Need some friendly critique

**mightyfun** · 29 June 2007, 03:19 PM

Alright, first of all thanks for helping me out. Let me expound now on your comments.

I was a florist for 10 years and we didn't use crumpled ribbon!

Thanks for your comment, but this ribbon was intended to be a wire ribbon that had been fiddled with and manipulated a few too many times, giving it that crumpled look. I went back and added some shadows to accentuate this. I want it to look a little battered, not abused, but fiddled with.

Yes, add some shadows and it will look more real.

Done. Thanks

The upper outline is too defined and too dark,
Scratch the defined part - it may be seen as piping.

Yes you are right the outline is meant to be a wire piping.

This is a cloth ribbon, right?

Yes, it's to resemble cloth

Looks good, but kind of bland for some reason. Usually people use ribbon to liven things up, not tone it down.

I agree, this ribbon does look bland against a white background, but I'll stick it on the contrast background and let you decide if it's too bland still then.

Thanks again,

Jen

**amoore** · 29 June 2007, 03:53 PM

Go, Jen!

I agree with you that the ribbon has more punch on the intended background. It looks more realistic to me on the white background, but I think I see the problem. It's looking too flat on the background.

I think you need to bump up the shadows in the ribbon itself, particularly in the two loops, so the fabric has more dimension. Then fiddle with the shadow between the ribbon and the background, if necessary.

Also, how important is it that the shadows are mutually consistent? IOW, usually you want to choose a light source for the scene and create shadows accordingly. If a user rotates a bow, the shadows rotate also. Does that matter to you?

**The Alien** · 29 June 2007, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by amoore

I think you need to bump up the shadows in the ribbon itself, particularly in the two loops, so the fabric has more dimension. Then fiddle with the shadow between the ribbon and the background, if necessary.

Yeah, I was gonna suggest this too. When 1 part of the ribbon overlaps another, create a shadow and cast it on the lower part.

**jamesmc** · 29 June 2007, 06:48 PM

Forgive me as I'm not a good artist, but I think the depth factor is missing as other people mentioned with the shadows and also I noticed that the ribbon does not have the expect divots of depth one expects from fabric.

I just added some irregular black shapes on each arm of the ribbon feathered and applied transparency. (hope you don't mind)

My very amateur attempt to give some depthwith your great looking ribbons.

I also feathered the entire ribbon, to give it a softer edge look.

**mightyfun** · 29 June 2007, 09:19 PM

Good point.

I think I've been kind of scared to overdo the shadows, but with the forums encouragement I will enter the "dark side".

I'll post a pic when I "bump" it up a bit.

Jen

**raynerj1** · 30 June 2007, 03:57 AM

sorry Jen,

I was looking at it from a male perspective... (Pastels fade to nothingness) and have been working too much in anything but pastels...

Maybe that is why guys give red roses and not pale pink roses...

See attached...

**mightyfun** · 01 July 2007, 12:49 PM

Raynerj1 I didn't take any offense to your comment, but thanks for the rose.

OK, I've "Bumped" it up a bit, hopefully not too much. Shadows are not my strong point, but the extra practice doesn't hurt.

Let me know what you think,

Jen

**Egg Bramhill** · 01 July 2007, 02:30 PM

That's looking a lot better Jen. How about adding a bit more white highlighting. It would depend on the material of course, but this also helps to give a shape more form. I've attached the xar file. You'll need to turn Layers on/off to see the effect.