AuthorTopic: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge  (Read 8472 times)

Offline Alonso

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Re: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge

Reply #10 on: November 29, 2009, 08:15:29 pm
It's a very nice process you've here. I like the composition and the simpleness :)

Personally, I tend to get confused with the last one. Although stylistically it's a better choice, it gets somewhat unreadable for such a small piece. Long hair also helps determine the position/orientation of the head (and since it lags behind the body's movement, it hints at what kind of movement the person was performing moments ago), which is something you might or might not want to suggest to the viewer. Also, the highlight in the background could recede a bit more like Tourist's edit, methinks.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2009, 08:17:46 pm by Alonso »

Offline Monochrome

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Re: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge

Reply #11 on: November 29, 2009, 08:52:37 pm
Update! Thanks Tourist & CrazyMLC for the suggestions.

Here's my take:



I loved the fullness of the girls hair in Crazy's edit but took Tourist's advice about incorporating the flourishes from the right side. I also love the addition of the hips. I edited the background a little but I may revert to the original. I do like the flourishes coming from the hand.

I like how you used a pattern for the hair in order to look similar to the one on the wall, but keep in mind this makes the hair look a bit flat. So try to disguise the pattern a bit , I say. Like if you had to focus on the image for a bit until noticing the similarity. Perhaps adding some highlights and making it look a bit more "hairy"
« Last Edit: November 29, 2009, 08:55:17 pm by Monochrome »
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Offline EyeCraft

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Re: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge

Reply #12 on: November 30, 2009, 03:04:41 am
Hi khorin, nice piece you've got going.

You started with a really strong, flowing gesture, which was really good. However, you've started to break this by moving the hair out of line with it. Think of the figure as a few strong lines of motion that the eye follows. All aspects of the figure should pull together to communicate these lines. So even though it might not make so much physical sense for the hair to curve (well, she could be twisting, it makes sense to me), you should have the hair follow the line of the gesture.



The shading needs tightening, I believe. The black you have in your palette is really a waste of a very precious slot in your colours. I replaced with a pink that can buffer between the higher parts of the palette, and be used for shading the skin more. Lightened the second darkest blue, too.

The other issue I think is composition. You need to balance it more, give more room for the eye to relax. Negative space, in other words. I dulled the bottom-left corner to add interest and to stop the eye leaving the image there, and also to balance an emphasised top-right corner. The swirls in the right of the image need less dominance and more of a selected accentuation in order to make them work within the composition.

The idea for the swirls in the hair is really great. Emphasis it both with the hair's silhouette, and with the shading. I only did it a little here, but you could really incorporate the patterns of swirls into the shapes of the shadows and highlights.

Offline EvilEye

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Re: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge

Reply #13 on: November 30, 2009, 03:59:24 am
Nice edit EyeCraft :y: I like the hair texture idea.

I think the edit by TheOne had more convincing posture. Yours looks more like slow-dancing then belly-dancing. Still nice though.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2009, 04:01:20 am by EvilEye »

Offline khorin

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Re: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge

Reply #14 on: November 30, 2009, 05:07:42 am
O_O

Wow, Eyecraft, what a wonderful edit! Man oh man, I wish I had seen this before I submitted. Seeing your edit opened up possibilities. Thankfully, the deadline is in pacific time so I'll take this opportunity to make changes. Thanks so much!

Offline khorin

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Re: Belly dancer - 8 Color Music Challenge

Reply #15 on: November 30, 2009, 04:02:37 pm
Done...for now...maybe.  :lol:



I have to thank all of you who gave suggestions and posted edits. I really appreciate it! I've learned a lot about color usage with this piece.