AuthorTopic: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City  (Read 13076 times)

Offline Corinthian Baby

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 223
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Meditating Pixel Placement
    • View Profile

[Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

on: February 07, 2013, 04:41:50 am
In need of some practice for environment concepts/painting in general, I sketched out the location from a screenplay I wrote back in '09.

The concept is supposed to be a mixture between old jazz-centric Chicago and desert slums. Here is a refboard of the look/inspiration going into the art direction:


Here is the painting itself so far:

Trying to establish a solid workflow. I sketched with perspective guides, added some basic block greyscale colors to establish values, and then traced my sketch for a separate line art layer. I want to make sure the perspective's on point before I progress further. Any CC welcome.

I realize how hard architecture is to draw accurately but why not throw myself into it full force to help learn?

Offline tim

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 240
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Founder of Odd Tales - Art Director
    • View Profile
    • Tim Soret - Showreel

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #1 on: February 08, 2013, 02:06:53 am
I think your point of view is too high, especially if you compare your photo references where the camera is placed at the eye level. Try to emulate the human point of view : this way we can have a much better sense of scale and immersion.
Founder of Odd Tales
Art Director - Game Director - Game designer - Motion designer

Offline Ryumaru

  • Moderator
  • 0100
  • *
  • Posts: 1683
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • to be animated soonly
    • ChrisPariano
    • View Profile

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #2 on: February 08, 2013, 05:27:23 am
What you have right now seems pretty solid as far as the perspective goes. Tim's point is valid, but would require a complete redraw. If you have a specific reason for the high vanishing point, or don't mind it, then continue on; otherwise, it would of course be better to redraw now as opposed to trying to change things later down the road.

Offline Conzeit

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1448
  • Karma: +3/-0
  • Camus
    • conzeit
    • View Profile
    • CONZEIT

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #3 on: February 08, 2013, 05:40:02 am
That looks like a prefectly fine perspective for an establishing shot. a certain amount of distance might be a perfectly ok effect

Offline Corinthian Baby

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 223
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Meditating Pixel Placement
    • View Profile

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #4 on: February 08, 2013, 06:27:39 am
Well I liked tim's suggestion so made some adjustments as I was advancing this:

Since I am going about this in a different method, I am not sure if I should abandon or adapt the line art drawing. Picking up some great tips from this guy who has done work on Uncharted 2/3, one of the most inspiring games for me as an artist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NygkJEc3yu4

Recommend for anyone pursuing environment painting/concept art. :y:
« Last Edit: February 08, 2013, 07:08:38 am by Corinthian Baby »

Offline HardcoreBadger

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 39
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #5 on: February 08, 2013, 06:27:10 pm
i dont understand tim's advice

you could also ask him to draw a forest instead of a city...

Offline Ryumaru

  • Moderator
  • 0100
  • *
  • Posts: 1683
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • to be animated soonly
    • ChrisPariano
    • View Profile

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #6 on: February 09, 2013, 02:45:56 am
Corinthian: It would require a completely new drawing for the lower horizon piece. " Adapting" it would not really work. I would try and keep the curve at the end of the street from the old composition into the new one, I think it adds a lot to the piece and keeps it from feeling like a 1 point perspective class assignment.

thank you for posting that link! Never seen this guy before, really liking his tutorials already.

HardcoreBadger: tim's advice was that since the horizon is so high, the viewer is looking through something much taller than a human. Lowering it would allow us to relate to the piece in a different way, closer to us being "in" the scene.

Offline Mathias

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1797
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Goodbye.
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/9542.htm
    • View Profile

Forest From The Trees

Reply #7 on: March 13, 2013, 06:29:45 am
Quote
It would require a completely new drawing for the lower horizon piece.
Sup, Ryu. Actually, with forms this basic, I think breaking the image up into 3 parts - left side of street, right side of street, and middle area, then moving/transforming (in Photoshop) each part could be a quick fix. Left and right sides would get a skew transform, and the middle could simply be moved down. Vertical lines would stay vertical, and horizontal lines' angles would all change. *places  hat overturned on ground and waits for quarters*

Just make sure you end up with something you like. Looking at your rough-ins so far, they don't seem to have any sort of focal point. Rather, all the viewer's eye gets to do is wander around the different buildings, because the center is just blank, flat street.

So, after all the work you do rendering, just make sure your end-result is effective.
How many times have I completed a detailed image only to sit back at the very end and be like, 'Ok . . . wait, this is pretty boring' . . . I got caught up in the details.

Offline Corinthian Baby

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 223
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Meditating Pixel Placement
    • View Profile

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #8 on: March 19, 2013, 02:53:49 pm
You make some good points, Mathias, but for record's sake I had taken this further, and it got lost in the server crash.

Not totally satisfied with it and haven't worked on it in a while. I want to come back to it

Offline Mathias

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1797
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Goodbye.
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/9542.htm
    • View Profile

Re: [Digital Painting] - Desert Slum City

Reply #9 on: March 20, 2013, 10:35:25 pm
Ohhhhh, some posts from this thread got lost, too. Bummer.

Welp . . . if you post updates, I'll check 'em out. Your latest images gives me an austerely simple vibe. Overyl blocky/basic/geometrical.

But! If you're bored with this project, maybe starting something new would better for you.