Combat Dragonfly

[EvilEye]

It's clear you put a lot of work into this guy and it does look nice, however it also looks very surreal due to the habit of rounding everything out. The arms, the backpack, the legs even the wings look spherical. I think this is mainly a problem of not studying any reference and just putting shadows and lighting where you guess they should be. If you want to bump your work up to the next level you should study how light interacts with objects in real life.

[Zweckform]

Hello,

It's clear you put a lot of work into this guy and it does look nice, however it also looks very surreal due to the habit of rounding everything out. The arms, the backpack, the legs even the wings look spherical.

Hmm, this was intended. All parts are supposed to be rounded.

I think this is mainly a problem of not studying any reference and just putting shadows and lighting where you guess they should be. If you want to bump your work up to the next level you should study how light interacts with objects in real life.

You are right, i did not use a reference for lighting/shadows here. You think some variation in form would help this piece ? Don't get me wrong, i seriously want to understand the problem you see here, but its hard without a tangible example.
Maybe you could add some detail so i can understand it better ?

[EvilEye]

Well I tried my hand at a partial edit.



I edited the left half only.

Looking at it closely I see a lot of "pillow-shading" ( shading a shape inward ). You do this in a lot of spots.

You're coloring also looks very grainy, like stone, not like metal. Metal is clean and shiny. I didn't get a good metal look myself but I think I did a better job defining volume. Even that is tough because you have some detail there that is confusing.

You're way too heavy on the black, and you make it worse by adding dark colors around the black outlines. I can't think of a term for the look that this creates but let's just say it looks amateurish. Adding black outlines to all the little detail flattens the image. You just don't have enough space to outline all the little detail in black. Use contrasting colors to make detail.

Your wings look like big stone paddles. Why the bulge in the middle? Why aren't they straight? If they are going to curve it should look more aerodynamic.

And I'm sure there was something else I was going to say but it escapes me at the moment. Hopefully my less-then-perfect edit will illustrate what I mean.

[Zweckform]

Hello,

ok thanks for the details, will make some tests with that. Your edit made it much clearer.

[mrblu]

  I'm down with your mecha dragonfly.  And I'm cool with metal panels for the wings, as I assume they are only there for looks.

Maybe this will help :3

[Zweckform]

Hello,

here is an edit of the Dragonfly based on EvilEyes objections. I think its actually an improvement and i found that i neglected the overall flow of the light in the earlier versions.



@mrblu: Its not supposed to copy a dragonfly but look similar. In fact i tried to get away from the exact original form while keeping its main characteristics.