In a real-life vendors life, yes, traditional art is favored over digital prints. It's because, in traditional pieces, they show the slightest flaws in an artists drawings, they're able to put their energy into the physical piece. But, I personally only clicked the image because the Egyptian theme intrigued me! I would say for your story pieces, perhaps add tiny messages in the background, like totem animals - A Rabbit can mean creativity, Hummingbirds mean good luck. Things like that.

So more furniture, or more nicknacks?

Honestly depends on the setting itself, but I personally like to do more knickknacks since I'm a bit materialistic-

A piece like this would get my attention. I love pictures that tell a story or seem like a moment stolen in time. When I buy art to hang on my wall I usually prefer it to be traditional though finances often force me to go with digital art. For me it is a very subjective thing. For me to buy a piece of art it has to strike me personally. I would buy something like this and hang it in my room but usually only if it was on canvas otherwise I would admire it but likely not buy it. That of course is just me personally.

In regards to your question pertaining to the preference of traditional media over digital media, I myself do like being able to hold the original art piece in my hand, placed in a nice frame to place on display, so my answer to that is that there probably is a preference for traditional media over digital media, although in that regard, I will readily concede that it's easier for the artist to work via digital methods, especially when it comes to erasing and coloring things in.

This one has a nice air of mystery to it, a sense of a story in progress without the requirement of knowing it to appreciate the picture.

After taking a quick look at your gallery... wow you have the skills, definitely. Maybe you need to work more on compositions where the character is smaller in frame, giving the environment, objects, other characters a little more room to shine, so the pieces feel less like portraits and more like scenes.

It's great to be able to sell originals, but really what seems to matter is that you have a good workflow and you get the job done in a way that works well for you. Or so I've heard.

that's half the problem. I'm trying to make pieces affordable, but if I put in the huge amount of details people are seeming to want, I have to charge more. But then it swiftly gets out side of people's budgets.

That is an issue... then again, it doesn't have to be super detailed. Like, if you framed this image a little differently, you wouldn't necessarily need that much more detail in it, but the arches, the orb, and the cats could be spread out and positioned a little more cinematically? Either way, her surroundings and clothing suggest a type of setting, she's interacting with the orb, she has a reaction of some sort, and the cats who seem to be her companions have different reactions. That's what drew me in when I saw it.

Maybe what I'm trying to get at is not so much how much background/detail is in there so much as I'm thinking of storytelling. Getting a mood or feeling across is a storytelling issue, and composing for storytelling, even if there isn't more than a vague idea of a story, can load up a simple image with something meaningful.

Traditional versus Digital media- Depends on the shows base and focus. Older fans like traditional medias. Younger fans like the hyper-saturated colors with the crisp edges and highlights of the digital renderings. Do what you feel the most comfortable with and get the best presentation results.

As for the negative emotion pictures of anger, violence, and despair could be the body language and facial expressions that are catching the viewers attention since many seem to be little overdramatic in representing the emotion. Try to make sure that your positive emotion has some dynamic to it. Is the character actively of passively expressing or reacting to the emotion? What level of involvement or commitment to the event does the character have?

Color pallet selection for the objects and the lighting that affects the scene. I wish I could remember which 'psychology of color" author the teacher made the handout from. It had a white mannequin and colored lights where the positions and the colors of the lights were changed to have the class discuss the emotion of the scene. Some stagecraft lighting tips might help.

The interplay of the lighting sources in the scene seems to be one that grabs attention for hits on galleries and might drive sales. The lighting interplay helps setting the scenery around the focus character and helps sell the story. Remember the scenery can tell more of the story than the character at times.

I admit I've not done much heavy shadow work, but that is something I can include in more of my images in the future.

"Prefer traditional media over digital." ? "Graviate toward pieces with anger / violence / despair' over positive emotions"?
Don't think I've heard those before. Especially with pieces with negative emotion like those kinds. For violence is a little different to me as you have violence that goes towards an action theme shown in movies or violence involving towards brutality like say (and I'm just giving an example of this as a saying) the events in Charlottesville. This pic here doesn't show any of those, as I'm getting a wondrous kind of emotion towards it. Like she's saying, "Oh, what do we have here?" that kind of feeling I mean.

Also, I can understand why people prefer traditional media over digital. For those older who see digital and think of it with several flaws, while people who moves toward digital see it differently as they can use the features to either move or angle certain parts to the way they see it or single out a certain spot when coloring so they don't get two colors mixed in. People can choose which they prefer, though I guess it could depend I suppose.

This is an older picture, that I'm using both as an attention getter and as an example of something typical of my art.

As for the 'emotions' listed, well that's what people said in my prior poll and since no one said 'I like happy / joyful pictures' I'm testing that statement.

personally I don't like images that show violence or sorrow, and I wouldn't buy one to hang on my wall. But I'm not making art to put on my walls or collections. I'm trying to deduce what people who are fans of my art want to buy.

Ok, let me give this a shot. You seem to becoming self aware of an issue that is present in allot of works.
Sorry if this allot or if i miss something.

Composition
When someone is browsing though a bunch of pictures and one of yours happens to be there. You have 7 seconds before it disappears in the scrolling margin. You need to make an impact before that happens. and you have control over that. The trick is to 'Capture someones attention form a distance'. Manipulating the macro level of shapes, color and value will help with that. when someone is scrolling, this is what they see. ::EXAMPLE:: . Maybe with a little color too. But in general, they will not see the little intricacies of a piece that zoom in for. You need to master the macro level of composition.
When you do make a good macro composition, then you can focus on the small stuff.

For reference. here is a Book by Andrew Loomis

Using Color and Vlaue
These two things contribute more to a composition more than you may realize. Just as you can drive a composition with figures and objects, you can drive someone's sight and attention with pools of light and highlights with colors that are unique in a composition.

Masks
An example of how color can drive a composition.

Einar the Unbroken
An example of how pooling light can direct your attention. specifically form his back to his face. Also a good example of how light and shadows can effect color too.

Death
How Value can effect a composition despite having a small amount of color.


Telling a story
Now here is the nitty gritty when you get someone to take a closer look. What you need is CONTEXT and RELATIONS. We can already tell they this character is a person of magic, but we are not left to ask any significant questions. You can make a character look sad, But we needs something to understand why.

In your collections, there outfits and environments tell us allot about where a character lives and what they do. The are mages of nature. They are giants of titan proportions. Warriors and assassins of a long forgotten time. But WHY do they do these things and WHO they are never comes to mind because nothing is there to provoke that question.

Some examples I like to look at.

"I Know You"
What kind of relationship is between this man and this intimating creature?

Dragon Age: Magekiller
What kind of internal conflict does this character have that forces his identity to be obscure?

The Saturday Evening Post : Wonder Woman
What did Wonder Woman do to earn this little girls admiration?

Hold me under until I drown, Then pull me down
What happened to that kid?

A common theme you might see in these images is that there is a Relationship in some way. A connection that crates some kind of history or story. Often between two characters. There can be a connection between a character and an object too, but there has to be some significance to that object. It is often symbolic or utilitarian. But remember, it has to be significant that it tells a story. other wise, it will simply be a part of there decor.

Looking at your piece here, The character is looking at a crystal ball. but it tells no story. Add context by showing something in the ball. Or better yet. something in the ball that urges her to look into it. Did someone tell her? Was she forced to do her job? Was her home destroyed? is she out to find out who did a deed?



Now, a little something I'd like to try with you.
Imagine how you would illustrate this story line in a single image.
"You are on your way to work, you push and shuffle though a current of people as they board a train. In the crowd getting off, your gaze connect with someone else's. Though the migrating crowd, bright amber eyes look back. Under there hood, a wolfish face looks back at you. Red stains splatter there shirt that they try to hide under there hoodie. Even more curious was the child under there wing. A human child. They dissolve into the crowd and you never see them again."



You are one of the first people I followed when joining this fandom, I hope this helps.
Feel free to brows though my collection. http://gimiallthearts.tumblr.com/

I will say the micro / macro thumbnail at a distance isn't something I'd considered. I'll be more mindful of that in the future. Thank you for pointing that out. :)

I will deft experiment with lighting and shadow, as that's something that's been pointed out by others too.


As for " But WHY do they do these things and WHO they are never comes to mind because nothing is there to provoke that question." That I'm not sure how I'd illustrate. Outside for example, maybe making some drawings on the walls . Or maybe just taking the easy way out and putting in a short description or adding more to the titles. Any suggestions? and yes this was an unfinished piece so I had't yet put anything in the Orb though I did plan to put something.


While I appreciate the idea behind your prompt, it's so far from what I'd normally consider drawing, especially for a piece I decided to do for sale. Would you say something that complex is what people like collecting?


I look at the art I've collected and that's on my walls and its so different from what people are suggesting. Lol.

Thanks again for your help!

Im glad some of these things help.

You can defiantly see the differences in influences and interests when you compare works that people share. While, I do hope i did introduce you to something that inspires you. I'm mostly showing these examples to show how different approaches can affect a piece.

The prompt was more of a thought exercise. You don't really need to illustrate it. Who would buy it really depends. Someone looking for a book cover or story illustration would want something like it. If you make it look like a poster, they might even stick it on a wall.

((witch reminds me, the way you illustrate right now can lend towards how Mucha made his posters for plays and shows.))

The way I laid down that part about WHY and WHO was a bit heavy handed. But then I realize most of the stuff i'm suggesting is stuff that you probably do in the future. not so much now for this piece. Allot of what i would be suggesting is stuff that would be more easily handed while it is in the thumbnails stage.

While you are at this point, lets see what we can do with COLOR and VALUE.

Value Study Demo

Here is some examples I did. By simply manipulating the values, and blotting in lights and darks in certain areas. I can affect the mood dramatically. This can lend heavily back on the Macro/micro thumbnailing i told you about.

In terms of color, you mostly been coloring and using lights and shades on a black and white foundation. If something is in light, you add white. If something is in shadow, add more of that color or a black overlay.
Try exploring color by using colored lights and shadows. A general rule is that the shadows are always the complement color of what ever the light source color is. example . If you want a simpler way of looking at it. if the lights are warm, the shadows are cool. and visa versa.


You are already well developed on this current piece. But I want to show you an example of how I would tell a story in one image with this character. Please don't take is as a sign of disrespect.
Link

I hope i'm not coming off as pretentious. I do want to help. Im just unloading allot of info.

A beautiful, educational, and thoughtful post. I enjoyed it tremendously.

:thumbs_up:
Thanks buddy! :)

I think it might be something more simple:

From first look, the big empty space of the crystal ball is what grabs the attention; but all the detail is around it. The background is balanced but the character and the crystal ball take up so much of the foreground and it doesn't "flow". I think a change of having the character centered in the piece, crystal ball dead center and low (to emphasize what would be inside it) would grab the attention of the viewer more.

Second, an Egyptian jackal (?) with cats. I think a sultry, slinky feline character would fit better (think 1966 Batman where you had the fiendish Catwoman surrounded by her fickle flock of furry felines....ok...I'm showing my age...and silliness...)

Fill in the empty spaces. Make sure both sides balance themselves or space will feel uneven and stick out.

I prefer physical art to digital primarily because I tend to... let's call it "losing" the digital version. Usually along with the electronic device it was on.

Might be nice to get a glimpse of what they're viewing in the crystal ball. Must be something really interesting if the cat wants to look at it too... :)

The first thing that comes to my mind is that she's looking into a blank crystal ball. Something needs to be in there, vaguely recognizable but not quite. Leave that to the observers imagination.