U Ded Tho

Going for Lycanroc Sun

Tier: Complex
Requirement: 65+

 

CLAIMING
RIP ME.

 

Goodness this took awhile and I apologize it took so long with everything going on with me at the time. When I saw this piece i knew i wanted to take a really hard look at it since there’s just so much going on and I have no idea how you managed to get all this detail in. In any case, lets get to it!

First Impression:

As usual, Im always impressed by the level of work you bring to URPG and this time is no different! I love the way you try to bring a realistic approach to how you depict pokemon in yours pieces, even going so far as to possibly draw inspiration from real animal anatomy. Without a doubt, Lycanroc stands out as a pokemon predominantly based on a wolf and you captured that look wonderfully. The background is a whole different story as there appears to be so much of it, i was floored at the level of detail at first glance. With that said, i was blown away by this piece and am excited to delve a bit more into it.


Form:

Naturally, our main focus of this image is going to Lycanroc, clearly separated from the background, off-center and brightly colored as to pull our attention straight to it and right into those menacing eyes. Comparing it to its official art, all of its major details, anatomy and design are blatantly there and in your face. Even keeping to a more realistic approach, likening it closer to a wolf, you masterfully kept to the Pokemon’s design, from where the colors shift in its legs from upper to its lower legs and even kept the shape as depicted in its official art. If there was anything that differed between the two pieces, it would be the shape of its mane stretching from the back of its head onto the body. In its official art, it flares out a bit and points away from the body, whereas you have it depicted flowing with the shape of its body rather then away. It’s a small part and i can definitely understand the perspective of it would be a pain to really capture, but i feel like if you had just curved the tips of the main a bit outward, pointing a bit more to the viewer, you would have captured it without a shadow of a doubt.

With that mentioned, I’m enjoying your take on depicting it’s fur, though there appears to be a bit of difference compared to the length of fur in its face to that of its body. From what i can tell, the furs appear to be shorter in its face and have a more varied lighting, perhaps to help draw our attention closer to this area, in which case, is brilliant~! Going back to the body, the hairs here appear to be a tiny but less detailed and appear in long shapes, almost suggesting a longer, thicker coat. The same could be said for its tail, but i will go into deeper detail regarding that in another section.

As for this, the form is spot on and i love that i am not only seeing Lycanroc, but what it may look like if such a thing wandered out world. I certainly wouldn’t want to be caught alone with it!


Background/Foreground:

I believe i speak for a lot of people, when I say there is ALOT going on in this background and upon first glance, i did not have words to describe it. If you’re looking at it secondary, you’re blown away by the massive amount of details and time that had to go into it to create such a busy environment. However, as amazing as it is, I’m going to dive deep and look into every last detail I can to try and provide as helpful critique as I can. I’ll start first by looking at your trees and foliage.

First off, i like varied in shapes, sizes and detail you have in the trees you have presented in this piece. Not only that, but there are varying distances between each of them, with the ones further in the background being out of focus as though it were a still shot from a camera. It mimics the eye in that we see less detail the further the distance, which shows in that you have a gradual losing of detail in the trees from where Lycanroc is prowling and further back. Glancing at the most detailed trees, I enjoy the different shades of shadows and how you place them as if to see that the tree is ‘twisted’ if that makes sense. You even have each of them short branches protruding from the tree and added some leaves here and there to bring life to them, if only a little. While i enjoy the detail, they are a bit messy when it comes to some of the shadows and highlights. The tree right above Lycanroc’s man for example, you can see where one of the branches were blurred out and while not completely noticeable, it almost seems as though its barely connected to the tree. Further down to the other branch, you can see the hard brush strokes where the lighting would be on top of that branch. I think blending that a bit more, while adding a bit more lighting along the top of it to the tree would help areas like that, though thats mostly for another section. The blurring does seem a bit more noticeable on the trees not quite in the back, and appear to mostly be a single color. It’s a bit odd as you can clearly seem some of the leaves with lighting, but the tree doesn’t see any of it (the lighting). They also appear a bit more flat as compared to the first set of the trees and other parts of the background.

Moving on from the trees, since a lot of that will also be covered in the technique section, I’ll be moving onto the foliage part of the background. Its extremely easy to be taken in about the amount of stuff put in to make such an extensive background and I appreciate all the time put into it to make yet another inspiring piece. It is only after staring at it for so long that i see you’ve cleverer used brush settings along with manually painting some of that helped to create such a mesmerizing scene. I don’t know how you do it, and while i don’t see anything i can really point out with the technique, i’d like to bring attention to the solid areas, because they break the immersion a bit once you’ve really focused in. I enjoy all the different greens and yellows you’ve used to achieve this, but i really feel like the area right believe Lycanroc that “appears” to be a solid color or two, could have had something there to keep the illusion running. If you found difficulty trying to find something that wouldn’t detract from your focus, i feel as though you could have done a light scrubbing with the brush to give it something, if not some dark colored grass strokes. Anything really. I’d even suggest breaks in the grass such as dirt showing, moss, fallen leaves or even new foliage such as a sprout or yellow flowers close to the ground. Things that that would have helped to breathe some life into some bare areas and also would have to further “solidify” Lycanroc into this image. While you have grass sitting in front, there is nothing on the other side to further cement him there. Even some disturbed dirt or grass would have helped to bring the scene closer together.

Speaking of flowers, i did find it a bit weird there was only some on one side of the image. This appears to be a small area, so i imagine some of those flowers might have made it to the other side and help to unify the image as a whole that much more, not to say its not of course. The same could be said of the rocks on the bottom right, as the left could have benefitted from a bit more variety. Towards the front and far into the back, i really enjoy the out of focus plants you have depicted as it gives us a sense of distance from where the viewer might be standing. You even added some highlights to them which helped to bring them out. In the far back we can see blurred out trees and other objects and while i can understand you want to bring more attention the foreground, i believe they have been defined just a bit more such as the largest tree back there. I know what it is, but the shapes does make it really hard to discern much. Some extra shadows or slight highlights would have helped those areas as well. Another thing you could have done to populate the background was perhaps to add smaller, even if a bit out of focus flying pokemon as i’d imagine a forest like this would be full of other pokemon. Obviously ones of the ground would seek to hide, but those on higher ground might still have flown around or perched itself on a tree.

There isn’t much to say about the sky itself, but i believe the erase marks, more then likely made with the eraser tool could have been blended rather then left as hard markings. Some of them seem a bit oddly placed if they weren’t mistakes with layers or anything. However, despite the few points I’ve brought up regarding the background, I think it still all comes together rather nicely and while it was a lot to look at, I look forward to seeing more populated scenes such as this.


Line:

The lines and edges along the objects in this scene are mostly clear and nothing terribly sticks out anywhere. The biggest areas if any would just be the shading and lighting around the more visible trees, but aside from that everything is really clear. Even with the trees though, you can still see where they are and that they are clearly separated from other elements. Nothing appears to too thin or thin anywhere where lines present themselves, so this section is spot on. Perhaps the more lineless style in here lends to this and the contrast between the many colors.

Technique:

Admittedly, there is a bit to cover in this section, although its going to mainly pertain to the subject, Lycanroc as well lighting and shadows through the image.

As mentioned, I’ll be going into depth here as I look at Lycanroc and really try to examine the technique here in his fur and the lighting you’ve given him based on where the light appears in this image. From what can tell, the light appears to be coming from the top left of the image hitting against the trees, plants and Lycanroc as well. For the most part the lighting is done really well and I like how you’ve used those really bright highlights on its fur to show exactly where the sun is hitting.

However there are a few spots where I find it particularly weird, such as on the right side of its muzzle. Light tends to wrap around objects even on the farthest side from where it originates, but i feel as though its wrapping too much here. A little but onto the edge and then using the pattern of grey’s you have in between the two sides of the muzzle would look a bit better. In a simple vein, I find this to also happen on the front right leg where the light comes in too much from the right side when it should be flipped with the light coming in from the left and getting darker the further right you go. The other legs don’t suffer as much from the same problem, the only thing being that I feel there should be some light hitting the bottom part of its leg from the left side on the back left one.

Moving on, the main body is shaded really well with different values in the browns and whites, although i feel as though you could have used a bit more of the darker browns like you have in the face into the longer patches of fur in the body. It definitely would have benefitted being used on the back right leg, where it feels a bit flat and the sun is more then likely not going to hit it as much. It would also blend in a bit more with shading on the rest of the body to have more of those darker browns stretching from the dark patches on the left side of the back right leg across and down towards the right side with brings me to the tail. Admittedly, some of its reference pictures can make its tail look a bit weird depending on the angle on the picture or the position Lycanroc is in. Luckily, I can see that you’ve got the thin base that its attached to its body and then attempted to mimic the puffiness in the bottom half of it. Admittedly, the base appears to start a tiny bit thick as I would have tapered it off a bit move at the top where it connects to the body. The other thing is the dark grey space you have where its ‘butt’ would be. I can understand from one perspective that its the darkest shade of the tail, but it feels more like a space and a solid color rather then a part of it. If anything, i would have left a least a tiny bit of space in between the tail and the body, so that we’d see a little behind it and also have a defined edge for the tail. From this perspective, I don’t think it should be completely blocked off as most of the body is facing us from the side rather then straight on. Aside from that, I love the different grays and the addition of browns in the fur of its tail to help bring unity to the subject. I didnt speak much about the mane admittedly, but thats because I saw no issue with its shading and thought it was perfectly lit. I only wish I could light and shade as well you do haha and its always a pleasure really looking into it.

In regards to your fur technique, I’m floored by the level of detail you’ve brought to this pokemon given that the colors are more solid in the sprites with minimal shading. I cannot recall if i’ve already mentioned this before, but the detail in its face especially is astounding showing that you possibly went in and put in all these tiny single strokes to create the amount of realism displayed here. In contrast, the rest of the body doesn’t ‘seem’ as detailed in comparison, but I agree with the decision to use longer fur over the short fur you displayed in the face. Longer fur is going to wrap around the body more and even using long strokes, you still have darker and lighter colors mixed in to create a sense of layering in its fur. To add on to that, you’ve broken away from the solid outlines like you did in the face to show a bit more of realism in the sense that fur or even hair can be all over the place.

All in all, I love your take on Lycanroc and I apologize for taking so long with this. With that said, I’ll be taking a closer look into the environment you have set this in.

Ive talked about the details regarding the background heavily already, so here Im moreorless going to be looking at the lighting and shading. However, overall the lighting is really on point and I’m hardly finding much to comment on in regards to it. You have the shadows extending from the trees that help to pinpoint where the light is coming from even have beams of light shining down to further get that point across. Where the light does hit, you have shown using yellow highlights on which part of the plants the sun make have hit. The further away the objects, the duller the color and yet there are a few things I’d like to point out. We can see that the light hits, even if its just a little, hits the bottom right area where the rocks are sitting. I love the little detail here, but in hitting those rocks, I feel as though the flowers sitting nearby on the ground should be hit more by this same lihht, including the gras next to it. It doesn’t need much, just a few top strokes on the grass with a dull yellow and perhaps a thin outline on the petals from the left side would add a bit more to the scene.

I’d also like to point to some of the trees obscured from view could also use some edge lighting as well. If the sun can reach the leaves of those tress, i don’t see why they wouldn’t hit those trees as well and bring about a bit more detail and life to them. As it stands, they appear to be just flat slabs of color with very little depth to them. Aside from those things, i enjoy the texture you’ve created on the ground and in the plants by cleverly using some of the available brushes in photoshop. By themselves, they don’t appear to be much of anything, but here you’ve used them to create a nice little texture on what might have been a rather flat looking surface. I do believe this technique could have also been used to a lesser degree in some areas of the ground that appear to be a little flat, such as the dark green areas seen around the back left paw and to the right of the back right one.

Overall:

All in all, this was a huge piece that really gave me a lot to look at. There’s so many little details going on to this image its almost hard to focus on any single little there. There were small issues, but nothing too large as you’ve clearly shown you know how to handle those brushes haha. The scene came out beautifully and as usual, despite how long this took, I look forward to seeing more from you. If there was one other last minute thing i’d bring up is that i might have placed the back right paw so that it looked more like it was placed against the ground. Right now, it appears to be floating slightly with much less weight to it compared to the other paws. But aside from that, wonderful piece and I’d like to score it with a 67/65. making this big captured! Thanks for your patience in waiting for this Emma!