temple grounds

[ChenZan]

been working on this one for some time now, attacking it here and there when i can. Any CC? Im kinda feeling lost with the piece, perhaps a figure in the foreground?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v353/chenzan/templenew.jpg

[Aberrant]

At a glance I'd say you need to tie all these colors together a bit more. Color is light, and light moves all over teh place bouncing off everything, so white statues sitting under a blue sky surrounded with green trees aren't really very white. Colors are fairly high chroma, which I think can work, but you have to bring them all together. Put some green in the foreground wood, the buildings, the statues, some browns and blues in the trees, etc. Also some atmospheric perspective or depth of field would make it more interesting I think. You could blur the foreground out of focus, which I personally would do to keep it from competing with the building, and I'd also probably soften the trees that are further away to push them back a bit.

[Aberrant]

Looking at it some more and the way I'd go would be to draw the eye to the statues as a kind of "HELLO AND WELCOME" and then lead it up along that path to the building. More contrast around the statues would be a good starting point.

[schwaim]

I like what abherrant had to say... my attention seems to just go to the lighter part of the picture, and i almost miss the building.

It looks great so far!

[dogfood]

Aberrant, you're the man...

The piling shadows in the foreground are also way too strong. While the pilings are cutting off the main light source from the sand, the secondary light source (all that blue sky) is still shining on the sand, which will give the shadows a blue cast. Obviously, this will be different for the shadows under the trees, as they are cutting off the light from the sky, as well (though some light reflected through the leaves and off the ground will affect the shade there).

I love the roof, but the road leading out the back of the structure is disturbing. I'm half expecting Evel Knievel to race past the pilings, up through the building and jump over the forest (and break 90% of the bones in his body on landing).

Maybe it's just me, but things seem weighted a tad bit too much to the left. Maybe not. Anyone else?

I don't think this requires any figures in the foreground unless you want to change the feeling. Right now it has its own character, but any person or animal would change the nature and make it much more about the figure (viewers tend to identify more with the figure in most pieces). All the verticals and horizontals give it a lot of solidity and serenity.

Very nice.

[look]

I kind of like the white ground and white path. It looks like a fresh cut scene from a Kung Fu movie. The pit in the foregroud is a bit too distracting with the dark shadow. Not sure where you can place the characters, I can only see them as small figures, but not as a main focus in the painting.