Some people standing around

[cels]

I haven't posted here in a long time but I figure it might be a good time to post another WIP.

Any feedback welcome, although I must admit that I'm probably not making any significant changes to the composition at this point, unless they're easy to fix. Maybe.



Cheers! 

[SeinRuhe]

Hello random stranger I've never heard of before!

I don't know much about composition so no advice on there, although I think the comp in this piece is really good and sort of cinematic!

My advice would be to keep the warm light while making what's in shadow closer to gray to make it look cooler, it gives a nice effect!

I would also get rid of most of the lines as well as selecting another color for the darkest darks! You could keep an outline for mayor things or things that need some pop like the characters

[cels]

Hello there! It's good to be back amongst strangers!

Thanks a lot for the feedback and edit! Let me do this point by point.
- Nice change to the windows. My version didn't account for indirect lighting or anything other than direct sunlight / moonlight.
- Good point about restricting the warm light in the background. I tried to remedy this although maybe I should take it further. On the other hand, I don't want the colors to be too realistic, I want to make it unrealistically colorful. Still, a more neutral castle color seems better. (I don't want to make the castle too cold because then it looks like some sort of cliché water temple)
- I definitely want to have a lot of strong outlines, but you are right that I should be restrictive. I want to take some inspiration from Alphonse Mucha, stained glass windows and comic books. So things will be exaggerated rather than muted. But I still need to consider where to use weaker vs stronger outlines. Which things need to pop, as you say.
- Nice idea of having large, irregular stones in the wall. I will play around with different sizes. It really helps to break up the sterile look of perfect angles.
- The polearm is supposed to have a hammer, not an axehead. I will work on this shape.
- Some of the lines on the walls will either disappear or change function as I do more work but it's interesting to see your interpretation.
- The water animation is super early, it's just to get my creativity going. Eventually, I hope to have a fairly nice and detailed animation for the water and fire.
- I will also be animating the torch, so I can't have such a finely detailed flame as your edit. I do like the idea of using a lot of red in the flame, but then I'm worried it won't look like a significant light source. Choices, choices.
- I have not decided about the clothes yet, but you did a great job with the robes.

Thanks again! 






EDIT:

I also planned to do some light rays but I'm not sure how to do that without going full FX fireworks, which may be a bit overwhelming, if every window is casting light rays.



One thing at a time, of course. Just playing around with ideas.

[SeinRuhe]

The plan you have looks great and the edits are on a good path! Looking forward to see what you come up with Cels!

The only thing I will scold you for is telling me the flame on my edit is elaborated, I literally grabbed a 2px brush and draw a random shape starting from the deep red and finishing on the yellow. It took me 30 secs Cels, don't be close minded on that!

Here's a tutorial https://twitter.com/i/status/986036725721026560 my advice on that would be to pay zero, none, nada of attention or effort to clean the fire. It looks way better raw than cleaned up.

[cels]

Thanks!

I promise to give it a shot. This Brullov guy seems to know what he's on about. I'll try to keep an open mind.