Crystal Spider

[Cupcake]

This was an avatar for a guy on another forum, but he went with a different one so I'm just going to keep playing with it to see if I can make it better.



Any suggestions? I feel like the head is a little weak compared to the abdomen and I couldn't really get the eyes to pop. I tried a version with them white/glowing, but I didn't much care for it:

[Grimsane]

I agree with you, while not too bad, i think it would be better to establish stronger planes in the head like you have on the abdomen, the glowing eyes is an interesting idea but will lose their readability and effect without greater contrast to the surrounding pixels, also if you wanted to stear away from a stylized look and wanted to push the realism a bit more, you might want to work on the legs a bit, at the moment the set of legs on the left side (viewer relative) aren't making contact with the ground the same way as the right set, and would only work in the scenario of being in an web with angled perspective, and the 3rd leg in on the right is looks a bit awkward especially in context with the other legs, so I'd remove the overlap and replicate the same positioning as the left set, you haven't made it look like it's in motion so it's not entirely logical for anylegs to be in such positions. the foremost leg on the right side if not raised in anticipation should also come back in line. the shadows don't seem entirely consistent either.

pretty solid so far otherwise 

[Cupcake]

Thank you! That's all really helpful advice, I'll try to apply some of it when I get a chance. Looking at it I think I got confused while shading the legs and forgot which one was meant to be where - I don't think I originally intended the weird overlap that's going on on the right.

[Facet]

Nice, this is totally up my street .

The crystal effect does appear opaque and matt outside the cental, hexagonal facet. I've sketched how I might push that sense of reflection and refraction; notice I've given adjacent planes unique base values to establish differences in angle (the more reflective a material the more heightened this effect and polished gemstones are right up there) and also really leveraged the darker shades for nice shiny constrast. Random shapes can look fairly plausible for the refractive stuff but specific patterns appropriated from ref. look even better.

I liked the glowing eyes , seemed more supernatural.



Edit - Also, spiders don't have a separate head; just a fused head/thorax combo (technically cephalothorax) & abdomen.

[Grimsane]

great example, I'm glad you commented on that, and provided a great example, it did cross my mind but was mostly concentrating on the form in my critique, and didn't wanna elaborate on something I couldn't give pointed illustrative advice beyond image links. and I've been editing too much as it is anyway and I need to study and get skills to render gems and refractive objects actually.

The current shading makes it look like a carapace more so than a crystal body, it mightn't hurt to (after fixing the form) make 2 variations, one more organic than the existing one, and another reinforcing the crystal direction you are doing incorporating the suggestions so poignantly illustrated by Facet

[Cupcake]

Facet, that's a wonderful edit, thank you! What a fitting thing for you to help with. I'm not all that familiar with shading transparent, shiny objects like gems, and I struggled to find a good reference for this so I ended up just winging it. I'll definite take into account your edit.

I should've included my references: this was a request and the guy who wanted it included this and this as references. I ended up sort of mixing the two and going for more of a faceted gemstone feel.
The anatomy isn't accurate, I may end up trying to combine the head and thorax when I work on this. Maybe I'll do a more realistic-feeling one and a more fantasy-shiny one, like you suggested, Grimsane.

[Facet]

Thanks, we ought to find a forum member called 'grass tile'

Anyway; decent ref. isn't so hard to find if you search for the name of the cuts etc. Both of your current inspirations are nice, especially that warcraft one, but also have heads! Also; when you start adding coloured scenery into the equation as well it can get really intricate. Intricately great ; just be sure to clarify facing faces for readability.

btw: totally agree with Grim 'bout the legs & appearance of an exoskeleton.