Firesword dwarf - how to plan the perspective?

[DorotheeRudolph]

Hi daggers,

I would like to go back working on my firesword dwarf painting. Some months ago I've submitted this first attempt to Dan Warren's paintover critique stream:


I'm using http://mimose-stock.deviantart.com/art/d...-126129988 by http://mimose-stock.deviantart.com/ as reference for the cave and the colour scheme.

Dan did the following paintover crit for my painting:



I've already tried to apply some of Dan's feedback in the current wip state of my painting:



I would like to plan the perspective of this painting more carefully before going back to applying Dan's feedback on it. I did watch Carl Dobsky's perspective tutorials, but I don't really know, how to plan the perspective on a painting, in which one character in the picture plane is cut off. I've planned the dwarf to be in the upper right third. So he has to stand higher than the knight. Dan suggested to add a staircase, but this doesn't fit into the game scene. Therefore I want to go for some kind of steep path. I planned the viewer to watch over the knight's shoulder onto the scene, if that makes sense. I do appreciate each feedback on the perspective. :)

[Wolkenfels]

Not easy. You propably should make a little sideview sketch. If you mark the camera position you can draw straight lines to the points that you wanna see and determine the perspective from there.
I would suggest to make lots of little fast thumbs of this scene and be creative about it. use several ways to approach the subject even if it does not fit your first initial idea.

Good luck!