Spaceship concept

[BC1967]

Morning all,
This is an acrylic painting ( still saving my pennies for a tablet ) of a design for a large freighter.
I know it appears close to the dock, but that was my intention as it's just nudged up to the door for a static test bringing the engines online.

painting here (http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=19475)

[Prometheus|ANJ]

The space station looks ok, but the ship is hard to read, especially with the random cameoline (odd to use in space, unless it's underwater). I can't see any acrylic/natural media artifacts, so I'm assuming the painting is big.
Space is tricky to render, cuz there's hardly any ambient light.
I like the warm colors used in the bay. It's kind of natural to use warm colors inside and cold colors on the outside.

I think it's bit dark overall. Making the ship brighter might bring it closer to the viewer (altho I suspect it's too late for that now). Some ambient blue might help to separate space from shadowed objects.

Is that airbrush on the engine flares? I'm having trouble using acrylics with my airbrush, cuz my gun is really cheap and I dun have any thinner. A pro gun is like $800 or so, and that's too much for me. :G

[texturez]

How is that big baby going to fit in there- however I think its a great job-- Brad

[Cyrano]

Really really nice work..

Can t wait to see more.

[Eric UNSL]

Hey BC1967,

Nice piece. I agree with Prometheus/ANJ, It is too dark and the ship is not as strong as it could be. A strong yellow/orange color or a brighter color of what you have for the ship would work better.

You could also have a lot more fun with the space station. It could be much lighter. Edge lit, back lit by a nebula, whatever. As long as it is subtle you can define background shapes against the space and it won't take away from your focus. a hint of a nebula underneath the station and ship would cut it out from the darkness of space and make the piece much more readable.

Plus whatever light source is illuminating the front of the station with the number on the wall would most likely be hitting the station in the background.

Nit picking maybe, but if you're gonna go this far...

[BC1967]

Cyranoi and texturez: Thanks for the kind words of encouragement.

Eric UNSL, Prometheus|ANJ :
Great ideas. I think I'll try to incorperate some into a rework ( via PS ) into the painting. I really want to do a rework of the scene on a tablet.

Prometheus|ANJ : I find the airbrush to be a fairweather friend too. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't... well you know.
I've found painting digitaly to be a godsend. All of the plus of traditional media, none of the minus. The bset part is that you're actually painting WITH light, rather than trying to capture it.
Lighting in a bottle ( pardon the pun ).