I began this piece with an idea for the two-framer challenge, envisioning a cathedral with candelabras along the aisles, flickering, but I decided that not only was that boring, but it wouldn't be polished enough by Sunday night, so I threw the idea out. But a little while into working on this piece I realized. . . I really hate the palette. It's not right. The palette is currently 13 colors, but I imagine it could be a lot less, maybe as low as 8, if it's going to stay monochromatic. I think the dark could be darker. What kind of a palette would you suggest for a dark, candlelit cathedral? It's obviously unfinished but any other advice is welcome. (Haven't put in the candelabras.) Also, does the vaulted ceiling look right? Some of the arches look a little awkward, but is it spatially sound?

Thanks in advance.



PS: Yes, I posted a WIP thread not too long ago. Piece was not abandoned, but. . . put aside.

Edited by eliotfellow - 17 July 2010 at 5:08pm

Jeremy, PJ just wouldn't be the same without you 

yeah jeremy is right... but i think the idea doesnt get too clear in his edit... its more like a monochrome shift towards the blueish side...
a technique for nice, natural color ramps that im recently using, is to spice up the colors simply by putting some 10% opacity fill of (full!) blue, magenta, red and yellow, from dark to bright, the result then (because of the full tones) looks very comic-ish, (sometimes thats nice too...)... if im not satisfied, i pretty much try to edit the colors as i would do editing a photo, meaning 'color balance', 'hue/ saturation', contrast etc editing...
maybe this makes it more clear



original > 10% 'rainbow' fill > tweaking

@jeremy & eliot, I used the Eraser trick for years in win98, but noticed some problems in XP (although i use 7 now and no longer use paint, Ggale all the way). I'm not sure if this is a common problem, but sometimes, you can't make a nonstandard color transparent using the eraser/Copy/paste technique. If so, converting the color to a standard one manually will definately both make it work, and defeat the whole purpose.

(that sounds mean, but i'm trying to help)

Cheers!

top-secret-eraser-color-change-trick, ColorSync ... e=mc2..?

if u guys only would know how easy color management is with photoshop.... tsk tsk tsk ^^

Ha ha, your formatted aside. . .

I have a Mac, dammittohell. Doesn't support Gale.

Acorn? I'll look into it. I know nothing about pixel programs, so I've just been sticking to Pixen for while now. (No, I'm not a fan of Photoshop, sorry Onek.) And I tossed out the challenge a while back, but it was what sparked it.

I was worried it was kind of boring. . . I'll keep working at it, more updates to come.

Thanks for everyone's guidance thus far.

Yes, Pixen has let me down a few times.

What version of Grafx2 should I download? (Probably a stupid question?) There isn't a working version for Mac OS X as I'm sure you know.

Grafx2 Downloads

To whoever cares. . .

I'm going away for a week so don't think my silence is any sort of rudeness. I may resurrect this thread when I come back though for more advice on the cathedral.

Your lighting is basically... off. If your candelabras are lined up perfectly (which your perspective lines indicated) then the light extending from them should extend out to a common line that follows the perspective.

Also, light comes out like a sphere. So you wouldn't have a straight line of light. It'd look more like little overlapping circles.

Having noted the light's omnidirectional pattern, you're forgetting to light the sides of the columns. You seem to only be shading each pillar as if lighted individually from the front, forgetting that light would be hitting the sides from the adjacent candelabras. So the sides would need to also be shaded as if being hit from the front, but with a softer light.

There's more I can see, but I'm pushed for time so that's it for this post. Hope it helps! :)