help me jazz up my background

[RATBAT]

one of my newyears resolutions was to make a background for eatch one of my pics rather then punk out and leave it white. im not very used to doing backgrounds at all.. so i was wondering if i could get some suggestions/ paintovers of what you think might make it look better without destracting from the dragon.


note that some of the black lines were there should beig ice stones arnt filled in yet.


http://side7.gundam.com/ratbat/pictures/marprogress.jpg

[JoshuaTheJames]

Hey,

This is pretty Darn Cool!

There is a lack of depth in the figure. I would suggest to try and separate each section from the body from each other. Most of the element of this piece seem to be laying on the same level. Its looking damn cool, but when you get a better sense of depth this piece will be sooo cool.

uh, I hope I said that clearly,

-Joshua

[Caspergt]

Hey, nice dragon warrior.

I'd try to make the creature stand out at little better:

You might consider letting the background color differ a bit more from that of the creature.

And/or you might darken the environment.

And/or maybe have the sky take up more of the background.

The top edge of the rock/glacier shouldn't follow the form of the wing so closely. Have it be somewhere lower - but make sure you still have room enough to define it - so the viewer doesn't get confused about what is behind the creature.

Have fun.

Casper

--wow, my first contribution to this site. But I definitely need a cooler nick. ... and to work up the nerve to post some of my work.

[RATBAT]

joshua, are there tutorials on painting for depth infigures? im kind of coloring blindly here, and i dont know what parts to leave detailed and what parts not too.. everything comes out semi-cartoony. how would u seperate sections?

[JackalAnubis]

I agree that you should try some differnt colors in the background to pop out the dragon. A trick for creating depth in the figure one of my teachers told me is to make things that are closer to the foreground lighter, and as they receed into the background make them darker. this is a trick for life drawing but it might apply here too!

[SEVANS]

You could also try playing with your warm and cool colours.

If the dragon is mostly coloured in cool tones, add some warm tones to the background to seperate the two.

More contrast on the closest elements eg: the hand and sword.

[tsgilbert]

It's looking pretty good - for some examples on depth w/characters, flip through www.seegmillerart.com
He's also written a really good book on digital painting.

[RATBAT]

hey thanks u guys, i got a paint over also, they suggested preatty much what you asll said about makeing the background more complimentary, to push it away from the dragon. they also made the wing greyer to push it away from the body. and the blade lighter to push that further on down.

[winjer]

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/ps55doc.htm

I think that might help you with the depth .

[Hunger_Artist]

the backgrounds should all be mech pron :D


but if you want the dragon to stand out you might want to try a more yellow/orangish background. Also keep your backgrounds on a separate layer so they dont interfere

[RATBAT]

Originally posted by Hunger_Artist
the backgrounds should all be mech pron :D


but if you want the dragon to stand out you might want to try a more yellow/orangish background. Also keep your backgrounds on a separate layer so they dont interfere


mmm mecha p-..hey! have you been stalking me?? >;o

[Mysen]

Always loved your work ratbat.

well my suggestion is to give some contrast to help your great character design pop out. here is a very very quick paint over to show you what i mean.

http://www.innersaga.com/temp/mar-contrastex.jpg


You could also try some lighter icy blues to make it contrast the character. cus right now your character kind of blends right in.

[RATBAT]

http://side7.gundam.com/ratbat/pictures/marthean.jpg

i know the objects in the background have not changed dramaticly, but are these hues easyer to see??