I thiiiiiiink you're putting quote unquote "realism" over composition here, and that isn't helping you.

My edit way above doesn't make any sense, in terms of realism.
"Wtf?" You say
"Are there beams of light shooting down from the heavens that only hit those specific rocks?"

Yes, I say. For the sake of composition, there is!

"Why?" You ask.

Well! Triangulation and grouping and eye direction.

People like threes. Things in threes are good. If you've got a composition with things in threes, people will naturally pick out the threes and form triangles that'll bounce their eyes around the composition and show them what they're supposed to be looking at.

Take a look at your piece, currently, and follow where you're looking. For me, my eyes start at the bottom-left corner and follow the edge of the canvas clockwise to the bottom-right corner, then reverse. My eyes don't stop on your central figures for some reason, and I practically never look at your wall of rocks.

This, as far as I can understand, is because everything is grouped into one group, so I'm getting a "These are rocks, these are people, this is city" kinda feeling that isn't so good to have around.

"K, wtf are groups?" asks someone.

Groups are objects of similar visual values that register mentally as one object depending on a variety of conditions. To name a few: proximity, texture, size, colour, value, shape, etc etc. If something looks LIKE something else and is nearby, they'll mentally be "grouped" and be the same object.

Case and point, your rocks currently are exactly that, a bunch of rocks. They're grouped, no individual rock stands out, it's just one big triangular area of rocks.

In my edit, I've got one small rock and one big cluster of rocks. The implication of a mountain made of rocks is still there without drawing every single rock, AND the viewer now has an idea of which rocks to look at.

Not only that, also triangulation and HEY! THREE THINGS TO LOOK AT



ping-ping-ping go my eyes, bouncing between those three things like a pinball machine drowning in coffee.

It does this because the rocks and the shape made by the holes in their hoodies are very very close, and people like to look at similar shapes.

I forgot if I had any more points to make!

Oh yeah. Eye direction. Having your focal point (the two people) as part of one or many triangles is grand. You've also done a fantastic job already of making them stand out, what with the clear silhouettes and the clouds and mountain practically pointing to them.

YEH! Experiment with triangulation and grouping things by similar shapes and stoof. See what happens.

Fantastical work already, though. I digs, plx carry on.

Not less is more, but purpose is better than noise. If something is there just for the sake of being there then it shouldn`t be there. In this case showing a few rocks is enough to suggest that the entire cliffs are rocks, so most of the rocks you have so far are just noise, and don`t serve a function.

Also, as I said, if you have all the rocks like you currently do, your mind will group them as one object, one `bunch of rocks`so if you`re determined to keep them, do something to break it up from one group of rocks to... iono, a couple rocks with grass on them and a mountain lion hiding amongst them or something.

Tree sticking out the side or vines or something all qualify as ungrouping the rocks, so experiment some with those and see what happens!

Pinball is good, coffee is good, a pinball machine drowning in coffee is a popular attraction in heaven, I hear :)

Given permission, I`m willing to perform extensive edits to the tune of making the piece the damn best I can.


Edited by Saboteur - 23 February 2009 at 8:09pm

Hey guys, thanks for replying.

I really want to just get this piece out of the way.
I dunno about the rain/lightning, it does look good, but I would in now be able to get it to look as good as yours, even though it's just a sketch lol.

I'm better at just pixeling than actual art, I guess that's why I like to fill in the whole thing with details.

I attempted a tree, but it looks horrible so far. I guess it just doesn't stick out enough. I'm gonna try lightening up the whole piece. The grass looks ok I guess. Oh, and I added trees in the background.

Thanks


Edited by skeddles - 22 April 2009 at 12:23pm

skeddles you need to allow yourself to make dramatic changes to your own pieces :p else it will stay dark forever!

Fine and all but if the viewer cannot see and read the picture it loses its power.
I only adjusted colors, but did add some browns from the rocks as highlights to the figures.

E:I know you want dark and moody and will hate my edit but some light is needed :|



Edited by jalonso - 24 April 2009 at 10:51pm

Yes, I noticed the need for AA on th figures too.
About that middle plane, maybe you can make another layer of buildings with less 'boxy/lined' buildings and more organic like the trees are. Like 50/50 linework/organic lines. Could work especially if you throw in 1 or 2 of those rock pyramids in there to blend it all in... :\

Update

played around with the rocks a little more, AAed the people.

I actually really like the new clouds color. I do agree that they look less neat/smooth, same with the rocks, which I don't really like, but I like the contrast/colors of them both a lot more.

I might still try to add grass or things into the rocks.. but it's rather hard.


Post your thoughts.




Edited by skeddles - 27 April 2009 at 6:55pm

that's really better
about the background: I think the city/buildings should be less detailed as they are now, same as I told you before, highlight them use colors just to show light on surfaces, not the structure of the building, I think you can gain a lot more details with it.
about the rocks: I do see a skull somewhere a nice idea.
left side of the rocks are too much straight and perfect, I would add some more rocks on the left on the bottom part.
More on the rocks: I would use a darker tone for the bottom part, like "fading out"

my 2 cents

It looks cool, but I still think the people need more contrast. Not too much, but the way its now you can barely tell that they are people.