Ravenseyes raven nest

[Ravenseye]

bump.

[Pieter]

Whoa, some nice stuff in here! You're getting better and better at these enviroments, wouldn't mind playing a game with these 

Some stuff I think you might want to work on are getting rid of the photoshoppy look of it, it really says digital to me. I know these are quickies so don't take this too seriously.
I think for a large part it's edges and texture. Most of your edges are equally sharp so there isn't a clear hierarchy and texture or detail or paterns etc tend to pull in the eye.
Ofcourse you could make it even more digital-speedpainty looking, that's another choice, but I think right know it's a bit indecisive in that regard.

You've got pretty sweet lighting and atmosphere going on, that's definatly your strong point, and I would push it even further if you can.

There's a composition video download on CA for 30 bucks. It's a pretty sweet deal, as Manley talks about focal points and moving the eye into and trough the composition. Doing spatial pulls with color, edges, detail, texture... all really interesting stuff. If you could get a really good understanding of what he talks about that would go a long way I think. I certainly learned allot from it.

Radiosity and subtle shifts in color temperature would help a bit too. As the forms recede into space it's a good idea to give the color of the outer planes a bit of the temperature of the background.It helps tie things together, and just adding in bounce light into the other forms so that everything is interacting with eachother.

A really good exercise to do is to get some goauche or acrylics and paint things from life with a very limited pallete of say, 3 colors. Just try to really get the temperatures and values right by using only 3 colors. I'dd use a white and two complementary colors that can mix into a good substitute for black. You can really get allot of color out of just a few pigments if you work enough with them, and it helps you to see the subtleties. It's also good to know how real media works so you can get some of that feel into your digital work.

Your ornaments aren't quite doing it for me yet, in most libraries you can find a few books on pattern design in the hobby or arts and crafts section. They usually show how the designs are built from grids etc... I know some concept artists have allot of patterns in their sketch books.

Was just looking over an old Vyle post on CA, perhaps that would give you some ideas
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57060

Keep updating, love where all of this is going 

[Ravenseye]

I love whenever you crit me pieter. Its some of my favorite crits Ive ever gotten from anyone. Your a great help. I would love to purchase that exact video. For christmas I asked for cash moneys to get some videos. Ive purchased various ones that have helped me learning things for instance after I purchased Whits enviroment painting you can see my work has obtained a much more textury look.  So yeah could you send me a link bud?

Ok soooo then where to start. I have a bit of trouble with this whole Edge theory thing I look outside and i see everything so clearly so sharp so refined. It might be one of my biggest downfalls having 20 20 vision beacuse I keep hearing my works coming out to sharp. Do you have some good examples you can help me out with here. I do really want to get my self to the point where people are like damn yeah thats gnar. Books or something?!?!?

Same with this I feel Ive been told about this and have read about it but am just not geting it. maybe I need to re read or get a few helpful tips with this as well. ----
Radiosity and subtle shifts in color temperature would help a bit too. As the forms recede into space it's a good idea to give the color of the outer planes a bit of the temperature of the background.It helps tie things together, and just adding in bounce light into the other forms so that everything is interacting with eachother.

As for my ornaments I know what your saying. I really was just like oh im going to make this a simplistic whatever beacuse this is only a 5 hour painting. I mean if it were one of my longer illustrations you know I would have made it niceand sharp and texture to maybe give it a bit of ware and tearish with time. Or even gone further and made it look like it was a inlay in the door. I really in the end wish I would have done this Considering someone from digital artist magazine just contacted me about featuring the image in the magazine. Im a little shocked by this and wrote a reply with questions asking to figure out if this is some kind of joke. Though i did some research and everything she said to me is true about her postions and such in the magaizne.

Anyways thanks again for your support as I promised Espen one day I would meet up with him and have a beer I would love to do this with you as well.

[Pieter]

Anyways thanks again for your support as I promised Espen one day I would meet up with him and have a beer I would love to do this with you as well.

Haha, wouldn't mind that.

Here's some links:

Edges 1
Edges 2

Composition vid

[Ravenseye]

after a quick read are you saying that my edges are too sharp and dont have enough gradation? I do want to go back and read more but I must go dishes.

[Pieter]

A bit of both I think.

Here's an important quote by Elwell:

I especially like Kearns' emphasis that edges have to be designed rather than observed.

[Ravenseye]

Haha I guess I really need to read more I havent a clue what it means. I feel like this is what Im doing in my work but i guess not. AAAAH!

[Ravenseye]

Well I just purchased the Video hopefully jason can clear up my stupid swimming head.

[Snowman]

I always thought the idea of your sketches being too sharp was that you should be drawing from someones eye perspective to focus attention to a certain area of the illustration. What I mean is, you said:

I have a bit of trouble with this whole Edge theory thing I look outside and i see everything so clearly so sharp so refined. It might be one of my biggest downfalls having 20 20 vision beacuse I keep hearing my works coming out to sharp.

It's not that you have 20/20 vision, it's that when you look outside, you only see everything so clearly and refined because your eyes dart around to all the little details. Try looking at one house (or tree or whatever is outside in your area) and focusing only on that, not letting your eyes go elsewhere. You can see every little roof shingle, window glare, wall paneling on that house in full detail, but without moving your eyes you can still see everything else around it, except everything else is a little blurry; it's all not being focused on. So out of the corners of your eyes you can see objects as vague color values and that's about it.

When I read about composition and such for sketching I always interpret it as this: trying to draw as a person would see; to draw the one focal point that they look at, and slowly dub down the sharpness in subtle manners away from that spot.

Manley talks about focal points and moving the eye into and trough the composition. Doing spatial pulls with color, edges, detail, texture... all really interesting stuff. If you could get a really good understanding of what he talks about that would go a long way I think. I certainly learned allot from it.

And then after you figure out the focal points as a person would see one particular spot, you can do what Pieter is talking about here. Using the out-of-focus area to secretly force the viewers eyes to the focal point, or wherever you want their eyes to go on the drawing.

Hope this makes sense, haha. 

[Ravenseye]

Well now it makes sense. I purchased the video and discovered all this. I guess thats been the problem for such a long time is I never took into account that I was supposed to be staring at one single reltive frame but that I was trying to capture the entire painting in the quality that I would get if i were looking directly at that spot I was painting. I mean crap wtf I could have been picking up on this a long time ago if I would have had this video. Now its going to take me forever to move from thinking like that. BLAAAH!!!

[Pieter]

Yeah, it's the problem with bieng self taught, so you spend a lot of time working of your own asumptions.
I'm always hunting for good info. It's kind of my long term goal to bundle it all into some standard work, realistically speaking that probably not going to happen within the next 10 years

*edit*
another link worth checking out:
http://bradteare.blogspot.com/

[Ravenseye]

Oh hell ya peiter. That Is simply amazing. That guy rocks Im going to spend all night on learning he techniques hes talking about. Im going to make a Scale like that too if only I could remember the setting in photoshop where you can load a pre existing psd ... Then anytime I feel like Pulling up a quick scale to get my values in check I will be able to do that. Also whenever Im studying someones work I can do that.

[Ravenseye]

[Ravenseye]

1 hr

[Snowman]

I like how you used illumination on the face to draw the viewers focus there. Very vibrant colors too