EOW 146 Into the woods

[chaosrocks]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/EOW2.jpg

EOW 146 Into the woods

Into the woods
creepy, magical, the beginning of an adventure
Anything can happen in the woods.
a pilgrimage, a voyage or maybe just plain lost.


DUE July 23th 2010
Go!!

NO description required, say what you need to say visually. the words are already there.


:right: FOLLOW THE TOPIC.

:right: POST YOUR FINAL HERE THREAD.


:right: SAVE YOUR FILES IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT. EOW##_Nickname
example: "EOW#100_Chaosrocks.jpg" ;)

:right: PLACE THE IMAGE IN A FRAME WITH YOUR NAME/TOPIC

example from CHOW

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/ChowPics/frame.jpg
(you can add CA logo, etc).

Add an icon to you final post
150 pixels either direction
PLEASE OUTSIDE HOST THE ICON
k thxAn outside host means exactly that - an image host that's not Conceptart.org. Instead of adding the thumbnail with the attachment manager you have to host it on another site (your private domain, photobucket, (both recommended) or imageshack for instance).
The full image gets added with the attachment manager, however.

After you uploaded the thumbnail somewhere, you simply add the around it and you're done

[thescala]

Swizzlesticks, this could turn out some pretty swell stuff.

[Sebestian]

Sounds awesome. :D

[Incinerated]

glad you're alright chaos :) I shall join this one aswell.

[Spire]

Cool :) I'd like to join this one aswell.

[android411]

great chaos is back :)

I´m going to join this one too, so here is what I got so far. I´m going to clean this up but hope the concept is ok...

[grenogs]

looking good so far android, only crit so far however is, at the moment its looking more "out of the woods" instead of "into the woods", maybe some kind of figure in the foreground coming towards us would help

[Sebestian]

I just did a quick thumbnail sketch

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z267/refax/forestthumb.png

[android411]

@grenogs - thanks, you´re absolutely right, totally missed that part of the brief, so here is an update

[thescala]

Lookin pretty good Android. What I think could take this to the next level is if you made the man on the horse sort of looking back/ running from enemies who are also chasing him into the woods. You would have a story, rather than just a foreground element.

[chaosrocks]

actually we're not telling stories... we are setting the scene... the figures are supposed to be there for scale oly and not the focal element.

[thescala]

Fair enough, just thought it might trigger something cool to Android.

Started with this, I am totally not diggin the composition, so Im gonna start over.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/inthewoods2.jpg

[pacha]

hell yea love the theme...here`s a little sketch i did testing some brushes.Btw when is the voting on the factory going to start?

[thescala]

Pacha- thats just chaotic and cool looking

Here's what I got, Im liking the direction this is going in, very diferent than my usual

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/lldds.jpg

[Incinerated]

Heres it is, its still in progress tho. I'll crit you guys later

1018800

[VishvaTKH]

Interesting topic, and its good to be back after going through hell... :)

This was inspired by my memory of the Agarian forest from Warlords 3 PC game...actually there was no depictions of the Agarian forests, but I took the liberty to imagine.

[xLouisax]

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/louisasasa/intothewoods.jpg

Foliage! *shudder*:wtf:

[thescala]

Incinerated- Nice job dude, the lighting is pretty on. The overall composition looks very grayscale, try bumping up some of the highs/ lows. I think I just contridicted myself.

Vishva- Thats a mean drawing going on over there. Looking forward to see what it'll be when it gets further along.

As for myself, Im diggin what I have so far, playing around with textures.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/creek.jpg

[matoohan]

hi.. here is my BW sketch

[monotony]

great start everyone!! my first colored ideas.
maybe I need to focus a bit more on the environments.
But the topic sounds so much like the beginning of a story that I got a bit lost.

[matoohan]

a colored update

[Incinerated]

Enta da forest

Thescala - not completely sure what you mean? do you mean Tonal pattern the 10/30/60 thing?


1019281

[ErikStorstein]

First timer here for the EOW, but need to practice this up! :)
Here's some b/w thumbnails, ignore number 4 I guess.. I was just trying to figure out what the lightsource in number 3 might be :S

[JanJager]

android411
Good Picture. I think the horseman is an improvement, It changed the picture a great deal.
thescala
I like what you are doing. Nice how the tree-trunks fades away in the distance. Perhaps the beautiful coloured leaves should fade as much as the tree-trunks
pacha
good start. Try to not loose the life when you go further.
Incinerated'
beautiful. Perhaps focus on highlighting the bright area between the tree-trunks in the centre of the picture.
VishvaTKH
Cool sketch. looking forward see you render it out.'
xLouisax
Interesting picture. You have a bright ground and darker ski. Looking forward to see more. Perhaps defining where the light comes from.
matoohan
I love the composition. The trees gives a wonderful depth. Perhaps you should have some path leading down into the forest.
monotony
Beautiful thumbnail. I agree that its easy to get lost in a story. I like the lowest most.
Zilrion
Amazing thumbnails. nr1 and 2 are my favourites especial nr 1.

[JanJager]

Some thumbnails

[Spire]

Some really great work here. I'd like to learn environments. So, I figure this is a good place to give it a go. Here's my idea....

[El_Khan]

Cool topic, Im in !!
WIPS

http://maurocancino.dyndns.org/Otros/ConceptArt/IntotheForest/Forest01

http://maurocancino.dyndns.org/Otros/ConceptArt/IntotheForest/Forest02

http://maurocancino.dyndns.org/Otros/ConceptArt/IntotheForest/Forest03

http://maurocancino.dyndns.org/Otros/ConceptArt/IntotheForest/Forest04

[El_Khan]

Very interesting ideas around everyone !

android411
I agree with grenogs, the outside looks more interesting that the forest inself. anyway , love the composition and atmosphere so far.

VishvaTKH
Great design, looking forward to see the progress.

Thescala
The composition is looking great, and the colours wild. the gray background behind the trees looks off
but maybe you just havent got there yet :P

monotony
both looks great, Personally i like more the first one, but i like more the concept of kids playing in the second one.

matoohan
cool composition, i do miss a focal point.

Incinerated
very well detailed, i miss a point of interest but i can see there is a person still missing there

Zilrion
I like a lot the first composition, but the second one tells a story so i like that one better, if you can make it look more forestlike

JanJager
cool thumbnails, i like them all. but i think most of them focus on the outside of the forest,
looks like something interesting is happening on the 3th one.


i should have make thumbnails and wait for suggestions too, thats what happens for being new here :P
but i kinda got the free time and coulnt stop myself jaja

[Incinerated]

hey guys thanks for the crits... this may be the final- since im really busy this weekend... anyway nice entries ya all

1020383

[VishvaTKH]

Many thanks for the comments. I will think about this more and develop. I tried to bring the way into the woods more into the focus, so I've tried again without the human figure...

El khan- IMO the figure in white is kinda too much of a focus. But the rendition is very nice.

Thescala - hope you will play out a bit more with different scales of trees. Nice piece of work!

JanJager - the third one looks intriguing..maybe you will develop that one

[Aragah]

i need a little help,
my first environment ever,
so im stuck here, not really sure if i should continue detailing , or even how to detail,
any critic or help will be great
(sorry for any mistakes, my english is not that good)

[Absorber]

Great entries so far :D I especially like the thumbs with the vivid three trunks. Good thumbs Erik and Jan! Don't have time to crit any work, sorry for that.

Here's mine:
Still in black&white. I need to check the tree-textures, they need to be darker and more integrated.

The 'gate' was first made to be scary, but now the people are walking towards it the forest feels more like a forest of protection and a welcome home to those who dear to enter.
Although I didn't criticize any of you, feel free to take a sharp look at my image!

btw. is this image dark when your looking at it on your screen? I draw on my HP screen (where the image is dark-gray) but when I'm looking at it on my Imac it's black as hell :S Please help me out a bit so I can adjust it next time

Cheers!

[dragon4lunch]

http://trickstertoys.com/additional/QuestStart_004.jpg

Fairly messy right now, but I'm trying to do something different this time. Let's see if I'll finish it in time.

[Spire]

Here's a little update....Would appreciate any crits you have that will help me develop this....Be as harsh as you like, I can take it. Having some fun with this.

[Mitze]

Sweet stuff from everyone. I suck at enviros so practice makes perfect. Any crits please give before i get stuck in and render.

[thescala]

Mitze- If you suck at environments... you don't, don't be so hard on yourself, that's lookin really nice

Spire- I like the framing of the pic, colors look good, keep it on

Dragon- Great colors, has a painterly feel to it

Here's mine, adjusted the trees a bit, and switch up some colors, I think ima start on a new one of these, go for a more realistic approach possibly.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/creek-1.jpg

[Mitze]

Thank you thescala.

Please excuse me for taking libertys with your pic, I think your trees are all too straight. The bloke should be looking at something . I put a kinda curch in there.

Love your colours . My version very dull.

[Jon Gibbons]

Great topic and some fantastic images so far.
Here's my WIP's

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q302/jongibbons/WIPS.jpg

[thescala]

Gibbons- Nice thumbs, great process

Mitze- That atually looks pretty badass, in a dirty old man kind of way! I was curious as to what you guys said by the trees needing scale/ adjustment. Now that I know this is what you ad imagined, Ill definately run with this route, it looks much more epic.

[dragon4lunch]

http://trickstertoys.com/additional/QuestStart_006.jpg

Update. What do you guys think? Too much with the atmospherics and particles?

[thescala]

Dragon- looks fine to me, although, maybe if you substituted a few birds in their for some leaves, that might work

[grenogs]

still need to clean up the pencil line on half of this, experimental piece, going towards a hansel and gretel image here. pencil outline but digital colour in a kind of pastely water colour effect, hopefully :)

[thescala]

Stilla WIP

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/creek-2.jpg

[ErikStorstein]

grenogs: Love the storybook feel to your sketch, wish I had the guts to try do this in pencil first myself.
dragon4lunch Love your colours! I like the touch of the flying flowers, but I suggest putting them on a more specific path throughout the image, use it as a compositional element. Looks a bit random atm
Jon Gibbons Good job there. Small crit, the composition becomes rather boring when its so symmetric.
thescala Striking colours in those trees, try reflecting them in the water :)

Here's a quick screenshot, I was trying the 2nd thumbnail (left) first to just get into painting again. Was mostly using a round brush for that one, didn't finnish it yet and uncertain if I will.

I'm trying to work on different layers for once, haven't worked the upper portion of the one on the right yet. so the light looks a bit fugly as it's from the original colour sketch.

1021180

Edit: I havent had a second glance yet as this was done all in one go, so might do revisions :)

1021318

[android411]

thanks for your feedback guys, I wanted to try another one which is a bit more foresty...

[OchreHand]

i'm trying to think if a story with this one..a robot + bunny + forest = ?

[Arne Meyer]

Hey guys!

Great stuff so far.
I took the time to give some critics, hopefully they are useful.
Forgive me my rusty school english.

@Sebestian
Looks good, keep it up!

@pacha
Looks really interesting. I´m curous what will develop out of this.

@xLouisax
At the moment it´s more like a meadow than a forest. Fill it up with vegetation, don´t be afraid of foliage ;) Also you should focus on values and lightning.

@monotony
Great thumbs. I like the second better, it´s more dynamic. But you are right, main focus point should be the environment. Otherwise you use the tree (the environment) as a story telling element so it should be okay I guess.

@matoohan
Absolutely beautiful . I like the scale and the painterly look. Nothing to crit.

@El Khan
Nice moonlight mood. Keep in mind not to focus too much on characters.

@Incinerated
Beautiful forest painting! Only thing to crit is: the composition is imo to boring. I think the image would benefit from extending it to the right or left.

@VishvaTKH
Really nice pencil drawing, great linework. I personally liked the version with the character better.
Now the pole looks a bit lost and you loose the feeling for scale because there is not much for comparison (except the little skulls hanging from the tree).

@Aragah
First of all you should have a focus point in your painting. A point of interest, like a special shaped tree or something like this. Then you need do arrange that in your compostion. You chose a square format, was that decision on purpose? I would advice you to choose a 2:3 ratio on image aspects.
The reason for this, is to be easily able to follow the golden section (google it, if you didn´t hear of it yet). Basicly it´s just the idea to place the point of interest in 1/3 or 2/3 of the image area in length and width.

@Absorber
On my two screens its more grey than black.
I like the scale of it but the light irritates me. Why is the path in this forest as bright as the sky?
Is this a very small forest (exept for its height :) ) or is there some sort of a light source in there?

@Spire
I like the camera angle you chose. You should work on values and color next. Make the building more dark and brighten the light up. Add some other colours than just these two. Add reflections to the river.

@Mitze
Awesome picture. I like the mood of this painting.
I guess I would try to desaturate the blues because they give a feeling of free space behind the next trees, but your image profits from a more closely/trapped feeling. Otherwise you need the blue for color contrast. dunno

@Jon Gibbons
I like the lightning. Let us see a bigger version.

@dragon4lunch
Stunning piece, love it. These vibrant colors in the foreground are awesome. There are just a few minor things to change: First I would try to render out the linework in the background. Second I would erase some of the particles, they look a bit cloned.

@grenogs
Interesting concept. I like the flow of your lines. One thing to crit is: there´s no focus point and the composition is to centered.

@thescala
The new version looks a lot better.
Like already said you should add reflections to the river. Also some shading in the foliage is needed.

@Zilrion
Great environment! I like the feel of depth in your painting. You should work on the ground in front a bit, in my opinion it looks unnatural flat. Also the tree in the far background looks unproportional.
The tree in front looks interesting but it´s a very inefficient design for a tree, especially without foliage. I face that problem too right now.

@android411
I personally liked your first one better. I guess that´s because you had a better approach on showing the scale and also had a better feeling of going into the woods.
But I still like what you did with the second one. The focus is more on the woods than on the buildings that´s good. Things I would change first are: 1. The character in front. Even if he´s not in focus, some correct proportions would help a lot. Also the pose looks a bit awkward.
2. The horizon line is at the middle of the picture . I guess it would look better when you place it at 1/3 from the bottom, especially to sell the size of the trees.

@OchreHand
Looks great so far, especially the robot. Just keep in mind to give the environment at least the same amount of detail.


Good luck to all of you!



And here´s my WIP, still very basic.
Critic much appreciated!

1021423

[Incinerated]

thescala very powerful colors, i really hope you can pull that off. Someone already said this but reflecting the trees in the water is a really good move to be making.

ochrehand good start, remember it should be about the environs, robots are fine so are bunnies but still... Anyway looking forward to see what you do with it :)

android411 great colors, good shapes- the structures dont work that well IMO tho, you already have good points of interest.

dragon4lunch very nicely executed, its very plainly "just" a forest right now, put something in there.

Jon Gibbons good idea, you have some light stealing the focus in there...

mitze that has butloads of potential, don't say you suck - you really don't... at any rate keep working on that!

grenogs nice pencils, you're still missing a point of interest, but i bet you're gonna do something about that.

Zilrion interesting piece, I would probably move the person futher into the pic - for example up on the spiraling tree, you're leading the eye up there anyway.

Spire put a person in the foreground, and remember this one is about the forest- i like the light situation.

[dragon4lunch]

Incinterated: Good point. I thought of that too - but I didn't want the beginning of the quest be too extraordinary - that would ruin the building creepiness/intensity of the quest :)

Hopefully now there is a enough going on to make it more than just a forest.

http://trickstertoys.com/additional/dragon4lunch_EOW146.jpg

[RichLyons]

hello there, here's my very typical path through the woods. Not very exciting at this point but I am enjoying the process.
Dragon4Lunch - loving your piece, tons of energy!

[dragon4lunch]

RichLyons: Thanks for the comment - very groovy piece yourself! Digging the scale of the lighting, comp and drawing skills! Very nice core shadow on that giant stump in the foreground!

Ok, kind of silly question, but since I spend a lot of my time with Photoshop: Do you keep your atmosphere on a separate layer? If so, do you then turn it off during most of the painting process, so you can quickly Alt-Select colors from within the painting, without getting the altered value (if you had the atmo. on)? I find it tricky to paint underneath an active atmosphere layer, as I can't predict the end look.

[Incinerated]

I need a fresh set of eyes
1021610

[matoohan]

an update...added some details, corrected some stuff.....
next i wanna improve lights atmo, just a little.....and maybe there is a work with detailing foreground plants..so, see you soon.

btw. really great works around here, i will post some comments later, now ist time to sleep :)

[Obilex]

Incinerated : more contrast! look at matoohan's, dragon's and rich's. Their shadows are dark enough and highlights are bright enough that you don't get lost in the piece. Your piece right now is excellent, but it is too bland in terms of contrast. Just my 2 cents.:rendered:

[RichLyons]

Ok, kind of silly question, but since I spend a lot of my time with Photoshop: Do you keep your atmosphere on a separate layer? If so, do you then turn it off during most of the painting process, so you can quickly Alt-Select colors from within the painting, without getting the altered value (if you had the atmo. on)? I find it tricky to paint underneath an active atmosphere layer, as I can't predict the end look.

Ahoy Dragon4Lunch,

I normally slap down the colour on a normal layer.
In this case I was using a grey blue on a multiply layer for shadows and a screen layer to pick out the highlights.
The atmosphere was a normal layer with a light grey blue colour, I then cut the opacity right back and mask out the elements I want to pop into the foreground. When I’m ok with the result I just flatten and start colour picking on a new normal layer.

I find if I leave to many options for myself eg. Fog layer, light layer, light pillars layer etc I just get bogged down in tweaking. So I flatten and push on. It might not be the best approach if you need to make alts for clients but it speeds things up in my case.

[goldilockz]

I am 100% out of my league here, but here is my first wip of my very first ever enviro. Crits always welcome. I don't feel comfortable crit-in' anyone else yet because I'm so new to this type of painting... I hope that's ok with you all. :yayca:

[alive]

so many awesome forests here

[jkeener]

This is my first try at an enviro. Learning a lot!

I decided to base it on old Japanese paintings. Tomorrow I will put in the lights..only time for the dark's tonight.

[Mephistoau]

Just a quick sketch - about 20 mins or so. Playing around trying to get a bit of character into my environs :)

[dragon4lunch]

Rich: Right on, it is good to read that other heavy duty Photoshoppers also feel encumbered, when there are too many layers. It feels liberating to just flatten things down once in a while and go for it. Interesting that you sometimes go the multiply route for shadows.

Thanks!

[thescala]

Think Im finished with this one.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/EOW146.jpg

[Jon Gibbons]

Thanks for the crits guys.
this is where I am so far

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q302/jongibbons/IntotheForestwip2.jpg

[dragon4lunch]

matoohan: Looking good! Nice light and composition. Small crit: I'm not sure where the beginning of the forest is, as it looks like the path leads down into an open plain and far in the distance is the actual forest. But since you put those two big trees in the foreground - you probably meant this to be the beginning of the forest.

[Rusty]

Felt like taking a break from CHOW, here's some rough as guts thumbnails. Some kickass stuff formulating in here!

~J

[no_name_brand]

Nice open subject matter. Here is what I got so far. struggling with the palette a lot right now. I want it to feel like a warm patch of shade on a hot day. The back story will be a race track, with some future rally cars zipping over and under the fallen tree. I want to keep it loose but not sketchy.

love the round so far.

[Beelow]

Ok, kind of silly question, but since I spend a lot of my time with Photoshop: Do you keep your atmosphere on a separate layer? If so, do you then turn it off during most of the painting process, so you can quickly Alt-Select colors from within the painting, without getting the altered value (if you had the atmo. on)? I find it tricky to paint underneath an active atmosphere layer, as I can't predict the end look.

Ahoy Dragon4Lunch,

I normally slap down the colour on a normal layer.
In this case I was using a grey blue on a multiply layer for shadows and a screen layer to pick out the highlights.
The atmosphere was a normal layer with a light grey blue colour, I then cut the opacity right back and mask out the elements I want to pop into the foreground. When I’m ok with the result I just flatten and start colour picking on a new normal layer.

I find if I leave to many options for myself eg. Fog layer, light layer, light pillars layer etc I just get bogged down in tweaking. So I flatten and push on. It might not be the best approach if you need to make alts for clients but it speeds things up in my case.

You can either keep it on a seperate layer or drop the layer, whatever works for you. I Use Painter and tend to drop layers down, because I don't like to fiddle with a lot of layers. I end up adjusting things anyways. You can always save in steps, saving a new file after dropping the layer. You can always bring your old undropped layer back into photoshop if your results start to look crappy. You can always cut and paste what you had in previously or start from where you were at. That's the beauty of working digitally. Looking nice though.

[jkeener]

Spent today pushing values and working the atmosphere, still quite a ways to go.

[Beelow]

dragon4lunch-Hey there. Thought I would share my thoughts with your environment. Color choices I like. Things that you could fix, trees seem to be consistently the same size in the foreground. I sized them up; increased the road size a bit to give better illusion of depth. I also pushed the values in the background to be close together. Painted a person to help with scale. Painted a rock in the grass to give it some variation. You could, also, throw in some grass blades here and there in the road to give it more interest. Added some tree branches in as well. I think every bit of detail is important scalewise. Main thing is to get the basic crap in first before going into detail. It is important to get the illusion of depth with not only atmosphere, but also with a mixture of big to small shapes in foreground and in background. Giving the image some kind of rhythm helps as well. Think of electric power poles going into the distance. Even though this a forest with a bunch of organic forms, you still can go big to small with things that are the same size going into the background. You can do it with the trees, rock and the dirt path. Hope this helps. Good luck with finishing.

[Beelow]

Spent today pushing values and working the atmosphere, still quite a ways to go.

I think you should spend more time getting the composition and design down first. Use a mixture of hard edged brushes with the soft. You're going soft, and it looks like you are going into rendering. You don't want to have a bad base drawing or painting to start from. I usually go hard brushes adjusting the values by moving my picker thingy in my pallete, going darker or lighter that way. Then I throw in some soft edge brushes to with lighter values to give atmosphere. You can either do it on another layer or go straight on painting or both. Throw in some perspective lines to help. I also like to think of things in terms of shape, but shapes with volume. Cubes, Prisms, Spheres, Cylinders, etc., really help not to overcomplicate things. Also, there is a top and bottom to everything. Anything above the Horizon Line we should see under. Anything below, we should see the top. As objects approach horizon line, water, rocks etc., should get smaller and thinner. Clouds as well. Good luck though. I hope that this helpful for you.

[vertebra]

hey guys, can i come play?

dragon4lunch great piece ive enjoyed watching it develop, your direct approach is strong and energetic. My one critique is more of a taste thing, your flowers look like they were made with a brush? Personally, I think that works for mechanical things like chains, but flowers really need more sensitivity.

RichLyons im a big fan of your work, I have a folder full of your process images from your blog (hope you dont mind) :hugsmile:, cant wait to see the finish, are your refs of Mt. Washington?

Rusty also been lovin your characters, glad to see you branching out.


heres my thang. still getting messy with it.

[Beelow]

vertebra-That's just a paintover for Dragon4lunch. LOL. His painting. Give him the credit. XD

[vertebra]

oh, hah, okay i edited the post. :)

[android411]

thanks again for the feedback everyone. Really great work in this round. I changed mine quite a bit. I tried to enforce the feeling of going into the woods. Not sure though...

[dragon4lunch]

Beelow: I wish there was an "ultra-thanks" button, for special occasion. You deserve one! I'm reworking the piece right now - Ironically I get most compliments for the colors, which is the part I'm most afraid of - that I guess I didn't even spot some of the most obvious things: Scale up the trees in the foreground and enhance perspective by scaling up the path in the foreground! Good stuff! Thank you!

[Arne Meyer]

Awesome entries so far!

@RichLyons
Stunning piece of art! Values are great

@goldilockz
Your painting looks too grey. Push the highlights and darks more to give it some contrast.
Also the tree bark shouldn´t be total grey, there is always some different colored light reflecting from somewhere, like the blue from the sky or the green from the foliage.

@Mephistoau
Waiting for an update to crit.

@Rusty
Great thumbnails. Keep in mind the forest should be the main interest in your image (regarding the fourth panel).

@no name brand
Awesome colors!

@jkeener
Like already said, think again about the brief. I think you should focus more on the woods. Also the composition needs some refinement.

@vertebra
Looks really interesting. I´m looking forward to see a colored version.

@android411
That´s the best version yet, keep at it. A small tip when it comes to basic coloring: There is an adjustment layer in photoshop called “gradient map”, you can use it to give the dark parts of you image a different color than the bright parts. Make sure to use “overlay” as layer mode.
This method will give you better results than your painted approach.



Here´s a small update on my piece.
Some critics would be great!


1023093

[android411]

Arne Mayer - thanks so much. I tried your method out. Never really tried this version and when used correctly it could save lots of time, cool...

Regarding your image I think that you have a cool lighting going on. Maybe you could try to use some deep dark saturated reds in your dark shadows to make your colors more vibrant. Maybe you could also try to make more clear if the forest is going down or receding in space...

@incinarated - I think you also could use some complements of green in your shadow other than more contrast like obilex mentioned, overall I think it´s a wonderful image, especially like the sense of scale

@thescala - Looking good, maybe you could try to make your path going through the forest to emphasize this for the brief, thanks for your help also

@dragon4lunch - really nice colors. I think Below made some great points with your composition. Overall great image

@matoohan wonderful style, colors and lighting


@Zilrion - great image, maybe some more work on your lighting would be cool

RichLyons awesome style, love it

no_name_brand - looks great so far, looking forward for some update

Jon Gibbons - looking cool, as it´s centred it looks quite stable and meditative to me

[xLouisax]

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/louisasasa/intothewoods-1.jpg
I've basically repainted the whole thing, the tones were really bad, and still need to tweak! I need to correct alot of the lighting now, and add foliage and grass and leaves and flowers! I've been studying foliage like crazy, this has been a real test for me!

Q. So is it right to layer the shapes and tones from the back to the foreground or does it really matter? How do you guys do it? :p

Beelow - wow yours is coming along beautifully i love the sense of magic!

[VishvaTKH]

Thanks for all the comments..!

This is where it stands now...my first real watercolor BTW :P

I brought back the figure as Arne suggested, and made a some touch-ups. Really enjoying the experience!

Many an age after the ruinous wars with Lord Bane, the mighty Agarian forest is alive again. But the Agarian Elves are not who they used to be...

[VishvaTKH]

@ Arne Mayer - I couldn't help but think, is there some mismatch with the perspective? You might need to consider the viewing angle and how the road curves into the woods. Keep up the good work!

@ android 411 - Now its looking good! I feel if you can bring out the person and the ledge as foreground it will give an awesome feel of distance and depth

@ thescala - Cool use of colour, and the cartoonish effect makes it interesting. Like to see it kept in that style

[jkeener]

Threw in a tiny bit of color because I was bored and I fixed the right side which was popping out too much. I've made the forest too light which is one of the main problems, since it has gone the same same value range as the mountain in the background.

@Beelow I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the brushes, could you elaborate? The whole thing is with hard edge brushes so maybe I'm just blending too much?

[Mephistoau]

Threw down some quick colour. Bazinga.

[jkeener]

I did that last post before bed last night and I looked at it with fresh eyes this morning and took a few minutes (after looking at a ton of paintings) to change around the composition a bit. This was done in about 5 minutes, I'll fix it up more after work.

[dragon4lunch]

VishvaTKH: Watercolors are one of the toughest media to work in - but you will have a permanent piece this way. When I see a piece like yours I can't help myself but think how quickly one could through in some precise highlights and areas of detail when going digital.

I like your forest a lot! If it weren't for the skulls hanging in the tree, I would prefer wandering in that forest to wandering in mine! Great trees of personality!

Is that red riding hood?

[Absorber]

Another update. ConceptArt was linking me to a 'myspace-error'-page, more of you guys had the same trouble a few hours ago?

Well, I added colors and detail. All entries are lovely, hopefully I can manage some crits next time. I will replace the humans for some trees to give the foreground more variation.

cheers!

[Beelow]

xLouisax- It's dragon4lunch's Illustration. Just did a paintover for him. Push that tree to the left more to the left. Give you painting some breathing room.

jkeener- Here is a paintover. Certain brushes work well with edges. Softer edge brushes helps a little more with the blending than the hard edge brushes. But, technically you could use both to do the same thing. It's just a longer process. I am pretty sure you want to cut that time down. Couple of things I've mentioned in my crit I demostrated in my paintover. Simple shapes for winding road, bottom to clouds, big to little with tree (well kinda) and edges which I pointed out. Hope this clears up some things for you. Good luck.

Had plenty of crits but lost it, damn... I'll have some more crits later.

[ArghosRo]

My first EOW, didn't really know where I was headed, doesn't seem as magical to me, please critic!!!

My SB come and see!!!!
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2801470#post2801470

[VishvaTKH]

@ dragon4lunch - Thanks! It was hard since i hadn't done so before, but think it was worth the while in the end. And I do agree upon your comment regrading digital.

BTW that figure does look like Red Riding Hood lol!...i did not intend it to be her, but some rather weary character, probably human...maybe a pilgrim looking for a way through the Agarian forest...but the road's fallen into ruin.

@ Absorber - Like the sinister feel and the menacing scale of it. :)

@ ArghosRho - Interesting start. Better that you correct the perspective, the angle of the road and how it adds up with the trees doesn't seem to add up. Add a bit of depth and you can demarcate well between the hedge-like wall and the woods beyond.

[jkeener]

@Beelow thanks! that cleared up a few things for me. I'm still really struggling with the technical aspects of using photoshop to paint. The colors aren't coming across on the web as well as they do here...I'll try to fix that later.

I'm still messing with it..who knows :)

[no_name_brand]

Nice update guys, thanks for the comments here's more of mine in develpoment. I'm getting close to the end here so I'm gonna start with the rally cars.

android411 Just a small Crit, watch your saturated colours there very vibrant right now. Especially in the background. Try this out and see how it looks to you. desaturate the background colour of the yellow Orange and change the green on the right to the orange that you have in the middle section. you can desaturate it by making a colour layer with a soft brus (at 30-40 opacity perhaps lower) glaze over top of the background. Then add another value to the trees next animal drinking water. Also watch your contrast in the areas that are not the focal point.

[Mephistoau]

no_name_brand
That's looking feckin awesome man, beautiful work. Love the colour palette too

[no_name_brand]

Here is where I'm at. I'll put it away for a couple of days and see how it looks then. any crits are welcome.

Thanks for the comments guys.

[dragon4lunch]

no_name_brand: That's tight, tight I tell you! Good stuff!.
Time for the Finals threads to go up!

[VishvaTKH]

@no_name_brand - wow! awesome effect of space, love the dynamic quality! just asking, did you try showing the vehicles going away from the viewer?

[Howie]

beautiful stuff in here, here's where I'm at ... I wanna have something going on just havn't decided what yet
http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/Howie1388/forest.jpg

[xLouisax]

Heres where I am. I'm not happy with the left hand side of the painting, hmmm...

Shall come back to tomorrow with fresh eyes.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/louisasasa/intothewoods3.jpg

Beelow - Oh yeah! My mistake!

[RichLyons]

No Name Brand, looking shweet mate.

Heres another wip,,, kinda lost atm, will have another crack before I post final. It really needs something in the middle clearing area, stone structure covered in moss,, or something. I'll go have a think about it.
Feed back welcome.

Cheers Rich

[Mephistoau]

@ RichLyons
I honestly had a mini freakout when i saw that update man, that's pretty epic. The lighting is absolutely stunning. My only crit would be whatever stone object it looks like you're placing in front of that tree - i would probably move it around more to the left. At the moment it seems like it's going to be too distracting.

...

But seriously man... wow o_0

**Edit: oh and i'm loving the almost comic book feel it has to it. Nuff gushing i'm done. Lol.

**Edit #2: Figured may as well just dump my update in here. Just been fiddling with colours and what not trying to keep the feeling of the piece relatively light :)

[Vaejoun]

RichLyons:

Thats so cool. Did you use some photo-pieces for the detailed leaf parts ? Or is it all purely hand painted. If so you deserve even more respect.

I totally need to train on envis too. Always avoided that topic ^^° Lets see what I can pull out of the hat.

[no_name_brand]

Don't have a update today thanks for the comments though.

dragon4lunch Thanks man, Looking forward to seeing yours as well.

VishvaTKH Thanks, I actually blocked them in going away. However I thought that the engine at the back became too much of a focal point and I lost where I wanted the eye to go. I also liked the look of them coming at you.

Howie I like your colour a lot. I also like how loose it feels. If you put some detail in the focal point, and a little in the foreground, and leave rest as is (don't know if that's what your going for) it will look pretty cool. A lot of people, including myself over work things because we think unimportant areas are important in the final. looking real good.

xLouisax I like the depth in your a lot perhaps over lap the branch over the tree on the left. right now it's to perfect of a spacing. also watch lighting the tree on the left is light form both sides as well as the trunk on the right corner. if you want bounce light, make it blue that may work better.

Rich looking awesome man the detail is insane in the foreground. it looks real deep too nice depth. watch the focal point, right now it's kind of the tree trunk on the right. If you put a figure in the patch of light as oppose to in the shadows I think that will become the focal point. Awesome man

Mephistoau I like your colours a lot feels like Halloween. Small critic. I don't think you have to have the leaves on the left light. I think if you knocked them back it'l give the picture more depth. right now it's grabbing to much attention. looking good though.

[Vaejoun]

Lets see: For the start I looked for some nice photos to get at least a small idea what I want to do and then made some scribbles.

I would like to show a group of people walking into the forest, not on a way but through high grass, like in the 2nd photo from the left.

Because this is my first eow I would appreciate all kind of hints, tipps and crits.

EDIT:
I went for the bottom left tumb. After some working on it it went more to the edge of the forest than it appears in the first sketch.
Heres where I am so far, still experimenting on it of course, but I have the feeling that I am already over the top with the saturation. ^^°

[Rusty]

Still pretty rough atm but another day should sharpen it up.

~J

[Jon Gibbons]

@no_name_brand: Nice composition, perhaps a slight amount of the blue vehicle lighting on the underside of the fallen tree?

@RichLyons: looking very cool, especially the details in the tree stump.

@Mephisto: Great style that would look perfect in a childrens book, are you going to add any figures or critters?

@Android411: Very eerie, I really like the strong green wash

@Absorber: Great scale, those are serious trees!

@VishvaTKH: Hats of to you for your first watercolour! looking great.

@Dragon4lunch: I really love the sense of motion in your image.


pretty much finished with my piece.

[Mussy]

wow some very inspiring work here, im a beginner and im just getting into painting digitally, and i think from the sketches upto the final pieces everything is wicked!.. hopefully i'll be able to maintain this quality of work some day, im aiming to be an enviromental painter too... but yea just thought ill say how inspiring this stuff is..

one day ill be posting my entry too! any tips guys? thanks!.. now back to painting some apples :x

[Vaejoun]

@Rusty:
I admire your consistant stile, you could just take your Gaia-chow and put it in there and it would work.

@Gibbons:
I love the little blue flowers near the way, they just catched my eye ^^

@Mussy: Sadly theres no shortcut, but trying things out and pushing yourself is helpfull. I messed up a lot of pics because I was just too lazy too work harder on them ^^° Just keep painting and get crits from more experienced artists.

Ok, my own again. I am making progress, this one took by far less tries to get the color and mood right then on my last pics.

[Mephistoau]

Riiiiiighhhttoooo... so anywho it's about 4am (again) sigh.... But yeah i'm pretty much done with this one. Just one question. With or without birds?
I know it's only a small thing but i think my brain is too fried to figure out which actually looks right lol....

[Mussy]

Riiiiiighhhttoooo... so anywho it's about 4am (again) sigh.... But yeah i'm pretty much done with this one. Just one question. With or without birds?
I know it's only a small thing but i think my brain is too fried to figure out which actually looks right lol....

hmm.. i think without birds, cos it looks like ur trying to portray a night scene so it makes the birds look out of place, maybe an owl would work?

@Vaejoun : yea ur right thats y im trying to put all my effort in this holiday, i got 2 months till university starts so trying to soak up as much as i can, get a headstart.

[Howie]

Mephistoau: Nice transition from happy to dark, I think the balloons are a little unnecessary and distracting. I think the birds are ok but put them on both sides of the picture so its not as weighted to one side. Also it might be a little more interesting if we saw a figure walking down the path or something

Vaejoun: definitely nailed the color and mood, the composition i think needs a little bit of work but I'm not sure how to fix it. My eye keeps going off the right side of the picture since there is nothing containing that bright green. Maybe if you added a few more trees running off the right side that would help.

Rusty: digging the upward angle and composition. Are those flamingos or some other creature? Can't wait to see where it goes

RichLyons: as others have said very impressive amount of detail, great colors and mood too

no_name_brand: Very nice image, love the idea of the racing hovercraft vehicles. I think the car closest too us with all the blur could be a little less blurry and maybe darken it a little so it comes forward more.


I think this is just about done, debating whether i should leave the horse as is or put a guy on him, I'm kinda liking just the horse though

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/Howie1388/forestv2.jpg

[Mephistoau]

@ Mussy and Howie

Thanks for your input guys, very much appreciated. I've ended up keeping the birds (although only on the one side as i tend to see it as a counter balance for the balloons). Probably would have added a figure from your suggestion Howie but i don't have time haha, and i don't want it to look half assed. But thanks again, was very constructive. I'll just wait for the final burning thread to post :)

[RichLyons]

May have lost my way a little,,, trying to an a little buddy story between a giant and his school pal,,,
I have been using a combination of mashing in photos and painting in details,

No name brand - thanks for the ace feed back mate.

[shockowaffel]

@RichLyons:
My impression is:
Nature works better without humans, but maybe I just dont like big, fat, school-giants.

Maybe a little nasty creature observing the kids would make it more interesting since it could imply that something might happen. (Only an idea)

[thescala]

You should put a fork and knife in the big kids hands. Dinnertime?

[Jon Gibbons]

@Vaejoun: Really good use of light, I like the large leaning tree in the background.

@Howie: Love the abstract style, although the horse looks more rendered than the woodland. How about a stag instead?

@RichLyons: I prefer the piece without the figures.

[Vaejoun]

Howie:
Thanks, you are right. I added a couple of thin trees to stop the eye there.

Lyons:
The idea of a character or a story is nice, but the giant totally pulls all the attention away from the nice envi. So I would go for something different, something smaller ^^
How are you doing this light spots on the trees and the boy ? When I try to achieve that effect it just looks as if I had attached a big color blop to it. ^^°

Gibbons:
Thanks, I hope it looks as big as I want it to. ^^


This weekly really gave me a lot.
I will definately do this more often from now on. I want to get a little more realistic flair, my pics tend to get too flashy.

Heres my actual step, getting close to finnished. What do you think ?

[pacha]

didnt had time to work on this...hope i can finish it in time....

[knut-]

Man, 109# update is mind blowing. Combining almost two different styles (naturalistic forest/ cartoonish char) is awesome there. MORE!

[Jon Gibbons]

@Vaejoun: looking sweet. Are those red eyes to the left of the image? If so I think you should detail this area a tad more, to show the hunters being watched.

[Beelow]

Rusty, Vaejoun, RichLyons, Howie, no_name_brand, Nice entries! Scared to post mine. Here is what I have so far.

[Rusty]

Last update before final.

no_name_brand, RichLyons, Vaejoun, Howie, interesting seeing the different approaches and styles, all wicked in their own unique way :)

~J

[pacha]

why do i always have to start in black and white?...adding color on a b/w piece gives me headaches...>:{:upset:>:{....anyway i`ll take a break from it dont like where i`m going with this piece of....

[Jon Gibbons]

@Beelow: great perspective on the gateway.

@Rusty: I love the density of the foilage in the trees.

@Pacha: I think it looks fine mate, the stone steps in the lower left corner really catch my eye.

[Mussy]

very nice work and effort being put in, only input i would say to RichLyons is remove the people, seems like a nice narrative but it kinda distracts the attention from the main focus which is the enviro itself, maybe a little creature like a squirrel?

[android411]

@ no_name_brand and VishvaTKH - thanks a lot for your help, I tried to fix the issues you mentioned, hope it looks better now

awesome entries guys

[JellevdVegt]

i reallllly like the one of rych lyons. great atmosphere

[pokepetter]

I think I went overboard with the textures :p There are some really amazing entries here btw.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/pokepetter/EOW146_pokepetter.jpg

[ErikStorstein]

I'll struggle giving any helpfull feedback on these, you all kick my ass.. I'll give some comments anyway:

Beelow: really nice, if anything.. I guess that you could show more of the "woods" through the gate, as at the moment it looks more like a open road with woods on each side rather than actually going into one of them.

RichLyons: Cool characters, but I think I enjoyed yours more as a pure environment. And thanks for sharing your reference and showing how it should be done :)

thanks for the feedback as well for those who took the time, I tried to look into it to see what I could do. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right though.. just experimenting a lot.. next time I''m going to get some reference instead of being all stupid... vand why is my focal point at the tree where nothing is going on.. ill probably draw in a second character sitting there :P

[Rusty]

RichLyons, heh! weird juxtaposition but your strong drawing skillz pull it all together for some reason, nice!

pokepetter, Wicked textures! could do with a little more definition though imo.

Beelow, Looking nice so far man, Atmos effect on the left side distant trees might be a bit too strong atm? but then you probably haven't worked that area up yet anyway so i'll shut up.

Had enough of working on mine so here's final image. Well done everyone :)

~J

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/Rusty187/EOW146_Rusty_thumb.jpg

[chaosrocks]

i'm sure you've all decided that I have absconded into the wood work. I haven't just been off grid and off planet for a little while
I will catch up ... I promise

Tnhanks you for your patience
crx

[Mussy]

Zilrion: nice entry, quite surreal. Only flaw i would say is the colour on the tree from the foreground seems to be a little off, maybe turn it into more of a dull tone instead of a vibrant orange/yellow.

Rusty: Beautiful entry, love the sense of atmosphere in the piece, very secretive and natural, also the light lingering around works very well, i'd love to go there :).

[Beelow]

Rusty-No worries rusty, please do crit me whenever you get the chance. You've pretty much stopped me from getting lazy, so I am correcting it. Thank you!

Zilrion-Thanks Zilrion!

[knut-]

I will post just for the crits! Don't show mercy. Won't write anything else (i know i got some nerve...).

[Vaejoun]

@Knut:
When you are this early in the process, scale the pic down a little more. Its still very rough and easier to read, when its small.

At the moment its hard to tell what exactly you are aiming for, so try to work it out just a little more or give a short comment on it, like what atmorsphere is wanted, what time- and light situation...

For now I would say:
Dont use pure black and white so much, it kills pictures. A shadow is more vibrant when it has a color in it (same for the light)

[knut-]

Vaejoun thank you very much for your time and advices. Anything could help me at this moment, cause it' s really my first serious attempt on environmental work.
It is a sample of a work in progress educational adventure game. There will be some backgrounds and frames with the characters in front where the dialoges will take place. This piece is supposed to be near Bran, a Romanian village at the sunrise, Spring. Also i tried t experiment with different brushes. I think it's a bit too full from composition' s view. I will try to improve it keeping in mind what you said about blacks/ whites (as much as my fresh dislocated shoulder will let me...).
Here's a smaller pic.

[dragon4lunch]

The next round has already been under way for some time now - we better get a poll up, other wise people won't get much time to vote for this round, when the next round is already done too.

[rashomike]

Done on photoshop. I think I had just watched Avatar when I did this lol

[OchreHand]

This was a really strong round of results... Hopefully we get a poll soon