Environment - Landscape Prep [ edit J]

So for this exercise I figured, if I don't know how mountains look like, how can I paint them from imagination? So I took a photo from the Internet and copied it while keeping in mind what I was painting, then tried to paint a similar image without any refs. I tried to keep each image under 10 min.

Obviously copying from photo is way easier. I think I need to work on rock the most (esp how its texture changes with its form and grain) so that's up next.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hey this is really good !

values are great, maybe a little too dark on the first one (in the back ground // more atmosphere ?) .

You can put some highlight on the vegetation/mountain to differentiate from the fog .

maybe you can put some more time in those like 15 -20 min ( total ) to work on the texture you wanted .

--------------------

Thanks man, good point about the darkness. I'll try that highlight advice the next environments I do. Also I'll try to spend some longer time for tighter details. (My weak points, I'm a pretty impatient person so I lean towards speedpaints too much)

These are a few I did from imagination this morning (before I came online) Lots of things to fix. I'm trying to work more on city scapes, for some reason natural landscapes are easier to paint (more room for error I guess vs the straight edges of cities) though a little less interesting xD


I can tell the composition for the second one is *especially* bad but I don't know how to fix it..

Now I'm off to actually go in and take your advice on detailing a little more. Also work on rocks .. So much to do and not know how to start :(

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hey, i tried to help you on that :

for the first one, you have a big black rock in the middle that catch the eye too much.

i changed some of the clouds to guide the eye to that castle/city in the moutain.

and added some contrast to the city , lessen the black on the sides of the castle.

oh and i added some direction to the hill on the left.

i did all that with the touchpad of my laptop so it is just a guideline for you ;)

i like this one actually.

just changed the direction of the stair.

and put some black on the left front side for the same reason as before

-

J: Thanks dude!! I definitely see the improvements, especially with the dark corner on the city. I actually kind of like it too (just that it's so crappily done) I might go in and work on it a little bit more. Meanwhile some rock thing that I did (photo ref) I didn't really finish it but it helped me with textures faraway and close up

Feeling kind of demotivated, but your comments remotivate me, thanks ^_^
-Jul 30 update: Tried to 'finish' it a little more, and also did a second one, just to get used to working in sets early:

I posted a comment on you personnal blog about the other city scape you did.
As i said, those ones are kind of cool and interesting.
the second one is a little bit abstract, and messy but has a very good energy.
the first one kind of remind me of Darkcity or Stalker (movies).

-Must look up those movies! hehehe