Flying troll?

[Tremulant]

I've been working on this for.. a bit. I think it's still pretty much a WIP, but I thought I throw it out for crits/suggestions... the usual.




I think it looks like it's driving a flying magic stump bike. It wasn't exactly intentional
13 colours+ background.

[Dhaos]

vroom vroom >_> Great detail in a sickening...gurgling sorta way. Might consider increasing the saturation of the troll's brightest skin tone so its not really a pale green. Adding some dark/pale green highlights to the hair might be neat as well.

[Helm]

you're definately wasting close-to-blacks still. Is your monitor calibrated?

[Tremulant]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Dhaos: I just checked the saturation on the brightest tone and it's maxed out. I think it might just be shade, so I'm gonna do some tweaking there and see what I can do. I tried some rushed highlights too, but they looked bad so I decided I'd post it without and see what people thought.

Helm: It's either not, or it's the way I sit (it's an LCD monior and the pic's placement on the screen affects contrast). It's been frustrating me for awhile now, but I don't know how to fix it. My desk isn't a computer desk, and neither's my chair, so I'm at kind of a funny angle to the screen...

EDIT:
Did an edit based on Dhaos' suggesttions. Upped the saturation/contrast on the whole image, highlighted hair. Posted beside original for... well, mainly personal refernce. Oh yeah, and I'm probably still being wasteful but I got rid of a near black.

^New one

[baccaman21]

tis beaut...

nice touches on the hair... capturing the flow nicely.
Great limited pallette used creatively.

Good use of dither and AA.

[Faktablad]

Try putting some more cast shadows in.  You've done a great job with shading, and showing how the troll is affected by the light, but I don't see any cast shadows.  Remember that shapes block light, especially with such an intense lightsource.  I'd especially like to see a big cast shadow from his arm onto his torso.  Keep up the excellent work.

[Syn]

Really nice work, from the actual concept to the endwork. But I'm curious, is the nose like over the eyes or is that a general hole?

[Tremulant]

Thanks, guys, for the replys. Wasn't sure on the highlights cause of my damn monitor (or maybe it's just me ). Looking at it, I think that "probably still being wasteful" bit might have come off sounding sarcastic, but I meant it. I really can't tell!

Baccaman21: Thanks man! Glad you like it. Means even more coming from someone with your level of accomplishment

Faktabald: Cast shadows, right. I Thought something looked off. I'll give that a shot, and see how it turns out. Heh, It could take a few tries before I figure it out.

Syn:...heh, yeah, that's its nose up there (I don't get it either)

[Dhaos]

Nice subtle improvements. I checked both images and the brightest green highlight has a saturation of 64%...?

Btw is the image style supposed to be rather sharp? Alot of the lines still seem a bit too crisp, however I'm an AA~blend whore, so that's probably clouding my judgement (or lack thereof).

Lastly, you may consider contrasting the orb with some darker tones near the bottom. They tend to look cooler with dark reflective tones mixed in. However, if its supposed to be glowing intensely, consider adding a white halo with light beams around it (not touching the orb, but rather 3-4px away from the orb itself)

Probably didn't mention it before, but that guy really needs some reconstructive surgery.

[Tremulant]

Heh, yeah. My mistake about the saturation. I checked it in the program I was working in and it was at 240 (which was as high as I could go),but it was only like 30-ish in photoshop though, so... shows what I know.

I was going to put it on a background, too, and if I did I probably would have AA'd the edges more, but I was strapped for ideas so he got a gray field instead.

I like the orb suggestions alot. I'm going to have to look into the reflective sphere bit, cause I love how they, but I've never look at them closely enough to learn anything. failing that, i'll toy with the halo. I think it is supposed to be at least a semi-intense light source, so it might make more sense anyway.

He's definitely isn't pretty, is he? I did the lineart about the same time I finished Frankenstein, so... coincindence?

Thanks again, guys, for the great crits. I'm learning lots of stuff.