secret garden - foliage test with painter 7

[El Chief]

**update**

hi guys. this is my first try with foliage. i wanted a mix between jungle and fairy wood. hope there is, at least, some magic atmosphere :) .
c&c welcome

http://www.godlessbeauty.de/gallery/secretgarden.jpg

[blackhand]

I think you did a good job with the foliage and capturing a magical mood. The atmospheric lighting in the background works very well, casting that yellow light in the background. The little wisps of light are also a nice touch.

I think your highlights in the foreground are a little too much, especially on the leaves--the highlights are much too bright and fuzzy. It gives the leaves a real plastic sort of look and feel. The highlights on the figure are a bit too much as well.

The BRIGHT pink and purple 'feathers' on the throne are a bit too much. I think you should tone down and soften those colors a bit to make them look more convincing.

[thomasaurus]

this is great, background is wonderful.

ya like what blackhand says soften and tone down the leaves and other odjects in the foreground.

[Tedsuo]

I don't mind the bright colors. But I think your lighting is inconsistent. Every object in your scene has a highlight of equal strength, and they are facing different directions. Your background is much more unified than your foreground.

[Muttonhead]

I agree with Tedsuo, it is obvious that you spent a great deal of time and care rendering each leaf and petal, but in doing so, I think you may have lost perspective on the over-all contrast of the piece.

I think you need some darker darks in the foreground, plus, I would try to make the girl on the thron the brightest thing in the piece, while toning down the brightness of the flora around her.

The background is quite nice thoogh... good contrast, so bring some of that into the foreground.

Keep up the good work!

-Muttonhead

[davi]

the white is very very hard on the eyes and way too exterme for the setting.

[El Chief]

@blackhand / Inorish / davi
you're absolutely right. i spent so much time on this piece and nearly lost control at the end. don't know, why i did what i did...guess i just wanted to finish it quick (big mistake!)

i have reduced the highlights, and toned down the colors a little bit (maybe too little :) )

@Tedsuo / Muttonhead
i know what you mean. i did some more darks in the foreground (left side). the collors are still bright, but the light situation is better now (hopefully).

thx for your comments dudes, i really appreciate your suggestions :)

greets

[blackhand]

Chief, these are huge improvements over the original image. The only nitpick I have now is the thick outlines around the pink and purple leaves on the throne--the color itself is toned down enough, in my opinion. Everything in the image fits, lighting wise, etc, except for that area.

There really isn't a precedent in the image to have those thick outlines, though I know you're trying to focus attention to that area.

I don't think you'd lose that focus by softening the edges of those leaves. Oh, and I'd throw some highlights on the figure's hair. With all the light that's on her, one would expect some shine.

[thomasaurus]

much better, good job!

[El Chief]

@blackhand
so i softened the outlines and added some details to the hair and face. the face is really small, but i think it looks better now.
i did the outlines in an earlier stage, where they looked terrible, but you're right...there's no need for them any more.

thx

@Jnorish
thx

seems to be finished now... :)

[Emptypants]

Well done, but I think if you put in a variation with the texture or atleast the colors of the foilage, it may work better, where you can focus on certain areas. To me, looking at it just looks like looking a bunch of the same thing over and over. The bottom left and right areas with the flowers on soft backgrounds looks nice, but when you get a little bit higher, the bushes look too much like everything else and nothing has its special texture differentiating it from the next foilage. I would like to see closeups and details, but as a whole image, no matter what the size, this is what I see. The colors all seem too similar too, not all leaves are just different variations of grass green, what about muddy greens.

Well I hope you see what I mean, goodluck.

[El Chief]

@emptypants
i know what you mean, but i won't touch this piece before i did something else... :)

thx