i haven't really had much energy for gimp work while i've been sick, but i started on this yesterday and have been working on it off and on today. right now my biggest problem is the floor. i need some sort of floor that isn't too dark, doesn't take too much attention and doesn't look wrong in the patterned surroundings. i've tried just using a colour fill, but i need some sort of pattern or texture, or it stands out too much. at the moment she's dancing on a colour fill textured by an ikea coverlet and i like it less every time i look at it, neither the colour nor the pattern really looks right in the surroundings.
what i do like about it is the colouring, the combination of patterns, the dancer's general look (though some details in her pose and clothing aren't quite right) and the jewellery - especially the jewellery.


edit: i have made my final version of this picture now and i suppose that means i should rename the thread. said and done!

I like the dancer very much. I like the jewellery also.
As far as the floor, I think it should be dark and plain with hi-lites to go with the light direction...maybe a gradient. The rug she is standing on is very nice but I think it makes the over all picture too busy. There could be less floor behind the dancer, I dunno,

What about the 3 green objects at the back? Are they part of the wallpaper? They might be better if they were brought forward with some sort of shadow to make them look like they are standing alone as backdrops. The way it sits now, this is my opinion only, that there is too much going on and taking away from the dancer.

Maybe the dancer should look a bit more vibrant.

for the floor I would use a marble pattern, like one of those you can find on Google/Images searching "marble", there are some very beautiful and applicable to your image

Very nice AnMal
I liked the ground. Reminds me of the desert sand, which combines with what could be an odalisque dancing in a tent set in a desert oasis. But then it would be necessary to create the ondulalções to give more realism.
The set is just as well since it is art!

Very Nice! Is the lack of detail in the face a style or you haven't gotten to that yet?

I think its lovely AnMal

Your environment makes me think of India and all the pretty patterns they use in stuff. I like your dancer. I did a Bing search for India ballroom and there are some rather interesting floors in the search here.

hey, thanks everyone for comments! i'm in a hurry right now and can't reply to everything but you've given me things to think of and your advice is appreciated!

That is beautiful AnMal but I think the foreground pattern needs balancing with something in the bottom left hand corner. I wouldn't fuss with the dancer but maybe some simple eyes would help. A very impressive piece of work.

i've worked quite a lot on this picture and made several versions of it, all as huge xcf:s with tons of layers and i still ended with a favourite version where nothing much was changed. molly and O, thanks for tips regarding the floor. i tried the dark-and-shiny variety first but it seemed to change the whole atmosphere of the picture so in the end i decided against it. instead i looked at some more indian floors and was inspired by one picture. it was a mosaic floor that looked a bit arabic. i had a pattern in one of my pattern folders that looked vaguely arabic too and i played around with that til i got the result you see in the picture - i think this floor stays.
the "green" (actually not a green pixel in them, probably looked green against the red tones in the wallpaper) things that molly commented on started as screens shading off lamps put in deep recesses in the wall - then i thought the lamps and recesses took too much attention and complicated the lighting, so i got rid of them, but liked the screens so they stayed. i've toned them down a little by changing the colours, now at least i don't think they're stealing attention and i like lots of pattern in my pictures. i did set them off a bit more from the wall, though.
erisian (thanks for the flowers, by the way, they're appreciated ) suggested some simple eyes and moko asked if faceless was a style or something i was going to change later. i wanted her without a face partly because it suited the simple collage style of the whole picture and partly because a face controls the mood of the picture too much. but i did think the shading in the face could be enhanced a bit so the face didn't look too flat and while i was at it i experimented with eyes a bit too and liked the result.
i had problems with the layout too and first i thought erisian might be right about balancing the foreground pattern on the right with something on the left but that wasn't it. so i started moving things around a bit instead and now at least i am happy with the balance in the picture - the dancer is better placed and her shadow weighs down the left corner a bit.

I like it a lot better, Anmal. The floor looks GREAT! Just maybe one small thing - to give it the right perspective. Looking at the rug vanishing point lines and those of the floor gives me an awkward feeling. Maybe it's just me?

k1tesseraena: thank you! i took another look and i think you're right - there's so many lines going here and there in that floor it's confusing, but there's definitely something wrong with the perspective.

I love it now, it's fantastic. With just a small perspective adjustment to the floor/rug, it will be perfect. I would love to see this framed and set on a shelf with some candles nearby.

2-ton: thank you ! i wouldn't mind having this framed on the wall myself, actually.

I first thought of a wall, but then decided it would look great with a few candles nearby.

2-ton: oh yes - in my opinion anything will look good with a few candles nearby .

... here's your shelf, your candles and the framed panting!

im late to the party...

great picture AnMal !

the floor tiles look like something made with the rotated diamond flowers tutorial i posted what feels like ages ago

K1te is right, the perspective is wrong, i think the circles need to become smaller, the farther they are away, but thats difficult to make

i made the same experience: single colors looks odd a lot of times
i try to compensate with noise - its a simple trick to get a bit of texture to something that looks too clean, too perfect, without


how did you bump-map the ornaments ?
with itself ?

looks great on the shelf, lol.

2-ton: just as you said it would .
esper: thank you. i don't remember making that floor pattern, but from the rather imperfect edges i think it may be something i made with the rotoidoscope filter.
- what are you talking about more exactly here?
i bump mapped the ornaments with slightly blurred and slightly embossed copies of themselves.

i fixed the perspective on the floor. it's not perfect, but at least the floor and the rug have the same vanishing point now.