I risk sounding like an ass here, but I need to point out that this, like a fair amount of your work, is coming out to look like a solid rubber figurine, or one of those sculptures crafted from a 3d model by a machine with lasers that carve out the forms.
In short, it's perfect, and not in the good way (:O?).
I'll explain. Most of the time you put any work up for show, it's IMMEDIATELY recogniseable as an Indigo character, because it's massive, in a dramatic pose, and has a distinct display of at least one group of massive muscles. The whole piece is usually rendered cleanly, well, and with a fantastic choice of colours. The volumes are all there, the force is there, and the message of "I AM A MEAT TRUCK, DON'T MESS WITH ME" rings loud and clear.
All very good, but it gets boring.
My opinion on where you should go with this piece is something leaning toward what helm is saying. I think. Try and break out of the traditional Indigo character and add a bit of frailty or some kind of weakness to him. Give him something to stand for, give him some kind of background and history. Try make him look like the world's biggest, buffest nature-loving greenpeace advocate if you must, but for goat's sake try break out of this same-old-same-old that's only brining you down!
Yep. That's my opinion on the Indigo work I've seen. Now, for some piece-specific crits:
There are some tension issues with the cloth, what with it being tight as the devil's wife in some places but showing slack on the opposite end. Most notably seems to be around his neck, where it's tight all the way up his gut, pecs and practically strangling him at the neck... but when you look at the hood, it's hanging free and loose. Though probably physically possible, probably not comfortable, and something he's likely to fix (assuming he can still reach his own neck with those arms of his
).
The seams seem wierd. Is that a zipper going down the front of the hoodie? It looks like a single, simple overlap seam, and if I were to make a hoodie and had to put a single seam in somewhere, you can bet I wouldn't put it straight in the middle of the hoodie. In the event that it's a zipper, it might be good to have the zipper open a bit to support the idea that the hoodie is stretched over his manliness. The seam in his pants has the same issue, though it's a different kind of manliness that it's stretched over, so bringing that zipper down might be a little less appropriate.
Skateboard seems short when compared to his casual stance. Plus I think those long ones that taper to a point look cooler. But that's just me.
Pose is making it look like his backpack is ridiculously heavy, as if he's got to stand like that to maintain balance. Y'know, it might be cool if you ran with that notion and made his backpack a HUGE TOWER OF SKATEBOARDING STUFF or whatever he's in to.
I think that's all I've got to say. I still love your work, Indigo, and can't wait to see what else you can do!
