Samurai Duel

Since no one in the art gallery has anything really useful to say, I'm posting this up here.

for starters, it looks very cool! Only crits would be that in the down part of the right corner, the grass seems to be lacking, and i think that the sun shines a little strange through the grass. Was both of those meant to be like that?

hell, i just think it looks great. very nice looking... very eastern

Another excellent piece. The only thing that bugs me is how the fellow on the right has more highlights than he on the left. Kind of seems to unbalance the picture a little.

There are all kinds of visual elements that are working very well in this picture. The high contrast silhouettes work great with the theme of the picture. Kind of reminds me of all those milestone samurai movies (gotta love Toshiro Mifune). The Samurai are very well drawn, and their poses and gesturals are quite articulated. The horizon line is low on a page, and that is just a good compositional thing. I even like those little bits floating in the air. I don't know what they are exactly, but that's what makes them appealing.

However, I think there is a slight conflict with the styles. I think that you should either push this into a more realistic picture, or simplify it down a bit. As it is, it is sort of walking on the border between the two. To simplify it, you could try removing that sun and see what that does to the picture. Take out the gradient, and keep the sky a solid red color (because the red works in this case). You could try to stylize the sun, like have it a hard circle with some other concentric hard lines going around it. That yellow doesn't work, so try it in a white or pink. Take away that grass and leave it as a flat plane, with some other method of adding visual interest. Take out those highlights from the samurai, but leave the floating bits. See where that gets you and how you like it.

If you want to go the other way, look at some pictures of what such a sun looks like. If you want to make it more realistic, the first thing to go is that yellow. It just doesn't look like it fits. Change both the sun and the higlights on them (the samurai, that is) to at least an intense pink orange; the sun is usually pure white if it's looked at directly. Also, when it shines through the grass, try making that grass a cherry red (make a layer set to screen and put pure red on top; or play with shades of orange). See what a smaller sun does for the picture. Smaller but brighter. Also, that grass looks like you used the grass brush. It's all at the same slant more or less. Either customize the brush settings more to your satisfaction (angle and size jitter) or manually draw the grass in there. Do something with it, anyways. Also, the sky could use some minute details such as wispy clouds here and there, or a hue shift from warm to cold. You know, the subtle things that appear in real life.

Anyways, the picture is really very great and I love the way the samurai are drawn, and the whole feeling of the piece. Some technical issues can be hammered out in this picture if you spend the time to do so, and I think you can carry it further with either one or the other direction in mind.

Keep up the good work.

Ah an ogre crit. Great! Ok lessee, first I'm going to defend myself to nurse my ego a bit heh. K, you're right, it's the grass brush (hey if it's there why not use it right?). I had originally sketched this picture out in my sketchbook, and I had drawn the grass all going at the same angle more or less because I wanted to show there was a slight breeze blowing through. When I put the idea onto photoshop, I realized that the grass wasn't enough, so I added the weird little spots in the air to hopefully show the breeze better. I had also played with making the picture simple, and the flat ground just didn't do it for me. It was a bit too simple. Also, I'm pretty proud of the gradient, as I painted it myself. Ok so I didn't know how to make a circle gradient, shut up.

As for the highlights on the samurai, I had wanted to make them pink in the first place, but I found out that they were hardly noticeable against the background. Which is why I changed it to yellow.

In any case, thanks ogre. The crits I got at this other art forum I post on were pretty damn technical. "Samurai swords are curved you dumbass" and "the stances are all wrong". I was like, I'm a goddamn chink, I don't know shit about Japan. Oy...

your left guy is in the normal KENDO start stand and is absolutly normal.. he even leans a bit forward(a really littlebit) like he is supposed to do(although he should lean forward a some more).
the other one seems to do a fighting style that dosnt exists. lol...
but he dos look cooler then the left one.

and about the samurai swords being curved there right. only sometimes they do use straight swords. originaly the curve is there to get a longer cutting edge without using more metal(making it heavyer).
but in the early years of the japan fighting styles they did use straight swords. so its up to you not to them.
oww and the katana's are 2 handedswords. and is rarely used dual wielded. and even less used with 1 hand.

i dont know alot about drawing only that you did a good job. and i agree with marco polaris you got to highlight the other one too...

feh.

screw the others who were being technical.

since i dont crap about the samurai stuff and can't really give out crits...

im gonna go with the compliments...

i like it how the guy one the right is pointing his sword at the other dude, and is like "you're going to die!" like how you would with a gun...

makes him look like the bad guy compared to the other guy.

And now, an attempt to translate:


No translation needed.


Wormskull has not seen many sunsets. Basically, he believes the sun should have a little more shading, redden around the edges a little, etc. . .


Wormskull doesn't like clear days (probably because of the aforementioned skin cancer). He also believes that a straight, constant transition from light to dark doesn't give off a very "natural" feel, and suggests a little variation.


Wormskull believes this artwork has a very surreal feel to it, so therefore there shouldn't be asian guys. Soften the highlights on the characters might help this a little - but don't count on Wormskull's approval.


Wormskull is on drugs (or needs some drugs of the medicinal kind).

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a formal apology to Wormskull, as I haven't been in my regular zone of sleep for a while, and it does tend to take its toll. Plus, the way you set all artworks to your own standard, rather than trying to imagine what the artist was going for, tends to get a little annoying. Sorry to put you at the butt end of a bad joke.

Ahaha... someone actually translating wormskull's phrases... that's great.

All I can say is that I'd rather that you went with the simpler aspect...

like making the sun have more of a contrast against the sky and reducing the gradient that the sun has.

As well as the grass brush may save time... but it clashes with the simplicity of the figures.

Just listen to Ogre though... he's better at giving good crits.

icbm1987

Bravo! do you by any chance live in japan? lol

hey thats awesome beam. When I first saw this pic it reminded me of this old ref i had. Did you happen to use this ref. Well anyway if your having hard time with making the sky more intresting this pic might help.

It looks pretty simple to do. Just a bunch of orange and grey graidents.

Yeah I saw that pic. Ever since the Last Samurai googling turns up a bunch of promotional posters and stuff.

spartan, no I don't live in japan...

I haven't read any of the posts above I just looked at the pics.



And they look almost the same compared to last samurai.

It looks sweet. although I'm not a fan of the embossing or what ever it's called you used on the figures I still think it's great. good stuff.

Is this thread supposed to be dead?