[Naeem]

Hey guys,

I've been around here awhile, and have learned much mroe then i expected from here. I've been trying to do cities lately because that is my weakpoint (buildings in general) . And it's really troubling to see my results, which come out to be horrible every time. Any suggestions on how i can paint cities...?

Here's wat i just did in about 30 mins. i pretty much abandoned the city, n worked at the environment.

[balistic]

use an angular brush, and use lots of layers so you can lock transparency, With a layer locked, you can paint light and shadow into it without messing up your edges. Reference helps too. The buidlings in your city are too uniform in color. In real life, buildings are made out of all different kinds of materials, and they also differ in age and weathering, affecting their surface qualities.

Maybe try plotting where your streets are, and work up from that.

Lots of layers.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[jfrancis]

I've always found this quote helpful:

"The biggest foe to realistic artwork is impatience."

-- http://www.rebekahlynn.com/free/tutorial/hair_tutorial.html

[dhood]

What balistic said. Remember perspective too.

[Naeem]

balistic,dhood> thank u for the immense help .
jrfrancis> thank u for the quote and link. i appreciate it

[Mikko K]

You can also use the linear lasso tool to make sharp edges and paint inside that kind of selection.

Then you can erase back from places to get some variance in edges.

[Dekard]

Also, if zoomed in using the pencil tool you can hold shift down create a point and move to your next point holding shift and click again and you'll get straight edges at any angle. Not sure if you are wanting to get that precise or not tho..
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.::astrochimp.net::.

[agflash]

...and try to establish the ground plane first, with some vanishing points for correct perspective, it helps a lot. Don't make "house on house" pictures, those are mostly boring, try to let some free places, like parks or somethin. Don't make only big houses, it looks mostly unnatural, try to vary the height and form,
look for references. And train train train that "shit".
Good luck on that

[Gort]

[Mikko K]

Ryan Chuch's architecture painting dvd's are also good. They don't go to the smallest details as what you would expect from a photographic matte, but cover the mood part very well.

You can get them from Gnomon Workshop, just like the Dusso ones.

[Naeem]

guys; im glad i asked. because u've helped me alot!

Mikko K- t hank u for the tips . I have one of ryan church's cd's. i havent watched it yet. i'll watch it though. in it, he builds a scene in painter and has some pretty sweet buildings in it.

Dekard & agflash- utoo. thanks for the tips!

Gort- ur right. for some reason, i subconsciously made buidlings n except, i dont know y. i totally forgot about the change in color in teh atmosphere as things r farther away... thanks for reminding me. i think that was one of the key things . thanks for the tip on the DVD. soon as i gather up the money, i'll buy iit