The Northman

[Jim]

There's a poster competition up at Talenthouse for the new Robert Eggers film, and I fancied a break from drawing robots!

It's set up as a screen print, hence the colouring style.

[humble-tomato]

Ooh so graphic. I like! The top left corner area is a bit confusing though?

[Jim]

Thanks dude. How so? Just too much stuff clustered around there? Or something in the lines?

[humble-tomato]

I just can't make up what those are. Looks like head, but the axe is in the way, or is it a mountain? But looks a little different than the other ones.

[Jim]

I just can't make up what those are. Looks like head, but the axe is in the way, or is it a mountain? But looks a little different than the other ones.

Yeah, I see what you mean – not much separation in line or structure between the hair and the mountains. Might try and fix it with colour.

[battlewraith]

I think it would help if some of the guy's hair came down and overlapped the fur around his shoulders. I don't have a problem reading it, but I think the head, axe and fur all have this discrete, flat quality like they are stacked on top of each each other. So I could see someone looking at the shape and texture of the guy's hair and interpreting it as another mountain that is closer than the others.

I think the textures are amazing. The mountains, clouds, axe handle, etc. are really well done. I'm a bit disappointed in the guy's arm and back muscles because it looks more like that typical vector art approach of doing contour shapes that are stacked on top of each other. Would've like to see some hatching or something that would've complemented the textural quality of the other areas. Maybe even some stippling. That's just a personal nitpick.

[humble-tomato]

Oh, it was his head then. I think then the hair should come down over the fur as suggested. And also I don't think it's centred properly compared to the spine line on his back. And the axe is in the way. I believe the axe will mangle the hair and it should show? But the better solution might have been keeping the axe away from the head and more foreshortened.

[Smitty]

We're all pals here and hopefully we can handle a little smack talk between friends... this is all surface no structure. How can you nail the box forms of the Transformers so well and be so shapeless here? Everything fits in a box. If you have to, draw Conan as a robot first and round him out after.

Under the theory that the first two decisions belong to the artist I'm going to decide the belt and the high point of the shoulder are correct which throws everything else out the window (I could've decided the head and elbow were correct but that would just throw everything else wrong in a different direction) Where's the rest of the hand? Why is the shoulder strap under the armpit?

Detail brings things forward. The BG is as, if not more, detailed than the figure which flattens the image. The hair is rendered the same as the mountains. Is the head made of rocks or are the mountains made of hair? The ax hand needs to be more forward so he doesn't pop his head off like a bottle cap. Gravity suggests the blade falls down.



If you want to sell hair and fur and rocks and leather look to guys like Hal Foster, Frank Frazetta, Mark Shultz

[Giltheartist]

Might try and fix it with colour.

oh crap dont let bryan see this lmao.


and damn Smitty is always brutal, but he's always dead on.