background in progress

[MrArmadillo]

so I drew my horizon line, upper third of my composition. I fleshed out some sky and stuff. Then I realized, somehow, this looks as if I'm really high off the ground.
"Must be because the horizon is higher in my frame" I thought.
So I hacked off part of my image to make the horizon lower. Still doesn't look right. So i moved the horizon line around a bunch and no matter what, I still felt as if this scene was viewed out of a high-rise.

How do I make myself lower to the ground, while still keeping the horizon above center?

[emily g]

The horizon line will always be at the eye line of the viewer.
Andrew Loomis explains it in his book Creative Illustration.
Look at these two pages:
http://www.fineart.sk/show.php?w=393
http://www.fineart.sk/show.php?w=394
Hope this helps.

[MrArmadillo]

this clears things up...

Apparently the placement of other objects in the scene is going to be more important, since the viewing angle could be tilted up/down no matter where the horizon is placed in the frame.

Anyone wanna poke at the color/other aspects meanwhile? I know its just pretty much a sky, but what else can i do with this?

Hopefully i can add in a foreground/mid element

[BANNED_For_POOPY_PANTS]

Looks great and moody, MrArmadillo. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[YVerloc]

Was this the one you were talking about MrArmadillo?

I love it! Nothing wrong here at all - you've just got to finish it. Having your horizon so high in the frame, you going to have to think really hard about what to put in the foreground. You might as well plan that out now, in silhouette, before you put any more effort into the background. It doesn't have to be something figurative like a tree of a person standing - you could use a river or patch of light to help force the perspective of the ground plane.

You could probably punch up the colors a bit, maybe bring in that weird rainy day yellow-green that you see sometimes. Google image search for some ideas.

[MrArmadillo]

YVerloc, thank you!

But the thing is, (i know this sounds nit-picky) i was really wondering HOW you actually go about blocking stuff and planning out. I mean, somehow i always end up with a bunch of mooshy shapes with no definition and i can't tell what i'm doing :^^;:

But i suppose if i stop being lazy and experiments some more i could do it

[YVerloc]

Well, there's no magic process. There's a whole constellation of good processes to use, and it's usually best to develop your own.

But any process is only as good as the input you feed it - it's garbage in garbage out. It's really important to do your homework first. Do whatever it takes to have a clear idea in your mind before you start. Do reasearch, do roughs, stare blankly at the wall and daydream. When you start your picture, you'll have a much better chance of getting through the pitfalls of execution if you have a clear idea to start with. Failure is the norm - reaching that point where you think "crap, this has totally gone off track" - that's how it goes. But you can't learn from failure if you don't have a clear idea of what your were trying to do in the first place.

You'll find that 'process' is really just an outgrowth of the visualization stage. As you dream up the picture in your head, you'll naturaly want to jot it down somehow, find some way of taking note of the key features of your idea. I think this is generally done by "blocking in", as you say. "a mountain goes here, an lake there, some clouds and the sun is here..." etc. It's not magic, all you're dong is taking notes.

[subtle_squid]

the location of the horizon in your image doesn't change the viewers altitude, just the angle of the view. The higher the horizon line the more of the ground you see and thus the more down cast the view. The reason this image appears to be a very high vantage point is that as the ground plane moves towards the bottom of the image it doesn't get much closer to the viewer. It still appears featurless and distant. Put some objects and visible details in that space and you will define the viewing altitude as something else. What you have so far could work as the background for a view anywhere from worms eye, to birds eye.

[MrArmadillo]

for just a split second i believed i was there... and that makes it all worth while.

obviously not finished. but thanks to your help, I've put the viewer right at ground level.

turns out i'm simply too used to sketching, and sketching is how i worked out the foreground. the only problem with this is it becomes less of a painting, more monochromatic with some color thrown in.

EDIT: probably gonna remove the figure; it was rushed

[oziroyal]

Hi there,
The work will look really great when finished. It just needs a liitle more touch in the horizon. Its a great job.