you're welcome radio :) 

 cheers for the comment: yeahh, i felt like making the hand more proud too, i wasnt quite sure how to make the hand more menacing with out changing the whole "about to grab" look, so i could probably add details to the hand to make it look more so. 

 i dunno may faff a little. 

thanks Dead_Meat!  ermm, i dunno lol,  they kinda disappeared, i work a lot of the time without thinking lol, an bits disappear an morph about, the orbs disappeared when i changed the arm, and only the top one was left, which i turned into a light source. as it resembled one. 

but i put the orbs back in as a like necklace, im not sure if it works, but i quite like the contrast of something feminine on a evil demon creature thing. 

i was thinking about what you said in your post: about the cross, and composition. ermm, firstly put most of you effort on the focal point, (atm i feel its the cross and the guy's expression, but whether thats what you wanted it to be im not sure lol) the fire's flow would take you nicely to the demon, just try an do that loosely so it doesn't take away from your focal point, then do the head with some nice details.

the cross: this is where i was thinking it's dependent on a stage: at the moment it looks like the demon has just burst from him, and he's kinda shaking his fist at it, but if it was more of a he's trying to force the demon back using the cross i would give him more of an extended arm, like thrusting the cross out, like that film.."The Power of christ compels you!!" which should mke it more dynamic an powerful :) with maybe more emphasis on the light emitting out of the cross.

i hope that helps, but i guess best thing would be to bring up a new layer an do some paint overs, trying different things.  :)   

heres my update :)  changes to lighting, anatomy, bits and bobs an added stuff :)  opinions?  

on a sorta nerdy artist step, i could blag that the bright light in the background is symbolic of heaven, and the lights are the stairway/ or steps to it,   the creature is looking at the soul of the viewer, and is about remove it because of their sins or "inner demons" or whatever

the eight orbs on the necklace represent the eight evil thoughts by Evagrius Ponticus ,  rather than the more common 7 deadly sins later revised by pope gregory. thought 8 would be cooler. 

...most of them were coincidences lol.  but i guess you could read into it like that... or you can make up your own :) 

anyway 

Enough chat! take Care 

lol oops here it is! 

Sorry for posting so many of these, but I really need some advice here. I did my sketch of the background and surprisingly, I actually like it :) Still, I'm completely new to composition and was hoping someone more seasoned could point out ways to make it better or just problems that it has.

Cheers and great stuff, everyone - we're gonna have really nice images for the challenge :D

 EDIT - Yaay, synchronised posting :D The thing is, I initially intended for three sort of focal points - the guy's expression, the demon's head and the cross. Then I started changing my mind about the cross and now I'm still not sure. I'll definitely try a few more poses for the hand and the cross, try to creat a triangle of some sorts between them maybe, or an overall movement leading down... I dunno. I hope the backgrounds help round the image off, definitely needed it, I'll see where all this takes me. Thanks for the comments :)

Ahh!! i was looking at your image, an i think i've found your problem. lol 

if you look at your first focal point [having the three will work fine! :) ] the guy's head, he's not actually looking at the fire demon; as the fire demon thing at the side of him, so it gives the flow of your fire a weird angle.

 i hope you don't mind, but I did a quick paint over to help show the issue. sorry its pretty crappy but i thought it may help.  if you put the monster at the top right, at more of a 3/4 perspective it makes it the image flow a bit better.

seeing as you rendered the guy's face really well, i thought it easy to change the fire demon. to save you hassle.

 it also i think it makes the demon look a lot more menacing. i gave the guy the more cross thrusting action i mentioned before, lol to show if it added a more dynamic powerful look.

i hope thats helps you! :D  

p.s i know that conceptart.org has good critiques, you don't get many but hopefully two forums are better than one :) 

haha sorry the demon wouldn't be at a 3/4 perspective (i was thinking of the guy's head when i wrote that)

um... not sure of what the rear version of a 3/4 is... but i guess, "draw the creature from a rear angle".. says it too :) 

Some really great stuff here

Joooeii - thats a truly disturbing demon

Dead_meat - loving how that is looking, really cool

Weazel - pretty wicked!

anyway here's a little update from me.  

Here is my first WIP, all crits and suggestions are welcome!

well it's time that i actually got started with this. have made another 3 pages just like the last one i posted and am starting on the images now. will try to do a few.

have only spent a few minutes on it so far and will probably end up changing a lot as i go. 

OMG Robin! where do you come up with these ideas? what are your dreams like!!! 

this is going to be a cool image, it reminds me of a story my Dad told me, about a man he used to work with (who was extremely normal) the man went to church and had an 'exorcism' (part of his religion i believe) and he later told my Dad that he'd been exorcised of a demon, and the demon was a pig, which he sicked up, right there in the church...  And then he was no longer 'normal' in my Dads eyes! ..... lol! 

kaz: actually made 4 pages of odd ideas. this is just the first one im working on, will try to get to the others if i can. not sure what my dreams are like, i cant remember them. perhaps i'm repressing the memory. i blame it on watching horror movies with my older brothers since i was a toddler.

and kaz, that's some story you have there. if someone sicked up a pig, i dont think anyone would concider them normal after that.  

Update.

 I really like what I'm seeing in this thread everyone!

Here is my second WIP. Really looking forward to doing the demon face. The mirror will be tricky I reckon. Anyone any comments or suggestions on my work so far?

118277     WIP 3   Any crits?

Ok, will start with things one by one:

@Tector - it's coming along great - love the gritiness, especially on the feet, gives it a nice dirty feel :) One thing though - the head of the priest seems a bit skewed and its gotten more pronounced now, with the lighting and shadows...

@conjunctionman - yeah, the mirror's gonna require a lot of work, to partition the reflection along with the different shards. Nice expression though, although giving it even more of a desperate look is gonna be even better :)

@pogo - love the red mist/flames. I think you should really work on their bases, make it seem as if the skin is peeling away or cracking, revealing the mist and allowing it to flow out of the body. However you ground the mist actually, make sure it interacts with the skin in a nasty way - it'd look great and will be a nice counterbalance to the otherwise very beatiful lady. Then again, I love drawing wounds and overall gross stuff, so it might just be me :)

@Fantus - this really reminds of White Wolf's World of Darkness - really moody shadows (literally as well as figuratively ;)). Nice :D

@Joei - dont have to excuse yourself for anything, mate, that's exactly what makes forums like ImagineFX's so great :) Actually having someone spend their time to explain and even sketch out advice is really, really helpful and valuable, so thanks :) it's always appreciated

The suggestions you make definitely have a point. I myself tried several hand poses, having each of the two arms handle the cross in different ways and I guess the best pose was the one u drew - left arm outstretched, the cross up in the air. The light rays is a nice idea - I had it in mind from the sketch but it always interfered with the flames and i couldnt really do it well. If I have clear dark space b/n the cross and the demon though, i not only can have the rays but actually have them burn a hole through the demon's body - which looks really cool :) As for the demon, yeah, I guess I felt it before but now that you mention it, I see it for sure and will see what I can do about it. The problem is, I seem to be then losing the "energy" in the demon if I change the perspective, and then I mess up the composition completely and aaaarrrgghhh, and then I completely block :) Not to mention that I also have to rearrange the background =| So I'll leave it alone for a day, plus I'm doing a piece for the Bi-weekly challenge and I only have a week to do that, starting from scratch.

Still, Ill get back to it in the weekend and keep working on it. Here's a quick sketch, to see what I did and maybe tell me if you think I'm right or wrong: