I did this really quick

first I reduced the number of colors on the snake to 2 (outline+fill color).  Notice theres not much of a difference however.  Then I cleaned up the outlines and added some simple directional light.  You can think of the snakes body sort of like a flat rectangular prism that is rounded and curving of course.  That means that if you can shade a cube you can figure out how to shade the snake.  Of course its not exactly the same but hopefully the quick thing I drew there gives you some kind of idea of what I mean.

maybe this angle from directly above isnt the most interesting though.  Looking at snake pictures on google I see that most photos are from an angle like this.  But maybe this is because it gives the fullest view of the snake, not because it is the most interesting composition.  So think about that.  You can use a different perspective maybe like this:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/photogalleries/giant-snake-picture/images/primary/090204-01-giant-snake-pictures_big.jpg
also notice how the snake is winding and coiling, and its more interesting to look at than how you drew it.
If your ambitious enough, I recomend completely reworking it or starting over to make it more vissually interesting, but still keeping in mind the more technical things I pointed out like reducing unneccasry color and cleaning lines.

letting your imagination run free is fine, but it's best to have a solid understanding of the subject matter you're trying to depict. if you're not too solid on how  snakes are constructed, it's best to use references to get the general form down, then abstract a bit from there if you feel it's necessary. artists of all skill levels use references, it won't hurt the imaginative quality of your piece, only improve it so that the snake is more recognizable and less symbolic.

"I have made a new color to the lighter side. Yes, I know you said "first I reduced the number of colors on the snake to 2" but I believe more detail is better with more colors and makes a big difference"


ya, I dont mean to say, make your picture have as few colors as possible.  Rather, make your picture have has few colors as possible while still maintaning the desired effect.  So for example you could take a picture with 20 colors, convert it to jpg and itll have like 2000 colors.  It looks relatively the same (well the jpg is way blurier), but one of them has like 1800 colors that arent adding anything (anything good atleast).

I agree with Cures post above.  You can think of artists like van gogh who painted from direct observation, but still let his imagination out.  Or when you think of comic book artists for example, ya they probibly dont have someone model every single pose they draw and probibly have to just go with what they know, but its based on a foundational understanding of what it is they are drawing, not just making it up.

also remember that art isnt always about starting something and finishing it.  Sometimes you have to start something, analyze it, see whats working and what isnt, then start over, and maybe repeat this process several times.  OF course Im not insisting you start over, you can still fix this and learn from it.  But just so you know, artists often have to start over and try new ideas, especially when trying to create a compostition.


Edited by r1k - 11 September 2010 at 6:43pm

The shading you have has really low contrast. Low contrast means that you end up using more colours, because you can't see much differentiation in tone and argh it goes around in circles :P

Check out the noobtorials and colour threads for more delicious colour info.

The lines aren't as clean as they could be, jagginess doesn't lend itself well to the smooth forms of a snake!

Here's a quick edit, my colours, form and Anti-Aliasing are my no means perfect :)