Need help Painting a dence forest.

[Shadow Slayer]

Hey all. I'm doing a digital painting where I am attempting to have a forest go back into the horrizon from a birds eye view looking over it at a early morning sun. So there are still high contrasting shadows.

Now I've gathered my referance and I beleave I have a good Idea of the Palette I need, but my issue is more with making the trees look more realistic as they fade off into the background.

I've attempted to make a custom paper in Painter to help lay down the tree texture, but when I use it, it ends up looking more like mossy ground cover then it does trees. I was just wondering if any digital painters out there have found a good way of adding a slight texture to a forest going out into the distance, or just any form of technique that you might use for something like that. The one I have attempted to use is to lay down a mid tone, block in the light masses and the bigger shadow masses, and then use the Hand made paper with the calk tool set to a 6-10% grain to add to both the shadows and the highlights.

If I don't have the texture, the forest looks flat and more of like a green mass then a forest, but when I get the texture layed down, it just looks like ground cover.

Any tips are greatly appriciated.

[GriNGo]

can you show us a pic of what you currently have? An image is better than a thousand words ;)

later,
GriNGoLoCo

[Shadow Slayer]

here is the Pic I'm working on,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v641/shadow_s1ayer/CityWIP.jpg

And here is the referance pic I'm useing http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v641/shadow_s1ayer/Looking_across_the_top_of_forest.jpg

I'm also useing others, but this referance is the primary one I'm trying to use for the perspective thing.

Everything is still WIP. I know I still have to fix the mountain and the sky, and I was going to do a seperate layer to grey out the forest as it goes back into perspective, so I know that those problems are still there. But feel free to critique anything else, but my primary concern is finding a technique that makes the trees look more like trees instead of ground cover.

[Main Loop]

what you have is good enough to suggest a forest, what really needs work is the castle, which looks pasted on compared to the rest of the environment, since its such a different technique used on it everything else is soft with good edges and texture, then the castle feel blocky and doughy, with too much heavy outlining.. in other words, the environment looks painted, the castle looks drawn.. good colors though

[dadamafia]

in the digi painting i dont get the feeling that its a forest. it seems more like grass. overall you are headed in the right direction but based on your composition it doesnt give that feeling, its more like a field. well thats my 2 cents.

[Shadow Slayer]

in the digi painting i dont get the feeling that its a forest. it seems more like grass. overall you are headed in the right direction but based on your composition it doesnt give that feeling, its more like a field. well thats my 2 cents.

Exactly how I feel. But the question for you then is HOW whould you try to make it look more like a forest. What technique whould you use to better define the trees. With what I've done, this is the closest I could get but it still looks like a mossy ground cover.

Also thanks Main loop for the Critique. I am going to break it up with more texture once I get alittle further along in the painting. This is actualy just supposed to be a quick concept for a level Prototyping class I am taking. And already this is far and beyond what is required of the concpt drawing. Thats why the city looks more drawn in, becuase the silloete was taken from a pencil drawing I did. But I like the Composition so its been moved to my "To be developed into a painting" pile of work.

[omarpac]

i believe its in the refrence u are using
trying cutting ur castle and pasting it on the forest refrence pic u will see what i mean

[nafa]

One obvious difference between your work and the reference is the lack of sizable vertical highlights and shadows. There is a string of them in the mid-right bottom of the referece, and that tells me immediately that these are trees, not moss or grass. Try scattering a few of these tall highlight/shadows around your work anad see.