you wanted a little more variety with the roses check out https://flirtyfleurs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red-Rose-Color-Study-on-Flirty-Fleurs.jpg and http://inspiredroombox.com/wp-content/uploads/10-most-popular-garden-rose-colors-and-their-meanings-garden-garden-roses-1.jpg for the difference in petal shapes. Sorry, this is the florist in me coming out ha.
I hope to see how this piece turns out. I love the choice in story and where you’re going with it!
I’m glad you like the source of inspiration and are familiar with Grimm fairy tales! Thank you for all the feedback! You provided so much insight and I really appreciate you taking the time. 🙂 Could you please elaborate a bit on changing the placement of the bear? And I didn’t think about adding more scraps of beard! That’s a great idea. I will definitely take all your suggestions into mind while I continue to work.
I don’t have a particular style inspiration in mind for the clothing, but I made another piece titled “Twisted Endings”, which was my take on the evil queen in the story of Snow White. From there I had this thought of creating more pieces for a series based on twisted fairy tales and so I wanted the look to be in the same vein. (it’s the first piece in my online portfolio) So I would say a bit more modern and a bit edgier. But I’m thankful for the additional information! It’s something I need to look into and consider for future pieces. More education on a subject is never a bad thing!
And I also love your insight as a florist! I did look up roses for reference, but I suppose to my untrained eye they looked very similar to me. Having these images that break down and label the different roses is quite helpful and I’ll try to incorporate more variety as I paint them in. I’ve saved both of the images to my reference folder.
Thank you again for taking the time for such detailed feedback! I’ll update my easel when I’m further along and have all these great suggestions from the critiques implemented. 🙂
This is shaping up into something delightful. I will say, though, that I failed to notice the beard until I read your description and went looking for it. Perhaps develop it into a larger, more twining kind of thing to reflect the plants?
Thank you! 🙂 I think that may partly be due to the fact that I haven’t painted it yet, and at the same time have been painting on and around it for other things. But I am definitely taking the critiques into account and twining more patches of beard throughout the stems and thorns! It needs a bit more emphasis for sure. Thank you again for the critique!