[Basement bound]

Here is something i've been working on the last few days off and on. My intention was to create clear depth, with a light source from the upper left (11 o'clock). does it look like it works?


[ May 09, 2001: Message edited by: Basement bound ]

[waylon]

Looks pretty good, except for a few things. First, the column in the foreground doesn't look quite right. It's much darker than it should be, and looks a bit too blurry.

The other thing is that the glowing stones look like they have too much contrast for an object that's that far away. I'd change the black to be more of a gray (or tan, since it would be getting ambient light from the surroundings.) It would probably look a bit more convincing.

[Tiger Eaten]

They look like those nasty mind controler aliens from the original XCOM except thoses guys were orange.

Personally I have a soft spot for monks and groups of people wearing cloaks that obscure their faces. What I suggest is that you play with your angles a bit, you have your arches and your monks all lined up which results in the picture ending up a little flat. Your idea of having monks in the foreground is a good one, I'd suggest you go even further and get in real close to one of those monks, perhaps have the scene viewed over one of his shoulders? If your monks are supposed to be arranged in a circle around that control center then you need to show more of the monks that are currently out of view on the right hand side. If they are supposed to simply be lined up then.....NEVER MIND!

One other suggestion is that you might want to make your monks a little more uniform in your current pic you have them with different arm poses and some of them seem to be looking around. Creepy Cloaked Cults(tm), tend to not favour individuality. They might look more sinister if you make them out to be all standing roughly the same. Imagine the scene in Return of the Jedi when the Emperor come to visit the Death Star and all the hundreds of assembled troops were at attention. How different would that scene have looked if some of them were looking around or telling each other knock knock jokes....better to have eyes front and arms locked.

Some deeper, darker colors might be nice too, don't be afraid to give yourself lots of room to work, up your rez if you can.

[Spooky]

This is absolutely your best piece yet! You are really improving by leaps and bounds! I'm quite proud of your work and your efforts to improve! Wow! The comments the others made are good comments. I like foreground objects such as the column as it gives depth to the scene and makes the scene look more complete. But try some of the other comments the others suggested, it may make the scene even better! Can't wait to see even more!

[Basement bound]

Thanks guys! This started off as a sketch that I later painted traditionally, but I could not get the desired effect. I did, however solve a few colouring issues.

waylon- thanks those slabes are suppose to be a marble. I need to work on them. I will also work on the field of depth.
Tiger Eaten- Cheers mate! you made me look at my work with so much more insight. Mahalo!
Spooky(CK)-I guess it is true the better ones work the more responses.

Download the above image, open in photoshop and in the channels section turn off the blue and that is the ambience that i wanted, not the colour though.

If anyone else has some ideas or comments feel free.

JA

[ May 10, 2001: Message edited by: Basement bound ]

[Sa'ge]

an observation:
About the part of the pillars that stick out the furthest before they curve out: It is at the same height on the furthest pillar, and the close one. So that would ensue that eye-level for the viewer is that height. So the other pillar on the right, should be the same height. (I think. Am I right?)

Also, I agree that you should lighten the close pillar up. It should probably nearly match the shadows of the other ones. And that would let you paint excrutiating detail onto it, and that might help the sense of depth. Otherwise, it's looking good so far.

[Basement bound]

Here is the finished product.

Follow this link to the gallery/finished work forum

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions

JA