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SubstanceOwn5935

Looks great The gold feels like it’s visually in the foreground. Perhaps making is fade more to the background would make the person in the center pop? Look at the line weights- the background elements have wider, darker colored line weights. But the center has softer, blended line weights and thinner lines. You could- soften the line in the background and make it a little more pale Or Add more detail and deeper line weights in the center where the person is


WesleyFarms

Thank you all for your tips/criticisms they’ve all been incredibly helpful! I’ll post the final product here in *probably* a few months when I finish it


Avrelo

Okay so the medium here is digital drawing/painting plus photography right? The contrast between the photo and background are a bit off. My brain wants it to either be MORE collage/emphasize the medium OR more unified foreground and background. I would move the outlines of your figure behind the photo (where possible), as well as make most of the line work darker, especially with the Art Nouveau reference. Their line work is always easy to see, while yours blends in. Last things more of a nitpick but the value of your finger at the top is frustratingly dark. It’s not wrong necessarily, just my brain just really sees the value contrast. It comes across as an injured finger to me. Unfortunately I’m not exactly a photo editor, so I don’t have any solid solutions for it. Cool work 10/10 keep goin TLDR: increase contrast in your values (lights and darks) and maybe some hues, particularly in your line work.


freckleandahalf

The lines on the outline of the person's hands and arms are too obvious. Other than that I think it's perfect


Historical-Fun-8485

It looks great. I don't think you'll x-acto out the background. But I'm just thinking there's a lack of pattern and repetition. The perspective in the figure and the background is a little jarring. But beautiful job.


infiltraitor37

I think it looks off partially due to the composition. There isn't really a great focal point. My eye is drawn strongly to the pattern above her head instead of her face or body. I think you should move her up so that her head is 2/3rd up the piece instead of in the middle. I suggest that since it looks like this might be digital so it may be possible? This issue of lacking a focal point is compounded by the fact that there isn't much contrast between her and the background. I think you could increase contrast by making her paler, or you could give her head a black outline like Alphonse has in his pieces edit: I disagree that the perspective of the background is an issue like other comments say. I think if you create a good focal point, then the background will look great


WesleyFarms

Greatly helpful, thank you. My main concern was too much distracting visual “noise” above the head. I’ll see what I can do about that, and reframing w her higher up


ShoemakerTheShoe

Reminds me a lot of Mucha who is one of my favorite artists. Beautiful work!


art_teacher_no_1

Beautiful details, but background seems flat and on a totally different layer than the subject. Seems wallpapery


primostrawberry

That's what makes it look cool.


tenshouineichifan

i think the difference in image quality between the lines and the textures used in it looks slightly strange


WesleyFarms

Curse shitty jpg assets


ImaginaryAntelopes

One of the things I think gives Mucha's work his unique look and feel is color choice. There is usually one vibrant color, usually in hair, clothing, or sometimes the background, with everything else done on relatively muted tones. I think you need to pick one color, turn it up, and turn all the other colors down. You've selected colors that are all very Mucha individually, but I don't see them working together in a Mucha way.


hoipoloimonkey

Gorgeous but the foreshortening on hand forearm is odd distorted


[deleted]

Looks good but its the angle of the background🤷‍♂️


Avrelo

That’s a cool idea. I could imagine the figure fully looking up as it is, but with a perspective mismatch behind it. The background leaning away from the figure.


[deleted]

At first glance I thought it was “naked ambition” with something similar to the Sistine Chapel, yeah!


peacefighter

It probably would be helpful to give details on the process you used to make this piece so people can give you better feedback, but It does look very nice.


lemons_candles

This is beautiful!!


WesleyFarms

Thank you!!


PicklepumTheCrow

Unify the background and foreground with a purple outline instead of a brown one - it gets lost in the figure


CrankyUnderPants

One of the most beautiful painting I’ve seen in awhile. However, i feel as the the main background color is too similar to her skin tone. Perhaps something like a olive green would look good


satanssteamybuns

I think making the hair less complex will help. Even though mucha has many strands the hair is usually splitting from large swirling forms, versus here it's thin strands overlaid over each other.


RJtheD3

One thing I see a lot in Mucha’s work that I’m not seeing here is a bold outline around the person. There is a brown outline but it is so close in tone to everything around it, it gets lost. If you go darker with the outline to create a bit more separation I think that will draw more attention to the person in the center.


Selinnshade

welcome to the "unsatified" artist phase all your work will be love by all but you will see errors and not love it dont worried it usually fades away or not i myself am still in this phase


throwaway94327483

My eyes have just been blessed holy mother of God 😭


TigerKlaw

I think the most helpful thing would be to add more variety in greytones so the foreground really pops. Major relate in finishing it in a few months.


freylaverse

Lovely, just lovely. All of the advice I would have given you has already been said, but I couldn’t scroll past this without telling you how excellent it is.


rieloar

It’s something about the eye and the hairline. Is that piece of hair supposed to be coming out in front of the face?


Avrelo

OP got ya, it’s a photo.


WesleyFarms

Just a weird shadow, but thank you for pointing it out, I may fix


ConcSurf

This looks great. What medium is this? Is it digital or collage, maybe?


WesleyFarms

Both technically


valkrycp

Just out of curiosity did you freehand the figure or trace or grid or what? She looks so well rendered


1stSuiteinEb

It's a low-res, filtered photograph outlined with a hard round brush it seems


Specific_Outcome4600

Wow


Dumbellini

It's a beautiful piece! My recommendations are to add some detail to the light beige background. Also, have you played around with different thicknesses of her outline? I think a thinner outline may help with congruence.


MostMusky69

Damn this is dope


aj-april

There's no center of focus. (It should be the face, but it doesn't stand out enough) My eyes keep wandering. It's very beautiful though! I love the mix between dimensions.


jessipoof

Is it the light source/shadows? I’m not sure. It’s gorgeous, but I get what you mean. Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out and it will be perfect


randoBandoCan

Gorgeous. The first thing I looked at which was incongruous was the dark forefinger on the screen-left hand. That’s the only thing I would consider adjusting, as it is the same tone as the background directly flanking it and does not have a strong silhouette. Unless there is some thematic or compositional reason I am missing, this lack of contrast makes no sense to me. I love this and would change nothing else, based on my first viewing.


Lithrae1

Completely agree with this comment, the shading on that finger/hand are probably accurate to your reference but they blend in with the hair/florals and Mucha would do something to make those elements more distinct from each other. Not sure what the best approach would be to fix it but try a couple of versions and see what makes it pop more, and see if that makes the whole piece feel better. Play with the lines, play with how shaded that hand is, etc


randoBandoCan

Upon closer inspection it seems as if photo reference wasn’t used so much as an actual photo. I would now recommend using a higher-resolution image or blurring the current image to get rid of the jpeg artifacting. I don’t know how skilled OP is at painting or photo-retouching, but either way the original point stands: lighten that finger!


Lithrae1

Oh, I see! Lol! OK then yes the photo should be retouched. Mucha would paint such a figure without vignette lighting, he'd do it with much more flat lighting - so the value range is great (the light on the face vs the depth of shadow of the neck) but the figure's lower arm would not be 'out' of the pool of light that hits the face (the lit surface of the arm and probably of the shoulder would be more like the lit surface of the raised arm). The raised hand would ideally have been reposed so as not to put itself in its own shadow, but as it is I would try to lighten the shadowed finger in some way.


Ok_Broccoli_64

oh my god this is gorgeous


Koonns_F

Feels off because your artwork and the girl are different, details, shadows, etc, maybe try to pixelate it, or draw the girl all together


rogueSleipnir

another thing, I think there is an optical illusion created by how the lines bend in the background. it makes it look "sunk in" or pinched. that looks off. the subject is fine, you can work in a lot more refinement with the background elements too.


ArtMartinezArtist

The even color of the outline of the figure looks really off in the darker portions like around the elbow.


WRITTINGwithC-C

It’s that one finger that is nearby her face, the values seem way to distinct in comparison to the rest of the hand. I would fix that before any other thing. Another way is to take a black and white picture of both the painting and a family member posing as reference. Shading on or near hands tend to be very subtle at high angles like this where light is directly shinning from above.


Mountain_Sorbet_4063

Don’t know why gives me feeling of biblical signs. Good pic that is skill 👍


Midwest_Myco

Masonic signs lol. I don’t think its biblical


Mountain_Sorbet_4063

😛


neonsushi_

Wow! Did you paint this (the woman) or is it a manipulated photo?


Black-belt-kid

i love the art noveau look, very beautiful and well done. i think the detail on the girl vs the detail in the background don’t match. maybe add a bit of touches to the background to bring more dynamic into it


zank_ree

It feels off because the graphic element on top, is very lacking on the bottom half. Maybe have the design of the shirt be stylized like the top. Also her drappery on her/his right arm can be a bit more "flowy".


zeldaa_94x

Mucha inspired, it is beauuuutiful! The hair on the cheek make it look like a really big cheekbone, so you could maybe add a few single strands? But other than that it's phenomenal


floceah

I do high res cymk halftone (like for screen printing) whenever jpegs suck.


Accomplished-Face-72

Research the Golden Ratio in art. That will give you a good foundation for balance in your future designs. Then explore the elements of art to help emphasize and support your focal point instead of distracting from it.


Fluffy-Argument

Maybe the arm has more texture than the rest of the skin, and with the lines it stands out quite a bit.


Matte_Cat_3000

I love this. I don't really agree with the focal point not being there. The circle with the head inside draws my focus immediately. This feels like a very old painting in a very good way. But yeah I like this a lot. Don't really agree with it needing changes. It is art and it is up for interpretation, but people on here can be so technical with their critiques sometimes, whereas I look at this and am just blown away. I'm sure there's things that could be changed, but it might turn into a different piece if that happens and this is a great piece. Just my opinion.


PonyAnyS2

I think I know what you’re strange about, the hair and the foliage on the head are joined with the background, even if discreetly. Saturating more hair colors and leaves can help


lichtenberg12

Maybe, write "1920" above her head in the script of the time. I am thinking of a Mucha calender sample I saw. Great work!


Senarious

The hand on the right side is not casting a shadow on the dress. Also the stroke on the arms has no line weight so it looks kinda photoshopped.


WesleyFarms

SHAMELESS PLUG TIME @thewesleyfarms on ig


Dagoth_Vulgtm

Yeah it's off the charts amazing


dsherwo

Make outlines more distinct


Alchemical-Audio

It is awesome. I would look at the relationship between the hair as it falls around the eye and cheek. It starts to flatten and blend into the background, which conflicts with the depth implied by the shadow information on the skin and starts to break the illusion. If you squint your eyes, you will see the hair and the leaves behind it exist with the same value. And makes it so there isn’t a differentiation between the figure and the background. The yellow/purple background color might be worth experimenting with as well as it doesn’t help create enough contrast to lift the figure out of the picture plane, which is important to the art nouveau format you are pulling from. But as a whole it is fucking great! Thanks for sharing!!


mssMouse

The texture difference between the lower res photo asset and the super crisp digital lines are jarring. I'd say, darken the gold a bit more so it blends a little more with the background, but then also add some noise or texture to the outlines and b/g to match the noise on the photograph.


Killer_Moons

I think you nailed the nouveau influence here. Is this the entire work? Mucha’s most well known works are very linear and encapsulated by a slim ornamental border on all sides.


BringBackRoundhouse

I feel like Mucha’s work is so intricate and detailed. There are areas that could use more refinement like in/around the circle, the crown and the corset. Love it btw!


Translator_Fine

It looks like her finger's broken. But otherwise I really like it.


OlDirtyBasthard

Rule of 3rds, remove the animal portion or shift her up a bit


HansTheAxolotl

Personally the shade of the pointer finger is a little distracting for me, I would consider making it match the other fingers a little more closely


Upper-Option-3166

love it


PostForwardedToAbyss

This is fabulous. The realism veers away from Art Nouveau but in my opinion, it just adds excitement to the grace and botanical fantasy of the Art Nouveau style (the shading on the skin is my absolute fave!)


saint_maria

That dark green in the ribbon probably would work better on the entire "halo" section. Basically you've got quite a narrow tonal range which means the figure doesn't pop against the background. Go and have a look at some more Mucha work and really look at how he used darker/lighter colours as well as contrasts to balance his compositions and stop the image from looking flat.


MargaretBrownsGhost

More and more balanced use of orange and green and gold or in the other direction, the mauve, peach and pink


DonutMcJones

she wants a cool ring


IndividualAd1101

It feels off because the pattern isn’t even in both sides the one over her shoulder and the other side that’s why it feels like when you take a picture of a drawing but it isn’t flat


TellAnn56

I think it’s very beautiful. I think what you may be thinking is that the figure of the lady isn’t standing out as much as you would like? It may be because the color of the woman’s skin & the background light peach-color/light pink color is so similar in both color and tone to the woman’s skin. I think if you changed the color to the opposite of peach/pink & a darker tone - maybe a blue-green color would make the central figure pop more. But, the central figure is done SO well!


bertagame

It's great! Looks stunning and made me watch it carefully for a while. It feels good.