Wednesday 15 October 2014

Project 1 progress - Exterior Establishing Shot WIP

Began work on the exterior establishing shot for my version of Despina which I started in Tuesday. So far I think I really like how the water has come out, the buildings...not sure. But I'm owrking on giving them more visual depth. This is still very much a work-in progress however - I still need to further refine the glitering skyline, fill out the lower city, add in the dockyards and refine the other boats. Also add a few small touches such as a man on the crow's nest of the ship right in front of the camera.

Aside from the ship wakes which I am unsure about I think the sea has come out fairly well, for the shot the sun is supposed ot be behind the ships and high in the sky so there are some short, but bold shadows cast from behind the viewer.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Mark,

    Okay this is looking pretty nice be careful about smoothing colours together too much. Try to remember that in some instances you will have hard shadow or light and then you have your highlights. Try to find a nice correlation between your lighter and darker tones. Your sea is also looking a little "lifeless" you have to think of the light hitting the sea you would have ligher blues and more reflections, reflected light etc.

    Try to be more bold with your colour, the minute you do you will be making master pieces and you will lose the dreaded "flatness" that can sometimes occur. You are doing a lot better then you were just try to keep it in mind and compare your art to real ships in water, etc. You will see what I am talking about.

    I cant wait to see what you get up to next
    xXStItChXx

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    Replies
    1. He Stitch.

      I see what you mean, I'm looking at the masts of the closest ship and I keep thinking it looks more like a chocolate finger than a beam of wood. At first I had wondered about breaking up the mast with bundles of rope but it would still look like a chocolate finger. I'll go back to it and see about adding some kind of a grain to it. Same with the boats too, a bit of grain here and there. What you're seeing is how I have often started - putting a flat colour first then adding depth and texture later. It was mainly so I can get an idea of where I am working when the sketch lines either get in the way (especially for finer details) or are in a colour area too dark to see..

      And think you for the tip on the water. I've tried adding light from waves themselves but there's also light reflection from smaller ripples in-between those that I believe I should have considered for the composition.

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    2. Hey Mark,

      Yeah exactly, you have to consider that things don't simply just blur together, they are separated by varying tonal values (dark & light) of a multitude of colours. You are doing this in some of your black and white thumbs so I know you can do it. You just have to translate that in colour.

      check out the link below:

      http://www.wall321.com/thumbnails/detail/20140307/water%20ocean%20waves%20storm%20ships%20battles%20navel%20frigate%20sail%20ship%20dark%20clouds_www.wall321.com_61.jpg

      look at the colour values in the water alone, you have deep blues for the darker body of water, they get lighter as the water hits the boat (light blues, pale greens). You have the froth from the water which is white as is the reflection from the moon (that's your highlight). The ships are not blurry, the wood has texture, the shadows only respond to the light.

      Consider all of these when painting details, etc. Like I said compare your work to others, to actual pictures get real reference and see how you stack up, if something's wrong your artistic eye will gradually learn to find it... it might not be by the end of this brief but the more you do it the better you get...

      its a muscle you just have to keep exercising it, I'm not the best concept artist but I'm better then I was because I always train my eye with reference material and take a few thousand stabs... sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't but I didn't used to be able to get it right at all so I must be better then I was lol.

      Anyway don't let this feedback sway you, like I said with me you will always get my honest opinion, no use in sugar coating everything its the only way we improve :) You are doing brilliantly so just keep going!

      xXStItChXx

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  2. Yep, I agree - I think you love a smooth, textureless surface, but it does give the impression that everything in your world is made of the same smooth 'stuff'. You're working hard, I can see that, and you're a perfectionist - but there's also something a little 'antiseptic' about this aesthetic - can you get a bit more expressive and movement in there maybe?

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