[WIP] Progression of the Squid

[Magides]

I did this in about 3 hours (trying very hard) although I would like to make the body / eye more interesting.
I feel like my shading needs improvements but after several attempts I just keep ending up back in the same spot.


I'm kind of proud of the tentacles because I think they look pretty cool   but would definitely like any and all criticism.

[Magides]

Update:  Not sure if these "waves" and bubbles look too similar to tentacles.

[tehwexxl0rz]

Before you start worrying about background details, I would focus on making the body/eye more interesting like you said. I imagine the subject would have a slippery, rubbery texture but that's not reflected in the lighting. I'd recommend playing around with specular highlights!

Also for the eye, it might help to think of the iris as a concave disc. The iris would receive light on the side opposite of the light source, but the transparent surface of the eyeball would catch the light directly, creating two distinct highlights. Hope that helps!

EDIT: I just noticed you have a highlight along the left side of the body, which is making the squid look flat. Focus on using light to define the subject's volume.

[Magides]

Hey thanks!   I'll definitely research and do some updates

[Magides]

Okay I tried a bit of the suggestion, yet I'm afraid of using additional colors to add more of an eyeball glare. So I used the highlight of the iris, though not sure if it looks good or not.



Edit: Should I even worry about restricting my color palette ?

[tehwexxl0rz]

It's good to keep the size of your palette manageable, but you could definitely benefit from a few more colors. More importantly, you should try to get as much range out of your colors as possible. Your yellows are so close together you might as well be using one color. The same could be said for a couple of your purple shades.

The new placement of highlights on the body seems very random...
I'll try to do an edit later if I have time.

[jinza]

this is how it should look well it's pretty close i edited it. And he's right about the extra colors they do give it more detail to the piece i changed a few of your palette colors and replaced them with lighter ones(left side of the squid) added some dithering b/c i saw you trying to blend colors by sitting them next to each other that only usually makes gradient instead of shading

[tehwexxl0rz]

Hope this helps.



I might have gone a little overboard... There are a couple things I added like anti-aliasing and a secondary light source.

[Magides]

Wow, both examples are absolutely amazing!  I'll have to step it up a notch, it seems

[PypeBros]

iirc, squid rather had a bar-like pupil and a "body" made of two segments.