Hi & help!

[andre4]

Hi all, I'm really new to the draw-paint world. I'm a graphic designer but I always wanted to be good in drawing. Now I decided to seriously try to learn, starting from environment quick paint/matte painting.

Here's some starting quick-sketches from reference photography.

Thanks for any help!

[DAMJAN]

Hello there, let me give you some critique. First off, great start. Next thing that u would need to go is work on the detail of each and remember to take your time. To me it seems like you can paint clouds better then the ground.
To achieve better looking rocks you will need to have brushes designed for that specific purpose. Flat brushes are pretty good when it comes to creating sharp edges. To do that go to your brush presets also known as brush pallet. Click on the brush tip shape-now u will see this thing that looks like a bullseye. If you pay attention carefully, that bullseye has small black dots on each side *horizontally* click on one of those 2 dots and don't release your mouse, now u drag it inward. This will squeeze ur brush and make it flat. Go to shape dynamics-set size jitter to pen pressure, but also play with other settings to see what u will get. Next-go to other dynamics-and also select pen pressure under opacity jitter. This will make your brush fade out or fade in according to your pressure. Now, you can play around and see what settings work for you. Time to save-In the right corner of brush presets window there is a small arrow going downward. Click on it, and find save brushes. Time to name your brush and save. After you are done, try to load the brush which will be located in the left side of photoshop, above your tool bar. Enjoy!
P.S. the above brush works vertically, to make horizontal brush, just rotate the bullseye until it looks like it's flat horizontally. This is not the only brush you'll need to achieve the rocks look, if you need other help I'll try to help out, if not, someone else that knows more will. You can also download some rocks brushes that were already made from real pictures and use that to add the texture and then mess with opacity and or layer styles. Later.

[andre4]

Thanks DAMJAN, I'll try that type of brush in my next study.
Here's a quick paint, no ref.

[DAMJAN]

Nice light, see how it looks more defined? it looks more like a stone. Use large images of mountains as ref to get the feel. I really recommend that you get these dvd tutorials from Whit Brachna, 2 dvds only $30. I got them and he goes in depth on how to do mountains, snow, etc. Also, u'll get brushes he created for mountains. http://dvd.massiveblack.com/
scroll down and find Whit Brachna-Snow Mountain

[andre4]

Thank again DAMJAN, I'll check those dvds.
I tried to paint some rocks and snow but it's pretty hard! I also started add some texturing with specified brushes and seems like they work.
Here's a snow mountain test, had some problem tuning the palette but im quite happy of the general looking.

[DAMJAN]

Great start, I'm not sure how to assist u further in trying to rotate the pallet. Try to play with it. Now it would be time to try and focus on adding more stuff to make it more detailed. The hardest part of this will be trying to be as random as possible since our brains work in patterns. Also, add more blues, purples to your picture. Right now it is very warm and it doesn't have those cool shadows like the pic on the left. Color pick the colors, if u still don't get it exactly try to mix them. To achieve this u will have to lower the opacity of your brush and lay one color, then get another and put on top lightly. This will mix the 2 colors, use smudge tool as well to blend but be careful with this, because smudge tool can easily mess up your work. One more tip. To achieve more sharper cracks in the rock, use lasso tool. Draw or outline the cracks, once u have the marching ants, use your brush to color it in. Also, mess with different layer's blending modes to get more saturated colors where the sun shines or u can use dodge tool. Looking forward to your further work of this image.

[andre4]

Ok I watched some dvd and created a couple of brushes for rocks, textures, etc
Here's a quick sketch with my new brushes