Man on Fire [C+C]

[MysteryMeat]

Got a mental image I felt like drawing, I'm not 100% on the final product so I'm gonna pop this in here! Big problems I have are a slightly-abstracted concept of 3d space, something I realized I'm not fully down on when I tried to do a painting a day ago. Any advice for starting on that kind of topographical stuff is good, but more immediate crits on the piece are also welcome!

Tried to play around with colors and composition a lot here too, going for a kind of intense, stressful, and angry vibe with it.

From my notes made when I had the idea:
Spoiler

Face leaning forward with bugged-out stare, fire emanating from top and back of skull as if head is exploding outwards in a strong wind or quick movement. Heavy use of orange and red with dark brown/black background

(colors tweaked to include blues and greys, for contrast and a better look hopefully)

[MysteryMeat]

Still looking for any help on this, really trying to figure out colors!
Earthy tones are still pretty hard for me, fire effects also! Any advice appreciated, thank you!

[MtheDV]

I really like the expression on the face, but I feel for the fire you definitely could use more natural 'fire looking' colours.
I took a quick try at making the fire a bit more natural, adding in more red/orange colours to the flames, definitely not perfect:


It reminds of Hades from the Disney Hercules movie,


Just my thoughts.

[MysteryMeat]

Good stuff, hades was deffo a good comparison point. I'll check pics of him for ideas.

The problem with that though is it doesn't have the heat I'm going for.
I'm going specifically for blue fire, because it tends to burn hotter and be more visually striking.

However, the solidity of the flames is something your edit does fix, I want the outer edges to be slightly transparent looking but that "second core" step should be more opaque and bright. Problem becomes how to make that work in the gradient though...

[heyguy]

I feel the red fire of the hair and the red background aren't working with each other. I googled blue fire and can't find many true examples of the effect. Right now, on quick glance, I think your character looks like one of those action figures with clear/translucent hair against a red background. I would give the fire hair a brighter, more neon look close to the scalp and "cool" it down to warmer, deeper reds at the end.

https://wiseblooddotnet1.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/t8751175-bunsen_burner-spl.jpg
https://activerain-store.s3.amazonaws.com/image_store/uploads/5/0/3/6/6/ar130603303466305.jpg
https://wiseblooddotnet1.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/t8751175-bunsen_burner-spl.jpg

[MysteryMeat]

Good pointers, I've revised it a few ways here. First I redid the fire a bit to stretch more backwards, but otherwise it was just color and line tweaks.





Of these three, I'm not sure which looks "best." I'm leaning towards option 1 slightly, but I pose them to you before I decide

[eishiya]

I like that magenta in 2 and 3, but I also like the yellow tips in 1. Have you tried some sort of combination of both?
I think the light pink at the base of the flame looks unnatural/unflame-like, maybe a darker blue might work, or a smoother transition from the already-bluish skin tone to the magenta?

[MysteryMeat]

Maybe! I have to focus on another piece first, but I'll try playing with that. the border's supposed to help it contrast between the grey of the face and light blue of the flame's core, but now that you mention it it does look a bit weird to me now.

Doesn't help pink's one of the weird colors for me and my colorblindness, purple and blue are basically the same color for me at a glance and pink and brown just... whoof.

[yaomon17]

I like the blue more.

[MysteryMeat]

I like the blue more.

Yo, fuck man, I am gonna study the shit out of that fire effect you did

 I just got the stuff I did done too so here's my own color tweak before I move on to to attempts at replicating THAT noise


Relatedly, if you got any good guides for drawing better face topography I'd be super appreciative