I noticed that what I laughingly refer to as my portfolio has a jillion single-character, full-body poses, which is pretty boring.

As a step toward painting what I really want to be painting, I decided to do a group. I'd been reading about shape welding, so I approached this as compositional shapes first, worrying about what those shapes actually are later on. I'm also trying to inject more texture and mood into my work -- again, as a way of approaching how I want my work to look.

Some steps in this painting so far, representing about 5 or 6 hours total, including the usual dithering and noodling.

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Nick Avallone
AngryFungus Art Blog | Sketchbook

Can't fault your logic and it is looking swell.

Looks good so far. Nice job breaking up the foreground, middleground and background figures.

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Mark Hammermeister
http://www.markdraws.com
http://markdraws.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/markdraws

Wow this is really awesome! I think the orc at the foreground can be a tad bigger, so the scene will have even more depth.

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Yian 2012

Looks good. I liked the looser forms in the sketches too. In fact, I think the sharper elements in the forground character could be softened a little to bring some of that loosness back into it some more. There is a traditional feeling of water colour or inks in the earlier development that I think looks really strong.

I'd say you are on a right way Smolin (highway maybe ) to achieve your above goal. I like it a lot. I can't say I have mastered the composition, far from it, reading some books atm too, but that "perfect" triangle made of their spears distracts me a bit. If there is anyone willing to give an opinion on that triangle element or some comments according to composition advices, I'd be thankfull, because this is some opportunity for me and maybe not only me to learn something. I understand the triangular composition here, which the spears help to convey, but is it not too obvious? Just a question, coz I found myself struggling to decide.

Thanks for all the feedback, folks: it's much appreciated.

Yian, I think you're right about the scale of the foreground orc. I'll scale him up and possibly move him down and to the left a bit.

Dom, I'm struggling to keep the energy from the blotchy sketch and some of the looseness of those forms. I keep going too far and having to push things back. (But at least that adds texture!)

Hendryx, that is a great point. (<-- hahah, pun!)  I was excited about the triangle, and how it frames the foreground character as he seems to pop out of it, but I definitely don't want to beat people over the head with it. I'm thinking that as I flesh out the spears more and push them further into and out of the space, perhaps it won't look as blatant. It's definitely something I'll look out for.

Again, thanks for all the thoughtful comments and encouragement!

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Nick Avallone
AngryFungus Art Blog | Sketchbook

 

Really nice stuff!!!  Great grouping and depth.

I'm a firm believer in embracing the value in understanding abstract art (or rather the art of abstraction), and how it can quickly build a strong composition for any type of art.  

Shapes, spacing and angles!

 

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DA Gallery

My only critiques were going to be about a couple of potential tangents involving the foreground orc's hair braid, the bottom contour of the background orc's arm, and the knuckles of the midground orc's hand. But if the foreground fella is going to be resized and repositioned slightly (as you have said), then that should take care of those.

Otherwise, it's looking excellent.

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Some progress on this one. At this rate I'll be done with it in Summer of 2017.

 I'm planning on opening up the blacks a tiny bit, because they're getting too heavy. And there's still something funky going on around that orc's crest.

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Nick Avallone
AngryFungus Art Blog | Sketchbook