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This is a painting practice piece. Thanks to those of you who commented on my "Enchanted Hush" ( thedreamwolf.deviantart.com/ar… ) painting, there were plenty of remarks about the piece being too blurry (mostly due to it's rushed/unplanned nature, but also partially due to my fear of hard-edged brushes!) so I figured I'd do a proper picture and take some time to make it nice!
Many thanks also to everyone who gave suggestions of what I should paint in my journal the other week! This is the outcome, which I dedicate to ~TeamSmithy, who suggested I paint a scene from Rudyard Kipling's story about the young Mongoose; Rikki-tikki-tavi ( www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/mong… ). I've been meaning to illustrate some "Just-So Stories" for a while now so his suggestion was perfect. As I read the story this one scene stood out, where Riki is distracted by a huge Black Cobra, while another sneaks up behind him! ...
"`Well,'' said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, ``marks or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?''
Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family, but he wanted to get Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it on one side.
``Let us talk,'' he said. ``You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?''
``Behind you! Look behind you!'' sang Darzee.
Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed."
... Set in a dandelion patch I figured this would provide an opportunity to not only practice fur, snake-skin and flowers but also an interesting angle as well, I wanted to capture that moment of startled energy before Riki leaps up into the air to evade the cobra's strike... while I used loads of reference pictures for this one I still allowed for a fair amount of artistic license too, size scales are probably all over the shop and I never even settled on which breed of mongoose Rikki should be! lol - so sorry to any purists out there
Comments and crit (as always) are really appreciated, I'm not sure if I'll be revisiting this as I've already spent so long on it but I feel like I've learnt plenty from it.. but any suggestions will certainly be taken on board for future pictures.
Over 12 hrs of painting time over a couple of weeks in Photoshop 7 - I have some progress shots if anyone's interested in seeing some stages of development.
Like this? Then why not like my facebook page?
Many thanks also to everyone who gave suggestions of what I should paint in my journal the other week! This is the outcome, which I dedicate to ~TeamSmithy, who suggested I paint a scene from Rudyard Kipling's story about the young Mongoose; Rikki-tikki-tavi ( www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/mong… ). I've been meaning to illustrate some "Just-So Stories" for a while now so his suggestion was perfect. As I read the story this one scene stood out, where Riki is distracted by a huge Black Cobra, while another sneaks up behind him! ...
"`Well,'' said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, ``marks or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?''
Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family, but he wanted to get Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it on one side.
``Let us talk,'' he said. ``You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?''
``Behind you! Look behind you!'' sang Darzee.
Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed."
... Set in a dandelion patch I figured this would provide an opportunity to not only practice fur, snake-skin and flowers but also an interesting angle as well, I wanted to capture that moment of startled energy before Riki leaps up into the air to evade the cobra's strike... while I used loads of reference pictures for this one I still allowed for a fair amount of artistic license too, size scales are probably all over the shop and I never even settled on which breed of mongoose Rikki should be! lol - so sorry to any purists out there
Comments and crit (as always) are really appreciated, I'm not sure if I'll be revisiting this as I've already spent so long on it but I feel like I've learnt plenty from it.. but any suggestions will certainly be taken on board for future pictures.
Over 12 hrs of painting time over a couple of weeks in Photoshop 7 - I have some progress shots if anyone's interested in seeing some stages of development.
Like this? Then why not like my facebook page? Image size
546x636px 152.53 KB
© 2009 - 2024 KatCardy
Comments129
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Overall Vision Originality Technique ImpactFirst of all - <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/h/h…" width="15" height="13" alt="
" title="Heart" /> RIIIIKKKIIIII-TIIIIKKKIIII! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/h/h…" width="15" height="13" alt="" title="Heart" /> Second of all, Imma first-time critique, so i really don't know what im doing. Plz don't kill me.
I think Rikki-Tikki's design is a little off around his nose. Were the bridge of his nose comes up it doesn't really look like a mongoose, but I love the tail. The tail is P. E. R. F. E. C. T. with a capital PERFECT. I love the coloring on him. When it comes to what TYPE of mongoose he is, i think 'they' should just draw him the same mongoose shown in the books. (I THINK they had a picture in there...)
Nagina (That's her, right?) looks like a real cobra, but not enough like NAGINA. I think (and this is just my opinion) that all animal characters should look a LITTLE off from the real animal to get more individuality into them, if that's possible. I think you're really good at his scales. AWESOME-looking hood, btw.
The dandelions set the mood really well, and the angle is great! Your brush-strokes are amazing, and i wish I could do this as good as you. My favorite part is the expression on Rikki-Tikki, and my least-favorite part is Rikki-Tikki's nose bridge. Again, it's too high-up. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/f/f…" width="15" height="15" alt="
" title=" (Sad)" /> Oh, well. Who cares? The picture is great. I love it, and the book, and the show. Thank you for drawing this picture.
Not bad for my first critique, huh? <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/w/w…" width="15" height="15" alt="
" title="Wink/Razz" />