Aztec

[Kosvid]

Hello again, guys.

I was going to participate in "Before Columbus" challenge on PJ, but looking at the completeness of what I have I apparently fail to finish on time. So the best option left is to ask for advice here and do it properly.

So, here it is:


It`s much more serious than anything I tried before. I tried to make a composition, a perspective (3-point on the ziggurat, but 2-point on everything else, in fact). Everything is split in two in two directions: top-down and left-right.

Here it is with the vanishing points (the very first sketch):

I`ve never seen a drawing with anything situated beyond the vanishing points, and all my acquainted artists are too far so I could ask, so I had to improvise. There are no restrictions in the reality, right? There is panorama perspective (thing right out of hell). So, I`d like you to tell whether it`s wrong or very wrong here.

The palette:

I tried to do the "earth" palette which I was talking about in chatterbox: green shifted to brown and brown. I also added blue and red. Red looks a bit off as it doesn`t get shifted to brown: it stays red or becomes ginger. I spent a lot of time on the palette, and I like it, although it`s not perfect. May be it came out too dark. Do you think so?
Also I planned colour dichotomy (don`t look for it, I didn`t make it yet, and I`m not sure if I will manage to) to separate armies: the left one (conquerors) red-brown and the right one (defenders) green-brown, brown as the neutral colour.

Some global critique and advice would be nice to get before adding the details.
P. S. The tree on the right is a placeholder, I will define the shape and colouring later.

[Joe]

How did you determine the construction lines for the pyramid? The vertex isn't centered. Second, the stairs seem applied to the surface like a facade—you'll need to account for them in your construction.
The tree in the background is huuuge.
It's not clear what's going on in the center of the image, the forms need to be refined more.

For something this ambitious, especially considering the perspectival challenges, I suggest you sketch out the components and post them for critique—that way you can get specific improvement points on the perspective.
Also some compositional sketches would help develop more unity.

Start from the general, carefully work to the specific.