Japanese Garden Background (UPDATE 2/15)

[GeikoSera]

Hello everyone!

Firstly, thanks for taking a look. :)

Ok, here's my dilemma: I'm not terribly good/comfortable with making backgrounds and environments. I'm trying to work on them and improve, but sometimes I need a little guidance (like well all do). :P

Here's the piece I am working on:

http://img302.imageshack.us/img302/7440/geikobghelp17jz.jpg

I sketched out a rough layout of the background. I'm going for a japanese garden with a large coy pond (if you couldn't tell....;P). I'm not sure where to take it from here. Is my composition good? Is my perspective working? Is my layout interesting? Is it convincing?

Any suggestions/crits/hints are more than welcome!!

Thank you! :teeth:

[natsch]

GS, I think the composition works, but its hard to comment on much else with such a rough sketch. For instance, I'm having a hard time figuring out what's going on with those clouds in the background.

Is she going to be looking at her reflection?

Amazing looking figure, BTW, I'd love to see this finished

[seba_boi]

Hmm... Verrrry rough bgs... How about one of those bridges?... I think Japanese gardens have them very often... You need something madmade to show it's a garden not a lakeside view... Pagodas or something?... But you did a fantastic job on the giesha though... Nice colours on the clothing (forgot what you call their clothings)...

[Arctis]

the sketch of your background is good ; just paint it the way you painted the nice character, and it will fit.

[gaijin]

Great start, the figure is really beautiful. Have to agree with natsch and sebra_boi, though. If you haven't already, you need to commit some more time to compositon thumbnails that include value studies. They don't have to be large, or detailed, but values can make or break your image at this point. What's the story? What's the time of day? What's the weather like? Foggy or clear? etc

When putting stuff in the background keep asking whether or not it's helping the focus. A bridge could be a nice way to frame elements (tree's are good too) and create depth because they recede. Lanterns are also good because they can be lit and help the mood.

So far I like the placement of the tree, it 'blocks' the eye from wandering down stream off the page. It's shape isn't helping the perspective though.. maybe it's ok, hard to say with organic shapes.The bush thing on the right that's completely covering the stream bothers me a little because the top of it is tangent to the far shore.

Post more :teeth:

[GeikoSera]

Thank you everyone for all your helpful crits so far! :D

I had a spare moment today and I made a more detailed line background for this.

Hopefully this can give you a better idea of what I'm up to. :)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9573/newbkg2158ri.jpg

Is it still working?

Crits are welcome! ;)

[purb36]

hey dude, nice work so far. personally, i like the less defined brush-stroke background variant, as its much more "traditional japanese" than the cleaned up version. in terms of composition (not that i know much about this, but im learning), the piece seems a bit heavy on the right side...you want to put something behind the big tree to show depth, but i think the bushes you have in the far background behind the tree may steal attention from the figure. what season is it gonna be? maybe change the trees in the far left corner to sakura blossum trees? maybe make the rock on the far left a little bigger so to block the viewer's eyes from following the bend of the river off of the page. maybe move the tree more to the corner to cover up the open space and keep the viewer on the page. if im not explaining it well, ill try to do a little sketch of what i mean sometime today. good luck dude, can't wait to see it done. :cheerleader:

ps. what are you doing in princeton?

[GeikoSera]

Thanks for the insightful crits Purb36! ^___^

I'll see what I can do...

As far as why I'm in Princeton, I work for an animation company here. :D

I'm also a dudette..... ;)

[purb36]

i call everyone dude...girls can be dudes too. ;)

heres my quick paintover...its really not much to look at (or write home about), but i just wanted to show what i meant in case i wasnt clear.

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/3431/newbkg2158ripo7kb.jpg

i made the rock in the water larger and put a tree there with branches pointing back into the picture, put mountains in the background to give the picture more depth, moved the shrine-ish rock in front of the bush cause it helps bring out the "japanese" theme more (the whole world has bushes...not everywhere had shrines), added rocks...well, theyre supposed to be rocks...on the wall of the far bank of the river (probably shouldnt go all the way to the end of the picture on the right side, but maybe sparsely or even just around where the shrine is). am i correct in assuming that youre gonna do some sort of reflection in the water? if not, and you feel the water leaves a lot of empty space, you might want to show some blurry fish under the water swimming (pointing) towards the middle of the picture, to fill in the blank space and also lead the viewer further into the picture. but with all of these, its all up to you. hopefully this will help you to develop more of your own thoughts about what the picture needs.

hows old p'ton doing these days? i really miss hoagie haven and t-sweets...eat an extra ice cream for me; i recommend the oreos and cream blend-in with reeses pieces (the pieces, not the cups). pure deliciousness! :drool:
good luck with the pic dude. :teeth: