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Pixelcritter
02-23-2005, 05:06 AM
I've been playing around here and there on Photoshop and have only recently started to create my own digital paintings. What my intent to do here is transform a previous pencil drawing I did about a year ago into (god willing) an even better CG piece.

And just incase your interested I had a whole back-story witten out when I presented this piece as an assignment.

There was once a time when humans and their technology was thought to be gifts from that of a God. Horrific storms were taking place worldwide, crushing homes and washing away entire cities. Regardless, the humans lived in awe of their own existence, oblivious to what was going on around and more importantly, beneath them. As years past they slowly came to realize their machines and inventions had quietly been eating away the Earth’s natural being. Using up all its resources, sucking the world dry of its authentic and rich beauty. Entropy and mismanagement had taken their toll.The humans came to realize no machine or invention would ever be able to create anything as simple and yet as beautiful as a single tree. The humans chose to revert to a preindustrial existence in a world populated with chimerical beasts, relying on bio-sciences for whatever support they needed to derive. In search for a place of a new beginning, a city was founded with complete harmony between it and nature… Claidor City. Thought to be over 800 years old, little is known about the City's original purpose or builders. Its sheer size, standing over 300ft high, implies it was once a very sacred dwelling and was decided upon to be preserved for as long as time permits. The humans will always be the keepers of ClaidorCity and the volumes of secrets it contains within its walls.



Man and Nature found a way to live in a state of tranquility…




So here is what I'm starting off with.

Any comments, suggestions, anything are welcome right off the bat!

http://www.bzassociates.ca/pixelcritter/html/portfolio/drawing/claidorcity.gif
three
02-23-2005, 05:25 AM
First off: Wow. :)
I find one thing that's feeling off, and it's the bridge, it seems to be tilting toward the viewpoint. If this isn't intentional I think you should work on that a bit.
:thumbsup:
hjalmar
02-23-2005, 05:27 AM
yea i was also feeling the same...

and uhh...doesnt that tree need something to ya know...grow out of?
fredlovebot
02-23-2005, 08:47 AM
It's a really great piece of art!
I would say what the others said, the bridge is tilting too much.
The waterfalls looks good but the water below it seems to have really strong contrast and reminds me about lava more then water.

Keep on working with it!
Pixelcritter
02-23-2005, 05:27 PM
Yeah about the bridge, back in the day i had some problems understanding perspective and elipses. But now I know where i made mistakes and they will definitely be fixed.

Thanks alot for the comments and hopefully I'll have something to show soon.
rebuilder
02-23-2005, 06:54 PM
Does the city continue into the rock? What is seen of it here doesn't really look much more like a really big building...
TheSly
02-23-2005, 07:49 PM
The tree appears to be flat. Maybe some curvature at the bottom to show the depth it has.
Squibbit
02-23-2005, 09:09 PM
the tree doesn't appear flat to me, but reminds me of trees i've drawn where i always tended
to lift the leafy parts so the branches would show...this would often leave the tree looking
as if it was at a weird ,twisted angle..

about the building size... eyes i think notice the windows and compare them to usual ones
we see and therefore it seems there isn't many stories in the building, so it doesn't seem
that high..

and someone mentioned the tree should have something to grow of. One suggestion I have
in addition to the more common flower pot one is that you could have it that the roots of
the tree would make the bridge...
fredlovebot
02-23-2005, 11:35 PM
When I look at it one more time, I also notice that i have a little hard time figuring out what scale it is. The tree is there so it sure gives me some kinda idea on how big things are but the tree could be small or really large.
Pixelcritter
02-24-2005, 12:42 AM
Yeah I noticed that too, my plan is to place a few poeple on the bridge to solve that problem.
Pixelcritter
02-24-2005, 02:13 AM
Started off with the background. I'm going for a different mood from the original drawing, trying to add life to the piece.

This is only the first stage of some clouds

http://www.geocities.com/pixelcritter/Claidor-WIP1.jpg
Pixelcritter
02-24-2005, 04:11 AM
Next stage of the clouds after lots of airbrushing and smudging.

http://www.geocities.com/pixelcritter/Claidor-WIP2.jpg



Now I'm just tryin to fix and perspective I may have had before. After all, this drawing was 31" x 14" so it's bound to have some problems in it. So I concentrate on fixing the bridge and the elipse in the middle.


http://www.geocities.com/pixelcritter/Claidor-WIP3.jpg
Pixelcritter
02-24-2005, 07:21 PM
Squibbit - Thanks for the ideas you gave about the tree. I was thinking rather than making the bridge out of the roots I'd either have them dangle down into the water below or have them intertwining and wrapping around the existing bridge.
hjalmar
02-24-2005, 07:25 PM
yea...i like the wrap around thing

you could have people sitting on/around them to give hte scale

maybe the tree is used for a council place for the people who live there and the grand elder personish person could be standing up and telling people whats what and the stories of who hte world was almost destroyed due to mankinds blahness
just a thought...i was thinking it as fast as i could type it
Squibbit
02-24-2005, 07:39 PM
yea both wrap around and dangling sound like fine ideas to me.


not sure now but the back wall of the bridge seems slightly taller than the one
closer to the viewer..
Pixelcritter
02-25-2005, 04:20 AM
Before I start with the bridge and the city I wanted to complete the background and the water. So this is the first stage of getting the distant waterfalls completed.

Stage 1

http://www.geocities.com/pixelcritter/Claidor-WIP4.jpg

Stage 2

http://www.geocities.com/pixelcritter/Claidor-WIP5.jpg
hjalmar
02-25-2005, 07:49 AM
right now it kinda looks like the clouds are falling:P i think you should off the colour of the water with a tinge of blue...it looks like you wanna keep the same monochrome look to the sky/water, but tehy blend together too well

anyways...good job...keep it up:) i wanna see this one finished
Pixelcritter
02-25-2005, 04:36 PM
Hehe, I'll see what I can do about that. Maybe falling clouds is what I want :rolleyes: .

I think I need a bit of a break from painting. Time for some Battle for Middle Earth:buttrock: .
Pixelcritter
02-26-2005, 12:57 AM
Ok I need some input on this one. With the mountain, should I stay with the same stylized look as the drawing, or should I go for amore realistic look?

http://www.geocities.com/pixelcritter/Untitled-1.jpg
hjalmar
02-26-2005, 01:20 AM
style definatly, you already ahve the water and sky styalized, it would look kinda weird if you suddenly switched to realism for it

'sides, its not a bad lookin mountain anyways:)
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