HOME | DD
ninykinin — Sky bubbles: WIP_1
Published: 2010-10-05 07:27:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 1115; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 18
Redirect to original
Description
I could use some critique on thisI'd really like some serious feedback on this.
I understand that bubbles should reflect their surroundings, but I'm baffled as to how I could pull this off when the surroundings are made up of sky and other bubbles. I'm not sure how it would reflect onto the foreground bubbles, or even if reflections are necessary, given the scene.
My aim is to finish with something that border-lines abstract/surrealism, with the foreground being detailed and the background looking out-of-focus.
I've just started working on the farmland below, so if anyone has any tips on how to render aerial views I would really appreciate the feedback!
I'd like it if DA peeps could give me some serious feedback on this asap.
---
=Hellsplumber has made a critique creator which can be useful, or you can just type out some feedback. Here is the Critique Creator
---
EDITS:
8:30pm, Tuesday:
Added white reflections to the back/bottom side of the bubbles.
10:30pm, Tuesday:
Added a whole bunch of smaller bubbles in the blank spaces, painted in the water and some reflections of the fish. I also managed to give my airbrush a good clean (no more splatter! YAY!)
2:00am, Wednesday
Added in the blocks for some farmland underneath. I've gotta fix up the horizon in the morning though, it's waayy too dark. Good night. Time for sleep.
1:14 pm, Wednesday Back to work..
2:00pm, Wednesday I've just tried to make it look like there is an atmosphere between the viewer and the horizon line.
3:30pm, Wednesday Added small bubbles, changed the atmosphere a bit more, added more shine to the bubbles. Adding lowlights.
Related content
Comments: 37
So far it looks utterly amazing to me.
I really like the idea, it's quite unusual but that is what makes it very imaginative and unique, I cannot remember having seen something like this around here yet. I suppose you're using acrylics together with your airbrush, don't you?
I cannot spot the finished piece in your gallery though, what happened to the project?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is the stuff that dreams are made of...love you Nin'
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
please tell me you are enteing that in next years art exbo
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
If I still have it by then I will, but I'm hoping to sell it at my exhibition to raise some money.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I did a similar drawing once. I tried it once and failed miserably.
What worked for me was going to the store and buying a silver christmas ornament (just a bulb) and putting it next to things and studying & drawing it with the reflections until I had a good understanding of how to invent my own.
Also remember that the objects inside the bubble would get distorted to some degree, especially around the edges.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thats a very good idea! I've blown a lot of bubbles in the past few days to see how the light would hit it from that angle if there where a large number of bubbles in one area, but it ends up looking like an outline of webs. So I ditched the idea of using bubbles as a reference, I honestly don't think they would be identifiable as bubbles if I painted them with realistic lighting.
Unfortunately, after I ran off to inspect my Christmas ornaments it hit me that the only reflections I could get, no matter how I viewed it, where of the lounge room, the ceiling or my ugly mug.
I'll have a play around with seeing how the globs reflect off each other, but at this stage I'm considering just keeping it 'surreal' and not having harsh reflections- there isn't really much to reflect anyway in the middle of the sky, so having reflections might actually work against the concept.
Cheers for your idea of using globs, that is absolutely brilliant!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I've been slacking to get a picture of that old painting up here for ya... Will do though, I think you will get a kick out of it. I did my floating globes in a desert scene though.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
ah, I think the picture is of less good quality than the last one, unfortunately. maybe you could just turn the saturation up a little and make ti a little lighter. and yes, a vignette may help focusing too
I like the fact that there's water int he bubbles lol, may be silly ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I love my phone, but it doesn't take studio-quality pics unfortunatly.
I've just edited it with photobucket and re-uploaded the adjusted version, so hopefully that'll help a little bit with the poor quality photo.
I enjoyed painting the water. Aaahhh, the strange ideas one comes up with while riding the bus.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
indeed, it's much better ^^ dont you have a small camera or a scanner? (or someone in your family or at school who could let you use it?) my phone pics are always rubbish, I've stopped using it altogether
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I don't have a cam or scanner (both have eventually died over the years). My sister has a cam, but she is about an hour and a half and three bus rides away. My school might have let me borrow one for a weekend if it wasn't the holidays right now.
That much said, once the holidays are over i'll certainly be taking all of my paintings into the studio to photograph them properly.
When I have the final (professionaly photographed) one, would you like me to note it to you so you can see how it turns out? :3
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
sure, note me
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
i like the idea very much and the style and technique themselves are great but the composition it a little... I'll say "messy" but it's not really what I mean. You talk about "flat". What I mean is that we don't know where to look, we're missing some focus, like a really big fish in the foreground? or maybe brighter reds would do the trick, i don't know
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, I see what you mean. At this stage it's a bit 'all over the place', i'm hoping that once I add the water inside the bubble the contrast between the water and the top/forground fish will give it a bit more focus. I'm also going to give it a vignette (aka, dark edges) at the very end of the process.
I just updated the submission with the newer version. Let me know if the changes have helped
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hmm. You need to distort the shape of the fish more because of the bubbles
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
Also, I edited some things (including making that fish slightly larger)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The fish at the top? indeed, I shall do that.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I'm sorry to pester, but your thumbnail on the thumbshare forum sent me to a '404 not found' page. Which is darn odd, because the thumb is of this picture. o.o Just thought I'd bring it up here.
It might help to just give more of a 'depth' to the bubbles, if that makes sense? I mean, you've got a great shape and all, but the back of it somewhat looks like it's stuck to a wall. But I definitely see the shape and color of the clouds, and those fish are just SO neat to see swimming through it. And honestly, those scales are just enough to stare at in my opinion, very good job!
I do apologize if I didn't really help you.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Very odd, it might be because I changed the name of it. Whoops!
Yes, I know exactly what you mean by adding more 'depth' to it, but i'm not sure how to go about it. I'm thinking i'll try to add reflections to the back of the bubble and see if that helps.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Is there a way you could toy with it on the photo so you don't mess up your traditional piece? I think I'd cry with you if that happened! 
Unfortunately, I don't know how well that would work. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I usually photoshop some experinmental changes, unfortunatly for me my computer isn't working (which is partly the reason why I am painting traditionaly).
I do nearly everything digitally too
I've tried adding some relections, and I just edited this submission. Do you think the changes have fixed the problem with depth?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I think that it did help quite a bit! Those light reflections just look plain neat and I believe that they and the shadows did what you intended. ^_^
And I love it how the whole bit looks like if I reached forward now that the biggest bubbles would pop. (Oh my stars I'm so sorry that sounds so destructive! 
You asked in the artist comments about how reflections of the other bubbles would work, and I've got a minor idea but no idea how to bring it forward without overloading the biggest bubbles. o.o
But maybe just do a very very very faint half reflection of one bubble on the one beside it? It wouldn't be a full one either, I don't think...but you'd likely do better seeing what someone who plays with traditional would say.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
aww, thanks! I'm really glad that the small change made such a difference.
I havn't changed the shadows at all, I think it might just look different because it's dark now and i'm working under the light of a lightbulb, instead of sunlight. Or maybe adding the highlights just made the contrast seem higher? I dont know.
I ended up making some bubbles to see how they would reflect off each other under similar circumstances, but they stoped looking like bubbles and looked more like a spider-web..
I think i'll stick to your idea, and maybe ad a few orange reflections from the fish.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Maybe that'll work. 
But yeah, be careful with the orange and all, don't overfill the bubble--but it's probably going to look great. ^_^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Cheers, I just finished up adding the extra bubble reflections, and filled the bubbles with water.
Would you like me to note you with the final once it's all done so you can see how it ends up?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Please do note! That'd be great. ^_^ And the water in the bubbles looks great in my opinion. Can't wait to see the final!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Okay well I think you need to add a bit more depth to the water. It's difficult to tell what perspective I'm supposed to view this from - is it underwater looking up through bubbles and fish to the sky? Because perhaps you could a sun, streams of light, etc. I don't think sea foam & bubbles have that rainbow sheen although I'm not sure how to make them look more bubbly... maybe add some more sea foam in very pale blues and some whites?
I hope this helps. It's all easier said than done!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
They are bubbles floating in the sky to form clouds. Once I get into a bit more detail i'll be filling the bubbles with water (there is a very faint white line to mark where the water level is inside the bubbles) and i'll be puting a hint of sun around the area where the light is a bit pinkish.
Cheers for the wonderful feedback, it made me realize that I really need to make it obvious that it is in the sky. Perhaps I could add a few birds flying around the bubble clouds?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ah okay I understand it a bit more now. Yeah, I think the birds idea would be awesome!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I've edited the submission with a new version if you are interested
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
This one is looking much better, way more defined and lots more depth. Great job! What did you use for this? It looks like it's been airbrushed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Indeed it has been airbrushed!
Anthony found a really cheap airbrush kit for sale on ebay right around the time of my birthday, so (yay!!) when my birthday came I became the owner of my super-fantastic airbrush.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0