Hi folks,

Here's another project. I'm experimenting with Acrylic on this one.
Here's s truncated version of the specs:
"Frost Titan
Location: Glacial/arctic area
Represents the power of ice and frost
25 ft tall; ice-blue muscular physique
armed with axe of ice
from his mouth emanates a constant sheet of heavy frost, like a breath of steam from heavy dry ice
he looks down on us, coldly condescending
he's shrew, majestic, and incredibly powerful"

The jaggy shapes behind him are glaciers (hmm if I think I have to describe them they probably need more work)
I'm planning on making the "tattoos" be chiseled into his body and have a glow coming from them.

Again, I'm looking for constructive criticism: anatomy, lighting, color, composition...anything else?

Thanks again!

Nice work, Christine. That is one big-ass frost giant. You could probably make his size read a little better by putting in a little more atmospheric perspective around his head and shoulders, fading them a bit to really suggest the distance from the viewer his head would be. Love the design on the axe-blade, that's a nice touch.

I'd say take another look at the right forearm - you have the flexors coming across the wrist a bit too far and it looks a little off. They'll mostly be connecting at the distal end of the ulna on the little finger side. Keep going and post your next version!

Oh hey, atmospheric perspective - good idea. I'll play with that.
And those forearm muscles got it.

Thanks Steve

Chris, I did a paint over on this. I think his head is too small and he isn't reading as majestic and shrew to me, more like I am hanging out at the baseball field with my buds waiting for my turn to bat.

I think you need to play with his facial express and body language of his head.

Mark

I'm late to the party here, but maybe I'll say something useful.

I don't like how the jawline disappears into the neck, and the ear seems to be way back on his head. I think emphasizing the underside plane of the jaw would reinforce the "looking up at him" feeling.

I think you should push the perspective. Have his torso getting bigger as it comes to you, since it's so much closer than his head. Emphasize that that near arm is coming at you, and that elbow looks like it could smash you. The elbow in front of the architecture felt awkward, to me, so in my sketch I swapped the overlap (and pushed the perspective into the architecture (which is a REALLY clever scale element -- better than anything I ever came up with playing with this topic). I kinda agreed w/ Mark's comment about him looking like he's chillin' rather than frostily imposing, so I toyed with a change to the far hand's pose. His tats are great, but make sure they punch up the volume of his form by really following the contours of the biceps, etc.

Awesome guys. Thanks!

Not sure if you took photoref for this but would recommend it. I actually tried a pose like this for my Frost Titan painting, with a long stick across my shoulders, and it's pretty awkward/uncomfortable. Harder to get your arms in close than you might think.

kyt
p.s. see you at Illuxcon!

Thanks for the ref. pic. Kyle.

And for my next trick...Puffins!
I'm feeling the need to share. I'm not finished but this version has struck me funny.
I was thinking about all the input and got to thinking about other things I could use for scale. Then I thought about Arctic animals I could use for scale. did some searching and thought, "Gee, Puffins are Arctic birds. What if I added them on the ruins. It would help with scale."
I had myself convinced this could work.
Now there's interaction between the Titan and the birds, instead of Titan and viewer. He looks repulsed by the Puffins.
Damn dirty puffins.

I like my new ruins though. I made them act as directional cues into the Titan.
I think I'm going to back up a bit more, stop painting on this and work on the drawing again.

Great touch on the puffins, very cute.

Love the puffins!!! Nice detail and contrast and helps with the scale.

I'd have tipped his head back a little so he's looking down at the little people. That would help him give a more superior expression and also show that he's going so far up and back into space...

That first mouth was pretty crooked. Wasn't quite sure of the expression. Even so far back in space, people still look at the face first and most closely, so it has to be the most carefully rendered. I tend to keep SPFX stuff from obscuring it as much as possible. You don't need the frost/breath to cover his lips so opaquely... Or you could have it coming off from his mouth in more of a thin stream--because it's looking too even, the stream of breath, so that it doesn't help your attempts to have things go back in space, nor does it quite look like frosty-breath as much as it should. I like the way it's circling about him and all--just fuzz some bits off more transparently and have thicker areas and some thinner wisps, and also do the atmospheric thing with the transparency and detail and color and value of it, so that it aids with the scale and distance.

I liked the open hand, but it read more as if the curve of the wrist should have been resting on the pole, so it was a little confusing.

His pose has a lot of the arrogance and all that. It worked for me, over-all composition and everything. Just needed to be tightened up, rendering-wise.