The mind-blowing vastness can be spectacular to behold.
Also relevant is this classic painting from Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the sea of fog.
You rendered without first having a solid foundation. For the foliage, you need to think of clumps and forms, not individual shapes you can AA to look like leaves. Sometimes even with a good start you can fall into this over-individualization. Same thing goes for the segmentation of the tree which neither looks realistic or cool, but as disfigured and lumpy as the clouds.
Your palettes and technique for the most part is good, but I've seen a trend in your work of losing the whole when it comes to creating convincing forms that exist in space by poor shape design and over-rendering.
Your latest edit is a step in the right direction; you are getting good critique here and you have the ability to execute.
I really learned something important in all this.. never work too hard rendering something without first either putting a lot of thought into it or sharing compositional sketches. Those clouds took a long while and yet they're useless.. a waste of hours. (I actually may recycle them for a transparent layer in another scene; so possibly they will serve some other purpose)I did the same thing with this piece:
Cels: I don't know either. I didn't want anything specific as a point of interest or focal point in the background. I wanted something mysterious and dark.. but not too dark, ie the stars breaking through the veil of blackness, the semi happy colors, etc.Well again, I don't think that you really need a tower. I agree it's a cliché. Same as an approaching ship (or in my case, above, an approaching airship). But I do think you need something that is a bit interesting to look at, or just leave it featureless enough that the character becomes the only focus and the horizon serves only to create a sense of emptyness.
I actually considered putting a tower in the background but decided against it because I felt like it's been done so many times. I can think of a few games even where the object or destination is seen in the background as the character looks upon it. Although yours does look pretty cool peeping out over the clouds there.. hmm decisions decisions.
What are the divisions in those two edits of Drazelic's example for?Rule of thirds. A rule of thumb that can be useful in some cases. In Rav's painting above, it seems to be applied vertically, but not horizontally, for example.
You rendered without first having a solid foundation. For the foliage, you need to think of clumps and forms, not individual shapes you can AA to look like leaves. Sometimes even with a good start you can fall into this over-individualization. Same thing goes for the segmentation of the tree which neither looks realistic or cool, but as disfigured and lumpy as the clouds.
Your palettes and technique for the most part is good, but I've seen a trend in your work of losing the whole when it comes to creating convincing forms that exist in space by poor shape design and over-rendering.
Your latest edit is a step in the right direction; you are getting good critique here and you have the ability to execute.
Thanks for the post.. That tree; So true about the texture.
I really learned something important in all this.. never work too hard rendering something without first either putting a lot of thought into it or sharing compositional sketches. Those clouds took a long while and yet they're useless.. a waste of hours. (I actually may recycle them for a transparent layer in another scene; so possibly they will serve some other purpose)
Cels: I don't know either. I didn't want anything specific as a point of interest or focal point in the background. I wanted something mysterious and dark.. but not too dark, ie the stars breaking through the veil of blackness, the semi happy colors, etc.
I actually considered putting a tower in the background but decided against it because I felt like it's been done so many times. I can think of a few games even where the object or destination is seen in the background as the character looks upon it. Although yours does look pretty cool peeping out over the clouds there.. hmm decisions decisions.
What are the divisions in those two edits of Drazelic's example for?
Rav: Glad you said you think a scene could be interesting sans a particular object of interest, cause there really was no intended focal point beyond the ledge in the foreground.. just an open scape with many possible points to look at.
I may crop it to the size in the quick edit I posted although I'll fully redo the clouds and tree. the main issues were the horizon line and the textures.. hopefully with those two things corrected I can make the image clear. Although I'm curious on peoples thoughts on focal points and whatnot.
I suggest color reducing some images of clouds and seeing the shapes that are created. It may give you a
Better idea of how to design more natural, form provoking shapes.