HOME | DD

Yuntoko [2019-04-05 15:41:23 +0000 UTC]

Hey there, I'm from ProjectComment !
You did a really good job choosing the colors to portray the fire, the entire image has a hot and fierce feel to it. The character also fits well into the image, I especially like her expression, the eye and faint smile give her a mysterious feeling. Overall I think this drawing turned out pretty well~

You asked for advice on composition, so I'll focus my comment on that:
Composition is all about intention and focus. You have to decide what your image is about and make everything else support your main focal point (Or focal points). For images like this, you would generally want the viewer's attention on the characters face.
For example, you have the face contrasting the bright background with the eyes being very bright again. This is already really good because contrast is one of the strongest ways to create focus. (The color of the eyes is a bit unrealistic though, I would either make them actually glowing or add subtle shading to add a bit more realism) However, I think there are a few things that could help make your image visually clearer.
First of all the gold on her clothing has these very intricate details, even though they aren't particularly important to the drawing as a whole. The lava on the hand also distracts the viewer. They look like an important part of the character, but placing them at the edge of the frame (and her left hand being partially cropped) was a somewhat odd choice. Usually, it's a good idea to keep the viewer's eyes inside the frame, by arranging important details more towards the center and using various techniques to guide the viewer's eyes. For example, one way would be to have things subtle pointing inwards/towards the face, i.e the tips of the flames, or the general flow of the hair...
On the topic of flow, it's also appealing to create a sense of movement in your composition. You do have some of that created by the flames and hair, but the pose feels very static. Placing your focal point in the center gives a very calm and stiff feeling. Placing your subject off center is a very basic technique in composition (Think rule of thirds or golden ratio). It would probably also be best to change the character to a less symmetrical pose and add some rotation in perspective for a more dynamic image (Which obviously poses and anatomy isn't exactly easy). If you were going for a calmer feel that's of course ok as well.
Lastly more dramatic lighting could add that extra punch to the image. I see some indication of lighting from the ground (matching the flames). Exaggerating this effect using very strong shadows could improve your drawing a lot.
Well, composition is a very broad topic and I'm barely scratching the surface here. A site I can recommend for learning it is www.ctrlpaint.com/ It covers various aspects of digital art with lots of short videos that mostly serve as an introduction to these topics, but it will at least teach you what there is to learn.

As for the flames, I would suggest adding more hard edges, keeping the background blurry is good from a compositional standpoint, but you should probably either go all the way, making it somewhat abstract almost like a gradient or go the other ways and embrace concrete shapes. I don't have any good resources for learning shape design or fire in particular, but you could look at effect animation in anime. (For example www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=… ). That might be personal taste, but I just love the way animators portray fire using shapes that a simple yet dynamic. You could also experiment with debris and rocks as accents.
I saw in the comments that those bubbles are supposed to be a bokeh effect, but I have to admit they just don't look like it. You would see these lense artifacts around bright spots, so the placement is a bit weird. The bokeh should also be brighter than the flames, and I think the background would be blurrier if there is so much bokeh. Making them perfectly circular (Or pentagon shaped depending on the effect you're going for) and keeping the size more constant could help eliminate some of the ambiguitiy.

Lastly, a few random things I noticed: There are some really weird grey spots of background close to the fingers and at the neck. It looks like carelessness to me?
"Ellipses aren't fish" A cylindrical form will always be rounded. That neckless tells me that you would greatly benefit from learning basic perspective (I recommend drawabox.com/ ).

I hope my comment has been useful. (And not too critical ). Have fun and keep drawing~

👍: 1 ⏩: 1

SwordSparks [2019-04-01 04:51:56 +0000 UTC]

The fire compliments her beauty.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

kokiriagrias231 [2019-04-01 02:45:16 +0000 UTC]

this is awesome

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

TheDarkEmperess [2019-04-01 00:24:40 +0000 UTC]

I   remember   Din's  fire. but    i  never   actually   imagined   what   din   would   look   like.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

InformalRain01 [2019-03-31 12:38:40 +0000 UTC]

Anyways, the detail is really good.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

InformalRain01 [2019-03-31 12:38:03 +0000 UTC]

I'd suggest learning more anatomy. It comes off as weird to me, but it's only the many minor mistakes that composes an overall strange elf body. Also, try not to make the fire too soft and blurry. Contrast is better. I'll upload part of water colour painting to give an example. Also, I don't think that fire has bubbles...?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1