icy mountain

[el_kyrre]

First off: please be so kind as to give me some crits, thoughts and hints on this picture.


http://people.freenet.de/kyrre/icymountain-finished.jpg


Hello there...


My goal was to make the colors work together and to pay attention to values and such.
Another thing is that i wanted to learn how to use textures in painter. But when i was starting I had nothing specific in mind.

This image started as just a doodle withe some strokes here and there, and i wanted to see what i can come up with. I did that because of my fear of a "blank" page.
As i went on, i got the idea to make an illustration of a cave.
I had something with mountains and such in mind, and that was the direction i took.

My question to you now is:

1. What do you see in this picture?

2. How succesful do you think i was in the use of textures?

3. What distracts you the most when viewing the image.

4. Where do you think are the strong/weak points in this image etc...

please give me some crits, since i want to learn.

thanks
el_kyrre

p.s.
please comment only if you have something constructive to say... thanks

[dfacto]

1. What do you see in this picture?

2. How succesful do you think i was in the use of textures?

3. What distracts you the most when viewing the image.

4. Where do you think are the strong/weak points in this image etc...

1)I see a rock outcropping hanging perilously over some empty space with mountains in the bg.

2)Pretty succesful. I like the texture in the bottom half (especially in the bottom righ hand corner), but the rock outcropping sort of loses it a bit.

3)The rock outcropping. Its very dark and immediately got my attention.

4)The rock outcropping is the weakest, while the bottom left corner and far mountain are the strongest.

I like it either way, I just think that the rock outcropping gets in the way.

But don't listen to me, I don't know jack.:p

[discented]

http://discented.com/mountain.jpg

this is what i see...

[dfacto]

You know when someone points something out to you and you never ever see that thing the same way again because of it?...

[el_kyrre]

thanks dfacto!

I see your point, and i must agree...

I tried to put more detail into the upper part, and i must admit, that i spoiled it...

It looks to soft, compared to the rest... probably because i spent the most time on it. and there seem to be a lot of undefined strokes...
I have to remember to zoom out regularly to see the overall image.

I made the upper part darker because i wanted it to grasp the viewers attention. And then afterward your eye wanders around and you get the feeling of danger and of beeing in a very high spot.

@ discented:
Well thank you, cause you kind of spoiled the whole idea of this thread...
Although i did not mention it I was asking for CONSTRUCTIVE criticism!

[Schlo-mo]

lol, I really enjoy it now that he pointed that out.

[Locrian]

discented ruin thread? no way. If I were you I'd totally cop off of his perception and make it look more so like a face... maybe make the pic larger to show some more of the surrounding area... throw in some more defined background for the head to be looking at. I agree that now that I see the mountain side as a face the image is much more interesting. Before I didn't know what to make of it, it was just kind of open space.

I think the "face" could use some of that nice texture on the bottom rocks. I don't think having the middle empty is such a good idea, because thats where I look first. Would be nice to have a nice wintery mountain scene there. The foreground rocks are making a sort of picture frame but there is no picture there...