environment crit

[babix]

i've been working on this for hours and don't know what to do anymore, please give me your honest thoughts(compositions, colors etc)

my goal is to make viewer see a huge flying castle above a spacious desert in a beautiful environment. thanks in advance!

[Tetsuo]

At the moment there are perspective errors that are confusing my eyes. The view seems to be going in AND down AND up at the same time. Try using the perspective to go upwards towards your focal point (which I am assuming is the skycastle ). Also the compositional weight feels heavy on the left, whereas there is just desert on the right. I attached a quick paint over a a suggestion...still needs some work though. So I suggest going through some thumbs first to get the composition correct.

Also, you should take a look at reference photos of the desert regions for better idea of how the mountains/valleys/etc look. Right now you have a contrast in the soft mountain forms and the squarish rock formations of the foreground canyon-esque wall. Try to make them work together more.

Color wise there is way too much saturation going on here. Do not forget the rules of atmospheric perspective in that as the viewing plane recedes the saturation of color will go down significantly (and in some instances to greyscale). The sky in particular is VERY saturated and could use some greys in there.

There is more but I think you have a bunch of things to work on from here :)

And by no means is my paint over how the final should look...just a suggestion to think about the flow of forms for the eye to move easier in the piece.

-TeT-

[babix]

omg now that you stated it, i can see my work sucks so bad! haha! thanks for the critiques,they really helps. i'll keep your words in my mind and start over again from zero :p

[Tetsuo]

No no! You don't have to start over from zero :( Just make some adjustments, complete it and move on. Then on your next piece start with thumbnails, then refine in stages after you have found a composition that works.

I would suggest first and foremost to check out some great composition books...the easiest to get is by Jack Hamm - hmm let me find the link here:

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Scenery-La...=jack+hamm

old school illustrator in the same vein as Loomis. And only $10 to boot :D

other than that there are plenty of references online..find what works for you!

You have some decent lighting coming along as well as rendering...but be careful to fall into the land of using photo textures too early...because they can easily become a crutch for you :|

Keep pushing and you will easily get there!

[babix]

that's what i mean from zero lol, complete this painting and move on.

and yeah i convinced myself not to use photo textures yet, as my basic skill still isn't good enough.
thanks again man! i'll check that book you recommended soon.i think it's good for my basic understanding of painting landscapes.