I haven't touched this in a dragon's age. Huge update!
The background and how much I didn't like it were my biggest problems with the piece so I decided to overhaul it completely for the sake of pushing this out of my WIP folder. Large overhauling was done on the monkey. I feel that the fur is a bigger step in the right direction compared to how I was going about it last year. As far as the current background I've got laid out so far goes, I was planning on adding something toward the bottom of the canvas hinting that it's the thing he's ramping off of, but as I kept moving him around to get a feel for where I wanted him to be placed I grew fond of the presentation without any visible ramp or launch site in view. If it looks too out of place as this progresses maybe I'll have a vine following in the background to suggest maybe that's where the momentum came from before he let go and this picture was taken.
We shall see.
And it's purely coincidence that I started this almost exactly a year ago, I didn't even notice until I went back and checked the date I started this thread on, haha. I haven't touched it hardly before today since then. Happy anniversary, ape guy.
I would love any critique on the background or whatever nitpicks you can muster. After taking a look at Henk Nieborg's works on background environments I wanted to give a shot at layering my backgrounds more for the amazing depth he portrays. I will detail it more than it is right now, for sure - I've barely got any lighting going on so far - but my biggest issue is always background composition so I wanted that to feel good before going into that yet.
Thanks for viewing.