Sunday, August 15, 2010

Becca's Baba Yaga Sketch


At long last - here is my Baba Yaga sketch. I am pretty excited to paint it! This has been surprisingly tricky to draw. I ended up making a model of the house on chicken legs, and had all the characters on separate pieces of tracing paper (hence, the final drawing on tracing paper). Sorry the reproduction isn't great - try to disregard the shadows if you can, ack! Let me know your thoughts!

4 comments:

  1. I am going to jump in here and critique myself first, haha! I just noticed the bottom left area feels too empty, so I think I'll bring some of the bone fence poking into that area.

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  2. Much better composition!!! I agree about the fence! I was going to suggest it myself, extending the bones. Also, I think her head is too big compared to her body, and her leg/foot is a little tube-like. She could be wearing a cool laced boot of some sort. Also the house kind of looks like its falling down... you can probably put it on tracing paper and tilt it more to the left. It will also help with the composition because everything is pointing toward the right so if the house is tilted more so that its going straight up, it'll help. I think her face can be worked on a bit too - i found a good photo that's a similar angle/pose http://www.dreamstime.com/young-girl-worried-expression-image9792211

    anyway, mostly just little tweaks of turning things a bit, and shrinking things a bit (: overall I like it!

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  3. yeah the house definitely looks like it's falling backwards. I think if the legs were bent and maybe turned to more of a 3/4 view it might help that. Also the legs of the ladder look like they are coming from baba yaga's skirt, like they are her legs. Maybe if you extended baba's right leg down to the ground that might help. If you put some atmospheric mist or something in the mid-ground, that might help break some of that empty space up. The design of everything looks great though.

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  4. Howdy Rebbecca,

    I don't know if you're still looking for more opinions about your Baba Yaga piece, but I thought I'd chime in.

    The composition really puts me in mind of Arthur Rackham. What I mean is that sometimes he would use a "figure 8" kind of composition to move the eye around the piece, and it feels like this piece is heading that direction a bit. Using that concept as a structure might aid with the over all flow of the piece.

    Another suggestion that I would offer, is to accentuate the S curve that is happening between Baba and the girl.

    After watching your Beauty and the Beast piece come together, I am sure that you will be able to develop this piece to a wonderful finish! Best of Luck!

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