foreboding road (updated 04-02-03)

[CKWorth]

Here's something new I just started. Thought it would be fun to post my progress with this. Plus it would force me to save my steps, which I never do. I'm doing this mostly because I wanted to paint this kind of landscape, and I stuck a few characters in it for mystery.

Here's the sketch.
http://www.spherenoire.com/siteimages/process/road01.jpg

And my first coloring step.
http://www.spherenoire.com/siteimages/process/road02.jpg

Does it look promising so far? Right now I'm thinking about takeing out that little building establishment there in the distance. I should have the second coloring step up later tonight.

[artkitty]

I like what I see so far! I agree that taking out the building will improve the composition; it's too much of a focal point. I'd like to see more contrast in terms of hue between the foreground and midground area.

[CKWorth]

Put several hours in it today. Yeah, I work slower than the average person. I worked mostly on the trees. Not the wisest decision as I'll probably be painting over most of those branches to get to the background. I took out the building and am putting a forest in instead.

http://www.spherenoire.com/siteimages/process/road03.jpg

[donkeyslayer]

i rally liike the feel of this piece. keep it comin'

[CKWorth]

After a whole day's work, this is what I've got. All I can say is, I sure am glad I like drawing trees.

http://www.spherenoire.com/siteimages/process/road04.jpg

[Ian Mack]

Something about the trees in the middle ground is buggin' me. I'm not sure how to solve it tho...I'm thinking either add add more trees to give it some more depth...or do something about the hump of trees in the middle. The way it tapers off to the left makes me think it's leading away instead of following the dirt path towards the viewer.

[Atomick]

Hey, it's really getting there! Keep posting progress, the difference between your first and current posts are great!

The foreground is coming along nicely! The sides of the road are selling better than the foreground road itself.

The mountain range could use a tad more definition, when you get around to it. Very strong start, though!

I keep all foliage and trees in separate layers for ease of editing, that might help you process-wise (assuming you're using PS or Painter)...

Also, the branches of the trees (IMHO) seem too distinct in the middle-ground. You might want to increase some level of abstraction so that all those end branches start to fuzz out a bit. Will also increase the sense of depth. Currently the trees are a bit "thorny," with few fine detail branches.

Nice!
-Atomick

[CKWorth]

Thanks guys, I'll keep what you said in mind as I'm working on it today.

[R_M]

Hi Turokess,
I like your lighting a lot, I think it is the strongest part of the picture, keep it up!
if there is any criticism it is personal and it is for the ground. Maybe I am wrong and it is only jpg compression, but the ground is rather different from the rest of the picture, like you have used a photoshop filter or somthing to get the texture. Think you should work on it, but don't ask me how, couse I suck at natural textures.

[Erik]

Maybe add some mist/fog between the trees in the middle? Since it seems to be evening and the trees are at lower elevation... or is that cheating???

Otherwise very cool image and i like the subtle changes you made in the end!

[kapturowski]

You got a real good pic coming together here. What bothers me though is the horse, I think it looks stretched, maybe the perspective is a bit off... I'm talking about the "depth" of the horse in lack of a better word, I think you could compress it a bit.

Sweet work otherwise :D

[CKWorth]

Atomick: It would have been good if I had kept the trees in a separate layer, but everything is on one layer this time. I've been working on the branches, and I think they are starting to look less like a thorn patch now.

R_M: This is all being done in Painter. No filters on the ground. :) It looks that way because I was using the pastel brush with heavy grain. I was trying to get a little 'pre-texture' going. I haven't worked on the ground yet.

Erik: I tried playing with fog. Yeah, I think it would be a nice element, but for some reason I could never get it to look right. :confused: But I still think it could use a little.

kapturowski: Hmm, I think I see what you mean about the horse. She does look a little stretched. Thanks for pointing it out.

Here's the latest step. It doesn't look very different from that last one, but I'm starting to arrive at that fine detail point.

http://www.spherenoire.com/siteimages/process/road05.jpg

[DragonGX]

I liked it better with the village in the background.. it gave it a better sense of depth...

[Atomick]

Rock on, Turokess! That right side is coming along nicely.

I'd nix the fog idea and just work on more atmospheric lightening and desaturation on the trees down in the valley (more in the midground, BG is starting to look pretty good).

The mountains are still lacking definition...check out the confidence in the strokes on this tutorial page. (http://div.dyndns.org/EK/tutorial/mountain/) They really leave no doubts as to the structure of the geography, and IMHO are very effective.

Very cool!
-Atomick

[MindCandyMan]

The second painted step to me was the finished version. I think leaving some of the details of the couple and the surrounding area ambiguous adds so much. The recent version is really good but the details take away from the spontaneity of the 2nd step.

[Dodge]

its looks good to me, i think the composition is good and the rendering is excellent:-)

i think the sky and the mountains could be toned down a bit in saturation, my eye keeps getting drawn to it.