4 hours ago
Heya David, welcome, and good on you for jumping back into a new art adventure.
I have some advice for your environment piece, and perhaps in general. The piece is far too busy with sharp photographic textural detail overlayed on top of surfaces without being properly integrated. I think it is very important to stick to getting the basic values and lighting correct, making sure the perspective is working and clear, before going in and popping photos over everything. I think you haven't resolved the building on the left in terms of its structure so it feels confusing, and the perspective is not correct. Here's a very quick paintover to demonstrate that simplifying everything tonally first is preferable before adding too much detail. You have used pure black on the value scale quite a bit, and generally this adds too much contrast and isn't particularly accurate in most lit environments, which generally have some level of ambient and bounce lighting in play. You can always use a slightly chromatic dark, that isn't pure black.
Compositionally I felt it needed some elements to connect the two sides of the buildings, these are the walkways. In design terms also think about the shapes you are using. Using repetitive shape motifs can help suggest cultural or engineering principles that give your location a type of unity. I also repeated some similar shaped angled buildings in distance, instead of just using generic photos of buildings. The design comes first, then you can embelish with photos.
.jpg "Filename: Project (20250111124011).jpg
Size: 225.92 KBYesterday, 09:53 PM")
In general, I think you should probably aim on learning how to paint with values first, and getting your scenes to read with the right lighting, depth, perspective first. Then you can integrate colour into your work, and once you are creating solid believable environments with the basic fundamentals, then look at how you can use photos to enhance the work.
I made a free "course" on environment design a long time ago now. It is still free on youtube. I got great feedback on it. It might give you some things to think about and practice.
Environment Design Rocks
There is also a related thread in the mentoring section here on the forum if you look for it that shows the students work and some critiques.
And yes, observational and foundational studies are likely going to help you more at this stage.
Hope this helps.
I have some advice for your environment piece, and perhaps in general. The piece is far too busy with sharp photographic textural detail overlayed on top of surfaces without being properly integrated. I think it is very important to stick to getting the basic values and lighting correct, making sure the perspective is working and clear, before going in and popping photos over everything. I think you haven't resolved the building on the left in terms of its structure so it feels confusing, and the perspective is not correct. Here's a very quick paintover to demonstrate that simplifying everything tonally first is preferable before adding too much detail. You have used pure black on the value scale quite a bit, and generally this adds too much contrast and isn't particularly accurate in most lit environments, which generally have some level of ambient and bounce lighting in play. You can always use a slightly chromatic dark, that isn't pure black.
Compositionally I felt it needed some elements to connect the two sides of the buildings, these are the walkways. In design terms also think about the shapes you are using. Using repetitive shape motifs can help suggest cultural or engineering principles that give your location a type of unity. I also repeated some similar shaped angled buildings in distance, instead of just using generic photos of buildings. The design comes first, then you can embelish with photos.
In general, I think you should probably aim on learning how to paint with values first, and getting your scenes to read with the right lighting, depth, perspective first. Then you can integrate colour into your work, and once you are creating solid believable environments with the basic fundamentals, then look at how you can use photos to enhance the work.
I made a free "course" on environment design a long time ago now. It is still free on youtube. I got great feedback on it. It might give you some things to think about and practice.
Environment Design Rocks
There is also a related thread in the mentoring section here on the forum if you look for it that shows the students work and some critiques.
And yes, observational and foundational studies are likely going to help you more at this stage.
Hope this helps.