Drakensberg Castle

[fred12]

Hi

This an imaginary Castle surrounded by mountains.

The challenge was to build a Architectural building (like a castle) all in photoshop, without any help of a 3D software.

I did everything in Photoshop, even the Castle and then I applied differents layers of images on grid in XSI to give the illusion of depth.

Comment are welcome of course!

http://www.carbonecreation.com/frederic-st-arnaud/photos/drakensberg.jpg

Fred

[CKWorth]

Wow the detail is outstanding! Truly looks like a photo. The lighting on the castle is great. The depth works well, my only critique is the shadow on the foreground snow. I think it gets too dark where the grass is, and causes some depth loss.

[SEVANS]

Great - simple as that

[fred12]

Actually, it's not only drawing but I've started with pictures that I took on top of a mountain. Then I painted over it.

The castle is only photohshop though!

Thank for comments!

Fred

[Davidskiwan]

woah man, the detail is amazing on that..... i like the way you did the grass.... it all looks almost real

[Killer Napkins]

whooooaaa that freakin rocks.. it does look super real.. its amazing

[Hazart]

Looks real to me! Great!

[jester]

Had to give 5 stars - this is amazing!

Jester

[Noodle]

Damn nice.

How long did you worked on it.

[Loga4]

Wonderful jop!

[Rusty Red Robot]

After rubbing my eyes and looking again, I can honestly say that this pic is gorgeous. Absolutely fantastic! What resolution did you work at?

[DanSTC]

Excellent work. Looks about the quality of mattes in movies, and would probably fool most untrained eyes.

[heiesuke]

u did a good job on the castle, well the entire pic for that matter. u're on ur way to matte stardom

[mess]

Overall, nice work.

Check your perspective though -the ellipses on the castle are off. Also the eye-level is fairly centered along the picture plane; you may want to consider a more dynamic viewing angle.

-Steve

[bgermain]

Awesome! The only thing bugging me is the tower to the left of the main/big tower. The first tier up from the ground appears to dip too low, as if the viewer is much higher above it. It's especially noticeable when you compare to the far right tower.

Still, I love it.

[Oblio]

Wow... :bow:

[Shadowkiller]

Great work man love how you blended the castle with the origanal photo. :chug:

[Theo]

Just checked out your website, man youve covered every field havent you. truly impressed. respect.

-theo

[fred12]

Hi!

I am working with a 256 mg file size of 6558 by 4039 pixels height. This resolution can give enough details to paint over without seeing any brush marks.

That true I have few perspective problems in my towers. Thank for these comments.

Fred

[DanielandTheLionsPen]

What...

the hell...

this looks like a photo.
I had no idea people could put that much detail into landscape, and buildings, and blend the two together so flawlessly.

This really does look like a photo.

Where can I find skill like this!???

:D

Awesome awesome...
I could go on forever.

Keep it up! You should print this out and frame it... considering the lord of the ring fancraze following the new release of the movies,
a poster like this would sell very well.

It makes me think of Minas Tirith.

*applause

[DanielandTheLionsPen]

"Actually, it's not only drawing but I've started with pictures that I took on top of a mountain. Then I painted over it."

*hangs head in dissapointment

Aww... this does not at all detract from the quality of the picture but I was under the impression that all the natural objects, the mountains and the trees were painted by yourself... which would have been simply outstanding.

Then again you would have to be a god of the arts to perfectly reproduce a mountain scene right?

Great paintings of mountains get me every time.

[qwerty]

this is one of those pieces that you slowly get closer to observe the detail and you smack you head on your monitor... i really like it.

[bbwolf]

Well, a hate to rain on anybody´s parade, but loving to point out things:

if the first idea of the picture was to create an architectual challenge only in photoshop, man, you could´ve done a lot more. Okay there´s a hint of a city in the back, but I´d loved to see the castle flowing down the mountain.

--nice pic though

[WildSpruceMoose]

This is pretty cool. Almost reminds me of lotr sort of structures, if you don't mind me saying so. The perspective is working for me and a lot of time went into near perfect details.

[-The Swift-]

whoooa! 5 stars anyday!

[Grifter730]

Unbelievable. The lighting and details are amazing. Go apply for WETA ;)