WiP female warrior

[loominous]

Aw, think the boldness of the original is slipping away with the loss of the greens, and now it starts to look like a studio shot with a backdrop, due to the colour/lighting setup which is rather odd to begin with.

Instead of conforming it to the "studio setup", you could add more greens to other shadow areas, if you want it to make more sense. Incidentally this kind of palette is pretty common these days in tv shows, where darks are pushed towards greens, contrasting against the reds in skins.

Don't lose the boldness!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Oh yeah, I flipped it horisontally to refresh the view, but forgot to change my copyright and name...lol

Don't worry, Andail.  No one is going to steal your work .  One thing that missed my attention the first time is the setting vs. her expression.  Is she 'posing' in this painting or in a battle of some sort, because her completely emotionless expression works against her being in a combat situation in my opinion?

[Kastchey]

True, as pretty as this picture is turning out, the lady's blank face expression makes her look more as if she was killing flies, rather than aiming her sword at somebody.

Also, that might be just me but, doesn't her chest seem a bit too flat? I mean, I know she's supposed to be a sporty type if she can wave a sword, but when I cover her head for a moment and look at the rest of her body, it reminds me more of a young boy than of a woman - not exactly masculine, but definitely flat.

[Andail]

Ah well, I think this will be the last and final version.

You have very valid points about her expression, but the blankness was certainly a key aspect of this image right from the start - I wanted a loose grip of the sword and a neutral face, that's simply a part of the symbolism. I did not want this to be a fierce Xena ready to slash you open



In this last edit I've continued to change her overall appearance, changed the angle of her arm and made her shoulder more integrated in her body, so to speak...
Also changed some values throughout the painting to get rid of the cyans and make the colour scheme more uniform. Then some minor detail work.

About her breasts...I guess they're pretty flat, but then again she's leaning forward, so a completely flat chest would actually be drawn inward, to meet the waist further down. Besides, I don't want to fall into the typical large-breasted warrior princess stereotype...

This image wasn't properly planned from the beginning, so there are compositional flaws that I simply can't be bothered to adjust anymore. Unless you can spot anything downright erroneous, I think I'm pretty done with it.

[Kastchey]

Besides, I don't want to fall into the typical large-breasted warrior princess stereotype...

Perfectly understood. I'm also sick of this legion of busty Xenas one gets as a result whenever they type "fantasy"+"female warrior" in a search engine.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I wanted a loose grip of the sword and a neutral face, that's simply a part of the symbolism. I did not want this to be a fierce Xena ready to slash you open

I'm not sure I understand you.  What does the neutral face do for the symbolism of the piece?  I'm reading nothing from her expression about her situation, whether it's a dire consequence or if she fears for her life or if she filled with revenge or thoughts of death or anything.  If there's nothing to read from the person's face, is the symbolism then that she has absolutely no emotional reaction to conflict?