/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>2995384
Problem:

>I have to make a SWAT guy and I don't know how to make him look interesting cause his outfit is all black and its already really dark.
Should I make the fabric on his costume a different color than the armor? Which should be darker?

Solution:
You can solve this by differentiating the materials of the uniform. They may be the same (or similar) color, but you can still add variation by making some matte (plastic, uniform fabric) some reflective (gloss plastic, metal), adding varying shapes, some elements that are different color (unit badge, lettering on the back) and so on.

The PROBLEM with the Solution:

You will not be able to accomplish the above, because the subject matter does not match your current skill level. You will fail at differentiating the materials, because you haven't spent many hours painting still life paintings of different material objects. You don't know how to depict a glossy thing, a matte thing etc. This is only one of your problems. Do you see how you have no value hierarchy in your illustration? How the trees end and suddenly the grass starts (belonging to a vastly different color and value family)? How the grass right next to the glowing guy is the same brightness as the grass far away from him? You don't know how to depict those things, because you never painted a landscape in plen-aire, or even studied any movie screenshots or landscape photographs. You are even too lazy to grab a toy gun or a broomstick and shoot some photo ref to have a decent pose of the swat guy. And even if you weren't, you couldn't use the reference properly, because, again, you haven't spent many hours practicing life drawing. Now, you can learn and accomplish a successful illustration by: