catzombie, I like your sketch so far! It still feels a little jumbled to me, but keep going!

Okay, I've extended the right side of mine a bit, added some background and foreground elements and I think I'm finally getting somewhere. It's hard for me to get used to doing things in grayscale and I wanna start coloring already!

I figured I'd do some critique for people. 

@Bergy68: The sketch looks very promising, looking forward to see where you go with this :)

@Wreckluse: I feel like your piece would be stronger with a different composition. Right now the monster is simply in the center, taking almost all attention. If you were to move it over more to the right and leaving more of the left open for Tarra to take attention of the viewer it'd be more equal attention between the two.

@gnuchi: Your piece has a couple issues I've noticed. For one, there really isn't any definite light source. In some spots it looks like there is light coming from above but in some it doesn't look like that, below the bull it appears that there's a light coming from behind the bull both from the left and the right. You can't just improvise for all this lighting, if you study rim lighting you'd see that isn't how lighting works on edges like that. Also Tarra's jacket and the bull's face seem to be the brightest parts of the piece, but nothing else, that kind of lighting is very strange and if done would cause drop shadows from both Tarra and the bull's head and horns. So I think before rendering any further try and work on a clear light source, it'd make your piece much stronger. Also, try and find a good reference for the monster, I'd do a google search for bulls and try and apply what you see from the images to your monster. Keep it up :)

@grumbleputty: I really like how everything is played out in this piece, only thing that really concerns me is the fire in the back giving off no light whatsoever to the monster. Also, I'm not sure if you know about phallic symbols or not... but... uh... your monster is a huge one. So maybe fix that or keep it, I don't know it's your choice ha.

@catzombie: I like your piece so far, but it seems extremely tight and crammed together. There's so much open room on the canvas and all of the attention is placed in the center and slightly on the left and right. Try and use the curve you have to the creature you're using to your advantage, and the girl is only showing slightly, you could show more of her either on the left or right to even out the space. I really like the idea though :) 

Gutted i missed last months challenge, came down with some bug thats going round I just didn't have the energy for it! Anyway, I'm fully charged and ready to have another go...

Haven't really looked through this thread yet so I'll check out how everyone is doing tomorrow or something and sure there are some uber starts already :)

Finally managed to spend a little more time on this. Lots of experimenting with styles, so I feel like I've already painted this about 4 times.

wip 2

forrest_i@yahoo.com:

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@grumbleputty: I really like how everything is played out in this piece, only thing that really concerns me is the fire in the back giving off no light whatsoever to the monster. Also, I'm not sure if you know about phallic symbols or not... but... uh... your monster is a huge one. So maybe fix that or keep it, I don't know it's your choice ha.

...

Thanks for the feedback forrest_i! You're quite right about the lighting- I've spent some time working on that, and I think I've got it fixed now. As for the Freudian implications of my creature, I did notice it after I'd worked on it for a little while, and while it wasn't intentional, it's pretty hard to ignore. I'm going to need to figure out how to deal with that.

Gnuchi, the spacing looks much better now, plus I like the framing with the grass.

Keep going! 

Making some progress- I changed the creature's head quite a bit, so perhaps Sigmund Freud can stop spinning in his grave now! Started to make some progress on Tarra as well, but I can tell already that's where I'm really going to struggle.

Now, gotta give some crits to get some, so here goes:

 @gnuchi: Like where this is headed! I'd consider changing your composition a bit to guide the viewer's eye towards Tarra's face a bit more- I think the jagged forms in the background pull the eye up away from the focus of the piece- I think the background in your last WIP was more successful. You also might try shifting Tarra and her friend off towards the right- keeping the main focus out of the center of the image can sometimes add interest. Lastly, I'd try adding some motion to the end of the cape- it could add a nice bit of energy, and you can really use the red fabric to draw the viewer's eye in a spiral towards the face.

@Disco Matt:  Really charming- their expressions are priceless. Looking forward to seeing your next steps.

@catzombie: Wow, I really like what you've started to develop here. I think if you can work the silhouette of her torso and hips behind the creature you'll establish their relationship to one another a bit more, and that might help the arms read better as being around the creature's neck. I really appreciate the emotion you're bringing to this.

@Zinc: Very nice work-I really like the attitude she gives off. Keep an eye on the foot in the foreground- I think the toes might be too cartoony, and overall it's not up to the level of the rest of your figure. Since it's not really where you want the eye to stop, I think you could get away with a much looser rendering style there, maybe just suggesting the toes with a few brushstrokes. You might try making your creature a bit more unusual too- right now it's easy to dismiss as just a girl with an eel.

@Forrest_i: Fantastic concept, and your design for Tarra is great. I don't know if the creature's pose works with the idea you're going for- I suspect he's supposed to be forming from the smoke, but I guess my expectation is that he'd form face first, and trail into smoke towards his back. Right now his pose is in opposition to the energy of the smoke...OK, I'm not sure that last sentence makes any sense at all, but hopefully you can see what I'm failing to say.

@Bergy68: I'm not sure I could love this more. Angling the horizon line is a perfect touch.

Lots of great work everyone!

Just a rather swift update, it's been ages since I have been able to get back to my painting. I will leave some feedback on other's later, but for now, please feel free to tell me what you think of mine.

Loads of good entries in this challenge!

Thanks for the feedback grumbleputty. Yeah, the foot...ahem. I hate drawing feet anyway and the angle of this one was giving me a lot of grief so I was ignoring it in the hope it might go away. I've had a diddle and while still not great, its a little better than it was. I was going to go for a really mean barracuda type face on the monster, but you are right, after seeing all the other weird and wonderful beasties in the challenge it looked a bit tame. So I added more tentacles! You can never go wrong by adding more tentacles :) I really need to think of a background for this too, but so far it is eluding me.

I really like the change to your monster grumbleputty, although I preferred the mean scowl on Tarra from your earlier wips. It gave me the impression that when she has a temper tantrum the scary friend beast came out to play.

wip 3

I actually thought the same as Zinc, in reference to your pic Grumbleputty. I liked the scowl she wore in the first wip as well. It gave her that 'I dare ya to try it' look. The bg is looking very nice btw. ... And nice touch on the sucker marks left behind on her thigh Zinc. Guess that's where he started, since he's undoing her clothing now! :) ... Domtopia, looking good. Are you going to lighten it some more? Just be nice to see these guys a little better. ... Cool sketch Matt. Really like the simple interaction of these two. .... & Good to see you posting again, rorke. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I've tried to incorporate some of everyone's advice. I'm working in color now since I just couldn't stand greyscale anymore. But I've still got a black color layer on top to make sure my values are still looking okay.

I've changed the snout of the bull to make it look more... bull-like. I also added a curl at the bottom of the cape and toned the background shapes down a bit. I still have a loooot more work to do, but I'm learning a lot and trying new things. This is definitely a deviation from my normal subject matter! I will try to post some critiques on everyone's pieces later today!

No time to stop and post some feedback, its the middle of the night :) I will come back in a few hours and post some then.

Im pretty happy with where this has gone, adding colour next... Bunny eyes will be last :)