[jamiem]

I started off drawing this using my Life is Beautiful DVD as reference, and soon began to sway from what I saw on screen. I brought in more dead grass and the ruined castle on the hill.

Why they would build a castle with more hill to the left makes little sense to me, I know. Ahh well... This pic took about an hour and a half I think. The biggest time consumption was just trying to decide how and what the ruins should look like. Eventually I used a picture of ruins from that stone webpage posted earlier as a concept and went from there.

Any thoughts?



------------------
Jamie McCarter
[email protected]
http://jamie.ice.org

[Tinusch]

Incredible. I think this pic definitely has a certain mood and feel to it, and I think you should kind of break from the direction the pic is heading and try and work with the feel of the pic. I think this looks great because of the soft, pastel colors and serene setting. With such a calm soothing feel to the pic, I think the ruined castle kind of conflicts. Maybe turn what you have here into something more calm and peaceful? I don't know, that's just the first thing that came to my mind after seeing the pic, and I personally think it would be much more enjoyable to look at if you went at it that way. But whatever you do decide to do, it's looking awesome.

[jasonN]

It looks nice. The grass has an unusual textual quality to it. How'd you do that?
-Jason

[above]

Wow! I really like this one. the brush strokes for the road is incredible and the grass texture is also great. The colors I also really enjoy, great image my freind.

[Transcendence]

Very nice, though I like it the way it is. It comes off to me more as a castle long been in ruin and not an over-night thing..so it kidn adds to the serenity

[jamiem]

Tinusch:

Hrmmm.... Interesting thought about the castle. I thought the picture needed something else beyond just the landscape and I figured the ruined castle would add a bit more of a focal point without being to harsh. Perhaps I'll play around with making it more in ruins and more overgrown with plants. That might help keep the soft look. Whadya think?


jasonn

I used just the default brushes in photoshop, actually. The six speckled brushes after the base round one were what I used for all the grass. I started stroking the grass in the distance and then worked up into the foreground to give a layered textural look to the grass. Heh, if this had been done with acrylic the painting would be absolutely thick with paint!

above
cool, thanks!

transcendence
thanks! I was going for the old ruins of a castle long since forgotten. perhaps I'm not quite there though. I'll play with it a bit further...

thanks for all the comments. anyone else have any thoughts?

cheers
jamie




------------------
Jamie McCarter
[email protected]
http://jamie.ice.org

[Fat Assasin]

I really like the mood of this one. Nice use of colors to ehance the feeling.

I agree with making the castle look even more in ruins. And also, a good way to spice up any picture is to add a figure or two. I would definitely keep with the serene mood and I think it would be cool to put someone travelling on that road. Like maybe someone kind of worn out himself, leading an old mule or horse. Or you could go for the contrast and put in a young, strong male or female riding a horse and looking at the castle, showing that everything young and strong eventually gets old and crumbles.

It's a great start, keep going with it.