[cheney]

This is my first attempt at doing anything painterly, so I need all the help I can get. Its sized down to 20%, which is a good thing because all the bone areas are blurry and clumsy as hell. I need some advise on technique and direction. What should I do with this to make it better?
What should I change about the lighting? Are there any additional objects I should add? Anything you guys can tell me would be nice.



Prep, tried to help me with the skull last year. He seemed to like the image concept, so he repainted the entire skull with sharpness and similar lighting to show me some insight. But, I am still learning to use the paintbrush tool. Its very different from using the selection tool for nearly everything.
_________________
http://prettydiff.com/

[varg]

I cant see anything wrong,but this kind of work isnt my strong side,so to say....

but its just beautiful! what program did you use?
_________________
"They didnt gave me a name,just a number when I was young"

[chaplin]

The fog on the top, there is a light source. Make the light source continue in a strait beam of light un til the bottom. Best would be if there is a short creature getting blinded or shinned by the direct beam from above.

That would give it a more cave look. That is if you darken a bit the surrondings. Right now that fog on the top is either too wide spread or too white.

Otherwise I love the dimensions of the image (very long) and the coloring. I can see this as the cover of something like Diablo III =)
_________________
Chaplin

[mOO]

I think the problem with the fog is that it looks like it is part of the wall. The skull looks like its in front of the fog and not being covered at all.

[egerie]

Cool re-use of "inferno" I used to have that one as a background for weeks !

[antx]

Hi cheney,

I did a rough overpaint of your picture. The major change I did is the lightning of the window frame. Since there is light coming from behind the window the sides of the frame should be quite bright. At the bottom I removed the beveled edge of the glass and added a kind of board to justify the light effect that you had there (Its still not correct but much more believable). I added also some light reflection on the bones and the skull which give them more depth. For spicing it up a bit I added some ornaments on the left and right of the window. They are not just to add detail to the picture, but also to fill the sides a bit and justify this space and also to strengthen the actual window through the reflecting light on them. They are very badly done though. Best would be if they have the same look as the bones in the window have. (Most of the light I added is also very bad balanced, be careful with this and compare single things with each other.)

For the fog I have to agree with the others here. I hope you have the fog in a separate layer. Whether you place the fog somewhere else, or you cover the skull with it some more(even if it hurts, but believe me, the picture as whole will look better).

Hope that helps a bit.

[Chthonic Divinity]

wow!
that overpaint is precisely what this needs. amazing.

[cheney]

Thank you so much AntX. I do have the fog in about 5 layers, so its really easy to edit. The biggest change I noticed is the under lighting on the skull. I love this. I also like the lighting around the window that you pointed out. This will also be easy to fix, as the inset of the window is currently only a single layer set to bevel. I will merely adjust the color values of this one layer to compensate for your example.

The chains are a novel concept, but I am adding something very different in responce to some comments on the gfxartist board. I am going to have the yellow/red/orange glow of the window fill in the details with heavy glow reflections from the bottom, and suttle soft blue/white glows cover the top details. I hope this turns out. Getting the shapes was easy using the selection tool, but painting the lighting details on this will be my test. The following image is what I have done up til I read these latest comments.


_________________
http://prettydiff.com/