Does this look homely?
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Hey Jason, Cool layout!
I think your work here is good, but you are overdoing your darks by a LOT in the foreground/middleground. You can add so much more color/light and give it so much more sparkle. Most people accomplish this with a blue palette, but you can lean it a few different ways.
Check these scenes out. Look how they are handling the tones in the darks with the lighter blues. You get so much more atomosphere and then you can balance your warm interior lights against the cool blues and it looks great. You don't have to go as light as these per se, but overall your foreground area has too much contrast and would look better using these tones.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@lee-white thanks for the tip! I will have a play to see if I can get more atmosphere...
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@lee-white hi, who done the artwork of the barn at night that you posted? Is this your work?
Love it. -
Ok here is where I am at now. definitely better than before, more magical
Thanks for your advice @Lee-White soon my work will be on every jigsaw around lol -
@jason-bowen That is much better! Moving the chimney a little makes a big difference too. I really like the changes. The only new thing I would add might be to bring the warm light around a little more on the bushes by the walking path to help define that shape. Right now they look like cut paper to me with just the outline highlight. Good work on improving the homely vibe.
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@jason-bowen wow. Great improvement!
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@jon-anderson nothing gets past you guys haha thanks for the spot I need to do some evening outdoor painting before I continue. Luckily I have a tree just like them in my garden.
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@burvantill thanks
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I think after Taking Lee's advice it's much improved. Nice work so far
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@Jason-Bowen WOW, the improvement from the darker version to the bluer one is amazing! Keep it up!
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@jason-bowen Yes nice improvement! This is a great thread to watch.
Another thing you might want to consider are the dark trees in the background. (I assume that's what they are, trees blurred out?) I would try making them a lot smaller to help give your image more depth. And then lighten that horizon line of where your middle ground and tree line meet.
If you look at the amazing barn image that @Lee-White posted, there is a thin white fog/mist on that horizon line that helps add some distance. It then has a nice gradient going up from light to dark. Try it out!
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I like that one a lot better Jason. I did a quick paint over on my iphone here, so this is rough. But I would push it a bit more in this direction. Lowering the contrast overall will help a lot You have 2 or 3 focal points that are fighting for attention, so I just took the emphasis off of the other stuff and left the focus on the house.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@lee-white thanks a lot for the paint over! Interesting changes. I'm going to have another go at it after work.
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I have been doing a bit of just before dark study and am here now. Learning lots
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@jason-bowen Some things to remember as you move forward with doing environments:
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Value falls off much quicker than you might think when moving back in space. This means using very dark values should be reserved for only the focal point and possibly items in the foreground that are very close to the viewer.
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Detail falls off much quicker than you might think when moving back in space. This means that just some basic shapes and value is all you really need except in your focal point.
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Find one focal point and reserve that for your brightest brights and darkest darks (if possible). In your scene, the stream had the brightest spots in the painting. So was your painting about the stream or was it about the cabin?
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Save the most detail for the area that you decided is your focal point. Simplify in other areas and even leave off detail.
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Try to pick one light source if possible. Moving a lot of lights around a scene makes things much harder to control. I know this happens in real life with multiple buildings, etc. But just keep it in mind when you can.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
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@lee-white thanks for the list I'm going to use it as my guide for the next one
