Naruto Illustration

[Symson]

Naruto could use some more work.

It's my entry for Pummel this month.

[Veritas71]

I think a shadow on the ground under Naruto would tie him to the background nicely.

[Josem]

My problem is with his right leg, seems to be standing on that grass in the background?

[Symson]

This corrects my most glaring error. Still more to do.

Thanks for the comments.

[Veritas71]

Naruto kinda feels like a cutout placed into this piece. To help him fit into the scene, you need to do a couple things. Your main light source is a very diffused blue light coming down from the sky behind the fellows in the background. This should dominate all the colors you choose for your characters. Reds and greens will take on a blue hue and will desaturate. Bounce light will be very little with a diffused light source. The hard shadows in the grass would need a stronger light source for those hard lines to show. Evening them out will make it more natural and will make Naruto's shadow stand out even more.



I did a mockup in PS. I created a color balance layer and brought the blues up to coincide with the blue light source. Then added a hue/saturation layer to tone down the saturation. I then added a layer where I went in and fixed some things. I evened out the grass, and fixed his right buttock which was extremely low. After that I evened out the midtones and fixed some clothing folds. I don't know if Naruto's shirt is supposed to be shiney like a leather jacket, so I went with cotton like a Gi would have.

[Symson]

Very good suggestions Veritas71.

Those are supposed to be crevices in the grass, not shadows. Which means, I didn't do a good job there either.

Thanks for the crit.

[Veritas71]

Oh! I thought it was maybe shadows from leaves overhead. You could add some dirt and rocks to the sides to sell the crevices.

[CrazyMobius]

Hi Symson,
Did you colour the main character on the same layer as the background?

[Symson]

^All of the elements were created on their own layer.

[CrazyMobius]

^All of the elements were created on their own layer.

Oh good. There is a blueish halo around the main character's legs. It looks like the background is not rendered in those parts. Not sure if this is intentional or not.

[Symson]

^Thanks. I’m going to redo the Naruto figure from scratch.

I changed the pose to this one from my first choice. The first one was too super heroic and didn’t fit Naruto. Didn’t think this second pose out well enough, while I executed it. Structure is weak.

[Spidey]

Not bad. I like it.

[Symson]

^Thank you Spidey.