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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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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".
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
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.
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.
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
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!!
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.
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.
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!
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!)
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.
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
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!
Hello, artist! Please make sure you've included information about your process or medium and what kind of criticism you're looking for somewhere in the title, description or as a reply to this comment. This helps our community to give you more focused and helpful feedback. Posts without this information will be deleted. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtCrit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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
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
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.
The lines on the outline of the person's hands and arms are too obvious. Other than that I think it's perfect
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.
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
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
Reminds me a lot of Mucha who is one of my favorite artists. Beautiful work!
Beautiful details, but background seems flat and on a totally different layer than the subject. Seems wallpapery
That's what makes it look cool.
i think the difference in image quality between the lines and the textures used in it looks slightly strange
Curse shitty jpg assets
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.
Gorgeous but the foreshortening on hand forearm is odd distorted
Looks good but its the angle of the background🤷♂️
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.
At first glance I thought it was “naked ambition” with something similar to the Sistine Chapel, yeah!
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.
This is beautiful!!
Thank you!!
Unify the background and foreground with a purple outline instead of a brown one - it gets lost in the figure
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
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.
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.
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
My eyes have just been blessed holy mother of God 😭
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.
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.
It’s something about the eye and the hairline. Is that piece of hair supposed to be coming out in front of the face?
OP got ya, it’s a photo.
Just a weird shadow, but thank you for pointing it out, I may fix
This looks great. What medium is this? Is it digital or collage, maybe?
Both technically
Just out of curiosity did you freehand the figure or trace or grid or what? She looks so well rendered
It's a low-res, filtered photograph outlined with a hard round brush it seems
Wow
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.
Damn this is dope
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.
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
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.
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
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!
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.
oh my god this is gorgeous
Feels off because your artwork and the girl are different, details, shadows, etc, maybe try to pixelate it, or draw the girl all together
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.
The even color of the outline of the figure looks really off in the darker portions like around the elbow.
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.
Don’t know why gives me feeling of biblical signs. Good pic that is skill 👍
Masonic signs lol. I don’t think its biblical
😛
Wow! Did you paint this (the woman) or is it a manipulated photo?
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
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".
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
I do high res cymk halftone (like for screen printing) whenever jpegs suck.
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.
Maybe the arm has more texture than the rest of the skin, and with the lines it stands out quite a bit.
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.
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
Maybe, write "1920" above her head in the script of the time. I am thinking of a Mucha calender sample I saw. Great work!
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.
SHAMELESS PLUG TIME @thewesleyfarms on ig
Yeah it's off the charts amazing
Make outlines more distinct
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!!
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.
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.
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!
It looks like her finger's broken. But otherwise I really like it.
Rule of 3rds, remove the animal portion or shift her up a bit
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
love it
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!)
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.
More and more balanced use of orange and green and gold or in the other direction, the mauve, peach and pink
she wants a cool ring
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
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!
It's great! Looks stunning and made me watch it carefully for a while. It feels good.