[wip] beach

[32]

been lurking for a few days, decided to post for some c&c, started working on this today, its my first landscape so i need some help... anywho, i started on the clouds, but there pretty dodgy, my main problem though is the water, i have no idea how to get a good texture. incase you cant tell thats sand up front, i also realise the moon isnt right, but ive barely touched it.

[brod]

It's a good start, but one thing about it really bothers me are the clouds. They are way too sharp. I don't think AA can fix it. Try to cut some of them up and make them more circular.. it'll look cleaner in the long-run. Then again, it's a stylistic thing.. I don't know. I just don't like them.

If you're having trouble with water, try looking at this.


All you should think about with water is where light hits it, everything else generally stays the same.

[32]

i hated the clouds, to but every time i looked at it i just thought, to big for detail, but ive changed my mind and started with a new cloud style, but i have a little problem that i couldn't quite figure out, with the new clouds i was wondering how the light would hit them, if the moons in center would that make a difference? or doesn't it matter because of its distance away?



i would have done more but i wanted to get that cleared up first.

ps. i havn't scrapped the girl

[Phrozen]

I'm not sure what you plan on using this piece for, but if you want to have control over everything you're doing and want to finish within the next year, you'll have to size it down considerably.  Unless you feel like detailing an 800 pixel wide area of sand, ofcoure. 
Perhaps you could break it up in a few sections for yourself so you can sketch everything before you start with details?  Like a fore, mid and background, the sky and the character - much like in a video game, only with smoother transitions. I've never really done this sort of thing before though, so I'm not sure if it would help at all.
As for the moon, just look for some references. You'll probably want to avoid the spotlight sort of thing and just focus on the craters and how it's going to be a source of light in the picture.

Good luck with this 

[32]

well i might cut out alot of the beach, but at first i was thinking of the image as a whole, but when you break it down it becomes quite simple.i'll probably add some points of interest in the sand though. the water will be the biggest hurdle though because ive never done realistic water... but its just more of a learning piece, so it probably wont be used for anything, maybe a menu for a game... if i ever get around to finishing one

[JJ Naas]

Hi, I like the somposition of this piece. You could indeed get rid of some of the beach, having the lower quarter of the pic wouldn't probably add anything to the piece anyway. Considering the pic currently consists of no less than 408960 pixels, it'd be a hell of a lot of work to do it pixel-by-pixel, so you need to think of the technique before you do anything. The style that I'd suggest for this would be something like this:

[32]

yeah, i really wanted something simple, and this seems a step in the right direction, the clouds in the first one help a lot, thanks