World War 1 Alternate

[Apotheases]

this is a piece I'm working on for a portfolio presentation to some game companies i'm trying to get in with. The theme is an alternate World war 1 scenario.
What I've been running into after I lay down the basic foundations is the rendering part. If you could take a look and give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it. I am using Painter 9 on this piece and rending with the waterbrush tool.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v303/apotheases/ww1-1.jpg

[jackenstein]

Right now as it is, I'd say this is better suited in the sketches & WIP forum.

[Johnnyhorse]

Well, it's a little unrealistic to expect people to tell you how to render a piece when all you give us is a sketch... but i'll try to give some quick suggestions.

First, very the size of brushes a lot more. With that, you can add much larger shapes and more interesting areas since currently the entire picture is cubes and cylinders. The piece is already quite dramatic (a pretty good composition), and you could further play off of it with a much more dramatic lighting--so basically pick a light source, or several, and start filling in shadows.
Finally, try to work some more dynamics into the background (and foreground-done with larger shapes), maybe with diagonals... anything but a flat horizon. (smoke works as a diagonal).
Maybe more people can point you towards some good tutorials or quick advice. I can't really help you with the color, but it does need help as well.
A good start... the only way I ever get a good rendering done is by working on top of the painting many times and leaving/coming back to it, much like a real painting--this way you can build up forms.

[Elwell]

Right now as it is, I'd say this is better suited in the sketches & WIP forum.
Agreed, and moved.

[Apotheases]

oops. Sorry I didn't post this in the right forum. But thank you all for the great advice on this project that I am working in. Its one of those crazy alternate history ideas that I think has a lot of premise behind it. I'll post more as I develope it some.

[Apotheases]

Here is some more progress that i've made on my World War 1 alternate piece. I've been experimenting a lot with the sizes and shapes of the brushes. I'm using a Wacom graphire tablet with this piece.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v303/apotheases/ww1-2.jpg
comments welcomed

[Jesus Food]

its better, this guy looks like hes from starwars tho, and we havent reached that stage yet, eventhough cel phones are pretty sweet, how long is this war lasting?

[Rhubix]

the thing on his back should fallow the same pespective as his torso. right now it looks like we're looking at the front of the pack-thing, but he's 1/4 turned

[Truepinkas]

I agree with Rhubix. It seems your falling into a common trap of trying to show us a char design, rather than the picture. some parts of the design will be ocluded, it happens unfortunatly. The backpack needs to be turned to match his body, and I would imagine his arm needs to be turned away from us a bit. I took the liberty of shuffling some things around. for illustration.