stormy restaurant concept

[gorvien]

This is another environment piece I'm working on. I think that it's close to done. I'm hoping with some good feedback, I may able to to get it to the homestretch with better success.

This is for an idea I've been throwing around for some time. It's supposed to show a restaurant where you can dine on fresh sea food right by the ocean and you can even be seated in the submerged floors of the structure to observe undersea life, or just the tumultuous waters, as you eat.

Any comments and/or crits much appreciated. Thanks for looking. :)



http://www.torstenkeller.com/images/forums/restaurantconcept.jpg

[Alexius]

looks neat.
The stars are a little bit over-sized.
Needs a moon and some stormy clouds.

[t e m p i s t ~]

oh wow, what a sweet concept! An underwater-ocean view would be spectacular!
the one thing that really stands out to me though is the stars. they do need to be just a bit smaller, and the glow that's currently around them is too much of a dullish grey. So for that extra glow just add more of a dodged highlight to make them stronger, and more of a blue-ish glow than grey.

also play around with the clouds and try adding more sections of color and texture. The scene will look alot stronger when you're done!
good work so far!

[madster]

Great concept! I must admit though, from the title of the thread, I was kind of expecting a restaurant with mini-environments, and a picture of people eating at a table with a thunderstorm all around just their table...LOL!

This piece is pretty good, but needs a bit of tweaking.
First off, there is a conflict between the sea and the sky for this. The waves are too disjointed, and they are leading the eye into confusion. This is partly due to the rocks, partly due to your rendering of the waves. My best suggestion for this would be to do some research on the web for stormy wave images. That will help you paint the waves better. As for the "correct" crashing of the waves around the restaurant, I would get rid of the lumpy rocks on the LH side, as viewed. They add nothing to the concept, and only create more distractions for the eye.
The waves themselves are intersting with the whiteish lines you've painted to represent the moving waters, but then you either became hurried, or lazy, because by the time the eye gets to the LH side, the marks become thicker, blurrier, and less dynamic. They look like scribbles in the lower corner...

The clouds are watery and dull. By having them as wispy, horizontal lines, yes, they go well with the restaurant. But, they look artificial and contrived. You seldom see really stormy seas with such a subdued sky...the stars are well done, but a bit too prolific for the scene. Perhaps some selective fading in sections, to reduce, but not eliminate them, and some thick thunderheads near the horizon line to justify the stormy seas.

The restaurant itself is pretty well done, although just a bit too much red tones in the bottoms of the decks. Putting a few more of the green tones, such as you have included in the bottom most level above the waters, would help this a bit.

You might also want to readjust your perspective on this, as you have your horizon line almost directly in the center of your piece, effectively cutting your canvas in two, as well as the "sea level" of the restaurant at the same angle and level, compounding the problem. The lightness of the seas, contrasted with the darkness of the night sky simply adds to the dissecting effect...Eliminating the rocks on the left, and emphasizing the rock outcropping on the right by the restaurant will help this, but you should seriously consider "zooming in" on this scene. It will make rendering the stormy seas less of a labor, it will eliminate most of the canvas division, and will give you a much better "story," overall.
Here's a quick crop to better illustrate my point:
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4145/stormyeats6gb.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

I'm interested in seeing how this one turns out...
~M

[gorvien]

Wow! Thanks for the great feedback. :)

tempist~:
I've decided to play the stars down considerably. Also, tried to give the clouds more "character" and form.

madster:
I think your suggestions have been very helpful. I've tried to make the best of them. I kind of ran out of time and got a little lazy with the waves at first. I spent more time completing them and making them look for unified and believable. I hope I succeeded.

Clouds are a intended to look like a storm is clearing.

I didn't know what I should replace the rocks with and I kind of like haing some kind of rocky environment. So, I worked on making them look less lumpy and giving them a slant so they point to the restaurant.

On the restaurant some shading was added to make it less bright. I also painted in some other colored strokes.

Somehow it can happen that obvious things escape when you get to work, on something. The horizon line is still somewhat in the middle. But I added more water to the bottom as well as cropped the image a little differently. For this concept, I want the importance of the water to be underlined.

Again, any other thought or comments are very welcome. Thanks.


http://www.torstenkeller.com/images/forums/restaurantconcept2.jpg

[Ian Mack]

Who knows to post when madster is around. :yayca:

It's look great! The one thing I would suggest is a suggestion of spray/mist where the waves break onto the rocks etc.

the restaurant looks good underwater but with water that turbulent, do you think there would be more distortion?

Maybe you could add a wave crashing against some rocks in the Foreground just to hieghten the waters presence.

I like the concept!

[-Optix]

Wow very cool concept indeed.

otherside i like your sig.

[Idiot Apathy]

Is it just me or wouldn't the light coming from the undersea side of the restaurant be a warmer blue compared to the ocean instead of yellowish?

The dining bits are exceptionally neat to look at.

[madster]

Wonderful update, gorvien!
It's much more cohesive as a whole, now. Excellent job with the water. It looks more believable, while still retaining that "stylized" effect.
Congratulations!

~M

[look]

Nice change in the sky. The sea waves are great so are the clouds and the resteraunt.
However, i think the composition is a little too simple, it doesn't draw much attention to the piece if you were to put this among many other works. I'd like to see more sky to it as well. And regardless of the waves beating on the resteraunt, it still feels very isolated from the surrounding, as if it's not really there. Perhaps adding some sea weed and green growth would help. Or if you have the energy to do more, add more water on the bottom till you go over the water line and show the parts under water, kind of like this painting (http://www.deviantart.com/view/13608448/).
It's really a beautiful piece, but I can't help to think there could be more to it to make it the best :)