The Journey Begins Challenge (2D) Entry: Steven Stahlberg

[Stahlberg]

Still have an issue about that rock in front of the character.
Looks better now, but still bothers me…..
Yes, me too... dammit. :D Not sure what to do about it, I hesitate to just kill it. I'll try making it smaller first. :)

[Try]

Maybe you could move it up close to the first tree. Or just remove it. It worked quit well in the early version without the stone
When I squint the stone creates a line heading straight fore the characters heart. Maybe that is what bugs me...:)

[EdP-Art]

Kill the rock, it wouild never be allowed there on a real road and maybe a few less cracks.

*Ed

[individium]

hi steven

figure is standin on a too much seperated place.i hope i can describe what i want to say: it feels as if she is looking at a your picture on ruins of a museum or smthng.
it becouse of too much light and color and shape difference between the front and the othersides of the picture. it was a finished picture last time i saw it now it need too much work on it. but i know that youre doing it so im sure it will be a great piece of art in the end

[Srulo]

Great Depth of field! :thumbsup:

[Stahlberg]

A closeup of the top part, where I'm almost done detailing the original low-res version. I think you can tell which one is before and after... :)

http://www.androidblues.com/roadtripcomp.jpg

[karthikarctic]

someone called Mr.Stahlberg the king, and i couldn't agree more!!!
Sir, you are the best. I love your works.
Thankyou for giving me a chance to feast my eyes on one more.
you will win!!!

[danblomberg]

Nice going stålis!

[Try]

Good progress!

But I don’t think you should work in more details than this.
The trick here is not loosing the wonderful Impressionistic feeling of this painting, I think.
Less is more here! Unless you are going fore more realistic finish, that is…..

[beelow]

Really nice update Stahlberg, keep it up!:thumbsup: I am curious to how u are still going to handle the foreground, what do u plan on doing with the character? are u still going to keep the characters and the rocks, plans on changing the position, or are u going to keep it as is, where u want the feeling of tranquility, peaceful view?

[steven.qian]

good job !i really like this work

[Stahlberg]

Here's the next update, still working on adding details where there was nothing but blurred blobby noise, eek it's taking a long time... I see what you guys mean by keeping the original painterly feeling, but my initial vision was for a really Huge view, so I need a bit of detail. I still plan to keep the foreground as it was on the latest update. It's supposed to show an elevated highway crossing the first, which has fallen down into rubble, on which the character is standing.
a closeup, to show it better (the perspective is off on the terraces, I'll try to fix it tomorrow):

http://www.androidblues.com/roadtripCU.jpg

[notpill]

amazing :applause:
and your clouds floored me everytime :scream:

[individium]

even the part you posted last is a wonderful piece of art and looks like a done painting.

[yoff]

Just an idea, since you have seemed concerned with the amount of storytelling in the image:

While the overshodowing of the character seem to signify something from which the journey might begin, it might as well just signify a big tree by the road, leaving the character in the middle of the journey.
If you could somehow portray the character to have just made his way to the big road, this might sell better the point that he is at the beginning of his (actual) journey...

[EdP-Art]

You know when I saw your earlier wips I thought you were nearly finished but as you add the detail it just gets better.

Just one little thing that bugs me, the reflection on the water in the terraces doesn't seem to reflect the colours in the sky above it.

Looking forward to seeing more.

*Ed

[Squibbit]

i hope u finish the abduction one too, while both these concepts are cool,
i like that one alot and would hate to see it left unfinished


.

[walrus]

Wow, Steven, things are looking great, especially those clouds. I had no idea you were updating your thread - why are you hosting the images yourself rather than submitting them for the contest's WIP entries? Is it because you can host larger-res images?

Anyhow, looking really nice. Good luck with it!

-mike

[Neubius]

fantastic, you are a real draghtsman. your use of colour is excellent,
loving this piece,
neubius

[Stahlberg]

beelow, I was still planning to keep the character and the rocks basically as they are.

yoff, I'll try to make the shadowed 'break' in the foreground more separate from the highway, so it can be interpreted more like the 'start' of something.

EdP-Art, I agree the water color seems off, yet I sampled colors from the sky... the problem is probably that my sky color is off - too saturated compared to reality. I'll leave that be though, and make the water a bit darker/grayer.

The Abduction, yeah, I will finish it some day, but I can't have 2 entries so I'll do this first. :)

Walrus, I'm not sure what's the difference to you if I update it by formal entry, or if I update by hosting it myself? It's harder to spot the second type when it happens?
In this case, with such a detailed entry, I feel really limited by the size limit, it means I have to keep saving my updates as quite low quality jpegs. 50 or 60% sometimes. I just wanted to show some closeups, I'll post a proper update later today. :)

Thanks everyone!

[walrus]

Steven - Yes, I guess the only difference is that it makes it a little harder to spot when you've made an update, but I didn't mean any offense by my question, I was just curious. :)

Looking forward to your updates...!

-mike

[Muttonhead]

Nice work! The sense of depth is quite convincing, and fun to look at. I wonder though if the character in the foreground might seem a bit stiff.... although, I'm one to talk :)


Unbelievable color work though, my hat's off to you.

[Stahlberg]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1147238144_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1147238144_large.jpg)

Adding more details, from top to bottom

[Stahlberg]

I didn't mean any offense by my question,
It's cool, neither did I take it that way, I was just really wondering, exactly what the difference would be, from your end. :) (Because for me, it's different, I'm subscribed and I get notified about all new posts)

[EdP-Art]

It's coming toether nicely. The detailing really brings the concept together. Now that the rock is gone and the car is in the centre of the road the 'motorway' is more obvious.

Lovely work. :)

*Ed

[authentic]

Excellent. I love the purple palm tree. I would just say that the foreground is not really clear to my mind. Maybe more contrast even you wanna play with two different tones with your background.

[Nazirull]

Man...i was driving up north and you know the landscape along the highway looks pretty much like this...(except the road is not dead straight....) and i was constantly reminded of this piece.

I love your play of color and saturation and values to make this a good one. Simple execution...yet bloody effective.

Good luck man! (you need none actually....:thumbsup:)

[walrus]

Ah, see, there's my problem, I never subscribe to anything for fear that my mailbox will fill up with update alerts from so many people's works that I want to follow. So I do it all "manually" by being over-obsessive about checking the forums :D

Anyhow, I love the details coming into play in the midground to add scale, like the car and the tire. Wouldn't mind seeing another car-frame or two, maybe one over on the right that goes with the tire, covered in flora. But certainly not necessary, and that might even overdo it.

Good luck with the last details! :)

-mike

[paperclip]

pssst, mike, just as well steven didn't put in any god-rays, it would be hard to choose the king, wouldn't it?

[Bierberg]

i know you want the rocky.. kinda messed up apearance in the foreground.. and that you have made the very closest part of the road a bit darker to meld the two parts together..

i still think you should go for the "road" version tho :P but..

perhaps some dark straws of grass at the left corner?? i seems to change very rapidly from rock to "grass" .. i know you might say that its the perspective that plays tricks on the picture.. but thats the beauty of painting isnt it?? that you have the opportunity to make it look "right" instead of "real" (by real, i mean what it would look like if you took a photograph)

that was my babbling 50 cents.. :P

cheers

[BaronImpossible]

No crits about the artwork, it's wonderful. The only problem IMO is I'm not sure what the foreground represents. At first, it looks like a sharp rise in the road, but that means there's a hell of a bump there. Then, I think maybe it's a collapsed bridge over the road. But it's not totally obvious. If it is a bridge, then maybe another collapsed bridge in the middle distance would help define what it's meant to be. I'm sure you've explained this in the thread, but I'm nothing if not lazy.

[MDN67]

Which beautiful image, although we seen this unlimited road with the abandoned automobile, the landscape gives an impression of serenity, the differentes colors of fields reminds me the Provence in the South of France, mountain far off really gives the impression of far trip that is going to make the characters, really a beautiful image, some big art:bounce:

[Stahlberg]

Thanks guys!
Yes that's right that's supposed to be a high-way overpass that has crumpled down onto the lower high-way, making a hige pile of rubble. :)
Now, what's shadowing her, I don't know, perhaps a cloud, perhaps a big tower has been built right next to the ruins, using the rubble... toll collectors? The Big Valley Inn? The King's last outpost?

So, I agree it isn't quite clear what she's standing on, and that's a problem... another collapsed bridge in the distance, a very good idea, but I'm afraid it might not be clear enough either, and would interfere with the sensation I'm trying for, that she has a nice easy walk ahead of her.
Hm maybe the overpass isn't collapsed, but still standing... just time-worn. That should make it's nature and function more clear. I'll try that.

[EdP-Art]

Hi Steven,

How about putting an upright of a bridge on the left of the pic with part of the remaining road jutting out to the right at about the base of the cloud on the right. Am I making sense? Do you want me to do an over paint?

*Ed

[Stahlberg]

Oh yeah I get it... that's an idea too. I'll try sketching that
(in a little while, have to do some other stuff first) :)

[Stahlberg]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1147455852_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1147455852_large.jpg)

Changed the foreground, worked on the character

[Quills]

Hey - Good stuff - really conveys the sheer task of the journey ahead. At least for the character its a fairly straight road!!

The heathery colour palette looks vaguely alien which is cool. The character doesn't look too prepared for that length of journey, but in this case it just seems to add to the challenge ahead of them...

Q

[snowkiwi]

Hahaha. That's a cool take. I think I like this one the best. !!!

[MrFreeman]

:) :) Hi Steven....

this is really coming along - the new / updated foreground really adds a lot more space and slight difference in colour helps to separate this from the road.

The additional elements and detail really helps with the scale.

good work - and you've even managed to make the traveller look sexy!!

Looking forward to seeing the final version :) :)

[anticz]

Hi Steven,
A masterful job as usual! :) The atmosphereic perspective is working very well. Looks like a nice deep canvas. The new foreground elements are working much better as well. I do agree with some of the other comments posted in that the foreground shadow is a little ambiguous but, it works for me. Great job.

[Try]

Hei Steven!
Plager meg egentlig å si dette for jeg har mye respekt for deg. Men consept skissen din var bare så utrolig mye bedre!!!
Det var en sånn fantastisk fin og fri flyt i penselstrøkene og allt stemte! Nå ser allt veldig stivt ut. Skulle nesten ønske du kunne submitte skissen som final i stede.

Skriver dett på Norsk så jeg slipper å få alle Stahlberg fansen på nakken:)

[EdP-Art]

This update does give the feeling she is well anbove the road below. It's good to see more detail of the character.

Great stuff.

*Ed

[beelow]

Hey, Stahlberg, I am not sure if I am liking that road peiced together as such, cracks in it will do it some justice. All I can think at the moment...peace. Will drop by later.:thumbsup:

[Zephyri]

Hi Steven, this is still one of my favourite entries in the challenge, though the last update, especially when compared with your very first colour concept, seems to have lost a little of its oomph. It might be that the whole thing has gradually got a bit flatter and less saturated, as the depth of the piece and the sense of distance is still wonderful. The foreground in particular is comng across as a bit flat, if you greyscale it, the value of the road that she is on isn't that far from the one below her. Not sure how high up the overpass would be compared to the motorway, but if there is something casting a shadow over them both, that lack of difference in value is killing the illusion of height for me. But that might just be the way I'm looking at it! One other minor point, but the girl kinda looks like she's wearing a coat and nothing on her bottom half (unless she's wearing really short shorts, in which case ignore me!)

And I know you mentioned previously about the sky being realistic in its shade of blue, but you might get away with just a little mor saturation for the topmost blues, it could help really bring out those gorgeous golds and pinks in the foreground too.

Both suggestions are purely subjective of course, and regardless of any tweaking, it's still an instantly clear and inspiring image when first viewed. And I hope this didn't come across as too nit picky, i really do love the image.

[danielh68]

Hi Steven,

Great update. I really like the fact that you choose more of a colorist palette as opposed to a tonalist one. It's refreshing.

My only crit is the transition between the bridge and the highway. The elevation and perspective doesn't read well for me. Perhaps introduce another figure or two as transitional objects climbing down the rubble by her right foot? Then again, it could just be me. In any case, the painting as a whole looks awesome.

[Stahlberg]

Thanks everyone.

consept skissen din var bare så utrolig mye bedre!!!
the last update, especially when compared with your very first colour concept, seems to have lost a little of its oomph
Yeah I do agree with you both, and it's a pity... but I'm not sure I can do much about it. I could not expect to do well in a contest like this by simply submitting that first sketch, or something similar. This is a contest for extremely 'worked' and polished images, not for 'happy accidents' that took a few minutes to make. :D
Also, my initial vision - before the sketch - was of a highly detailed realistic landscape, with a very far horizon and a huge scale... the best way to show scale is by fine detail. So, I can't have the cake and eat it too, I have to sacrifice something and in this case that's the freshness of the initial sketch. Though I'll try to bring the colors back a little to what they were.

The shadowing in the foreground, if it only hits the elevated highway, or vice versa, it might make it stand out too much, but I'll have a look see.

[ramy badie]

For some reason, the pose of the character is sort of suggesting to me that she is about to say "screw this" and leave rather than go on a journey down this path. I'm not sure what it is about the pose. I suppose that maybe I'm still partial towards the abduction piece, I think it was so creative while this one is a much more "traditional" concept. Regardless, I can understand what you've been saying about wanting a realistic landscape. I think that you are doing a great job overall with the handling of this subject, but I think that the comments about the foreground that others have made I can agree with. Good luck finishing this piece!

[PuiArt]

The enviroment on ur piece is realy nice. from my opinion, u can add a few more people in for a little taste of bigger adventure. i imagine a group of boyscouts out to sell some cupcakes to the locals down the hill, lol

[individium]

i agree with ramy about the character.
and you are not have to make the character sexy (even a little bit). i (and i think most of us)did think that woman (with the older pose) was a really beatiful and a sexy one under that coat(becouse you made her ;) )but this pose is as good as the other ones.

and still about the same very front ; still youre eorkin ona add ore oruy anght hiy9
hatt,rmr t<

[individium]

i agree with ramy about the character.
and you are not have to make the character sexy (even a little bit). i (and i think most of us)did think that woman (with the older pose) was a really beatiful and a sexy one under that coat(becouse you made her ;) )but this pose is as good as the other ones.

and still about the same very front ; still youre workin ona add ore oruy anght hiy9
hatt,rmr t<

[amannin]

i haven't followed this thread since the initial sketches -- so maybe i can offer some fresh perspective (sorry, if I repeat anything anyone else has already mentioned).

--------------------------

the horizontal road looks way too freshly paved to have any vegetation on it, was this intentional? --- i mean, do you want it to look freshly paved, as if done recently...?

is the crumbled road passing under the freshly paved road? its kind of hard to tell -- or doesn't read well to me O_o (i imagine it is, otherwise the scaling seems a bit weird)

and the purple palm tree in the center --- is that right? it feels a bit odd to me...

--------------------------

i really love the vegetation in the foreground --- feels so alive --- all but that palm tree :)

[slickgreekgeo]

This is coming along great. Technically, this is already impressive as hell. I think you should go a bit more crazy though; Maybe make more 'chaotoic' scenery around the car or something. Looking forward to more updates.

[arcfire]

Hi Steven,

I preferred the previous version. However, I do think some water over the roadway would look nice. Like a small creek or waterfall.

Keep up the good work. :)



Dennis

[Stahlberg]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1147714072_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1147714072_large.jpg)

Added shorts to figure, added another figure, raised saturation of blues, detailed fields, trees, road, other minor stuff

[Cyberone]

hi!!

sorry to say that i think you could almost do without the foreground as a whole....i like the little figure better...

the foregroung is confusing and doesnt match at all...

why do you need a silly sexy figure? the landscape is your story..isnt it??....id just go with that....just my two cents,....

cyb

[kevinhyshen]

good pose on the girl, makes me wonder if a reference was used, which doesn't matter that much anyway

[azazel]

I think the foreground is still a bit confusing. It looks like there's something big behind and above the camera, casting a shadow on the foreground.
On the other hand, I love the middle- and background. Sweet stuff. :thumbsup:

[paperclip]

I say keep the girl in the foreground, she gives the whole thing a great sense of scale and I love the way the other fella has stopped to wait for her- really gives a journey aspect.


I think some of the blues in the background are too light, they look like they're floating off the ground almost.

This is such a beautiful entry. You have made me envious. :bowdown::love:

[beelow]

I am wondering if the forground, broken overpass is suppose to be elevated? Looks confusing to me too as well. Only crit. Colors working well and compo is nice. I also like that you have established another figure in this image! Peace, will be waiting for the final!:thumbsup:

[Stahlberg]

Yeah, it's an elevated overpass. Not sure how to show that more clearly. Also, there's like a cloud shading it, or something. I feel it's all necessary to keep it that way, though I agree it's problematic...
That whole area has to be in shadow, or the composition will suffer I think. The point of it is to keep the foreground character in near silhouette against the yellow field, to add depth, and the dark area at the bottom to stop the eye being led off out of the image by the lower road.

Yes, I have reference for both the characters. I did a photo shoot for this (and a couple other image ideas) on May 9. Cost about 300 usd, but it was fun. :)
About the sexiness - maybe it's silly to use a good-looking 22 year old girl instead of a guy or old person or kid, but that's just me, sorry. I guess I could cover her legs with pants if that's what the majority wants? :shrug:

[ErichSchreiner]

I guess I could cover her legs with pants if that's what the majority wants? :shrug:

No way...i don't get what might be bad about a sexy girl with sexy legs :)

The dark area at the bottom frames your painting nicely, without it, the beautiful lighting situation wouldn't come across that clear.

hope that makes sense

cool piece :)

[paperclip]

The picture doesn't come across as being overly sexy to me- that day looks super hot, so she wore shorts, but she's going on a long journey so she's also wearing a light coat, just in case. I LOVE her pose and her clothes, particularly the way the coat is swinging. Don't you dare touch it! Keep that 245 pixel brush away from her!


On another note- thanks so much for the paintover, it really pointed out a few things to me, especially the stairs, I was consciously working on them but there was something that was bothering me and you hit it on the button! Thanks again!

I love entering these challenges- there are so many wonderful people willing to help each other, not for gains or whatever, but because we're all passionate about our art and you're a great example of that. Cheers, steven. :beer:

[MrFreeman]

:) Hi Steven

I think this is looking great and hope you don't think I was having a dig when I mentioned sexiness of the character.

Honestly, I wouldn't want you to use an old man or children and think she works really well (if I had such great reference, I would probably do the same, but having three children who are always at hand to sketch I've gone for the children theme).

don't change it.... i do like the fact that the second figure really adds scale, but prefered having one figure contemplating the journey ahead

Great work (as expected) :) :)

[individium]

you solved the front part problem completely this time i think and i dont see any more major changes needed from now on (my opinion of course) the new figure is great it also helps the seperation of the road 1st figure standing and the road were watching but if you pull out the 2nd figure its still hard to read that.(i hope i can describe what i wanted to tell, sorry for my weak english:shrug: )

other than that i really liked the purple palm tree now im sorry that its an ordinary palm tree but it still looks good.

and about the sexyness im not against any sexyness(i really like all your works i had seen and most of them include really sexy figures) and we (at least i) dont want any censorship but the thing i wanted to tell was the older pose was better fitting the picture and looking more natural somehow and i was remembering the coat she wears was a longer one(and yeah thats my fault, now i looked its not much different)
but the new figure also solved that problem too.

by the way what about the alien abduction concept? aren't you going to finish that one?

[beelow]

I think that the pile of rocks, in the left corner of the compo, may be the entity that is confusing part, againtst that grass. And maybe the scale of the grass in that area as well, I think if u solve that part, it will work! I covered that part with my hand on the screen, and it read as overpass, remove my hand it seemed to be grounded in that area, hmmm. What do you think Stahlberg?

[amannin]

maybe to make it look more like you an overpass, you should add overpass elements, i.e. rail gaurd (broken up obviously) or some sort of warning sign. from this angle there really is not a better way to distinguish that as an overpass, other than trying what I suggested :)

-------------------------------

also, along the lines of signage, maybe having some decayed signs in the background fading out, reading "now leaving...." or "entering..." --- something (give the feeling of a journey) --- though, might add more of a post apocolypic feeling I suppose, so maybe not...

[Stahlberg]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1148114525_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1148114525_large.jpg)

Almost done now, I think. (Well, I have to be) :D
I tried to take all comments into account, thanks everyone yet again

[beelow]

Much better! I think it is starting to work now! overpass it is!:thumbsup:

[EdP-Art]

Almost at the end of your Journey Steven.

The story is very easy to read now, the person on the road below helps the scale a lot.

Well done, it'll be a winner.

*Ed

[individium]

now no problem in understanding anything,

maybe you can still work on overpass but it good this way too.

very very good looking now

[hanzen]

hi,
to be honest, at the beginnig i didnt like your idea with the technical things (the car, the tire, and the highwaythings). but the more i looked at it, the better it got. and now i didnt want to miss them ;) ! it became very emotional.

And Especially the difficulty of letting a journey "begin" is solved very clear and good! (not as many others... or i have;) ).

:thumbsup:

greetz,
hanzen

[Mythmaker]

It looked great when you started it - loved the dreamy landscape... and you certainly haven't spoilt it! Great! :thumbsup:

[Samanthie]

I wish I could walk down that road! Beautiful work!:thumbsup:

[Atris]

Hi! This is an amazing landscape! It takes my breath away! It's the fabulous, endless expanse. Really great job! :)

[MichaelZHsee]

looking promising steven.love how vast the background is and the depth of it.awesome entry!best wishes to u:thumbsup:

[Ramitxon]

Amazing image Steven, as usual. The landscape and the colours are priceless, the sense of depth and perspective gives the image a poetic feeling making it a winner entry. I wish you good luck. :thumbsup:

[InTerceptoV]

Great work Steven. The sense of depth and the colors of the fields are amazing.

It seams that everyone is giving you the tumb up so here is mine : :thumbsup:

Good luck.

[Riddick]

Good luck Steven!!
I agree, the field and the background are wonderful! It is like a dream.

[DrFx]

Hi, I'm sorry I didn't follow your work and only showed up now!
It's looking fabulous, but if I have to crit:
- The distant mountains' "valleys" on the path look a little fake because they're rounded and a bit steep. I'd probably make them more open and "cliffy", or "rocky", if that makes any sense.
- I think I'd probably add an intermediate platform between the high road and the path, it seems there's no connection between them, which is kind of strange, since the path goes for kilometers uninterrupted. Also, I think it would add a sense of depth to the foreground.
I'm probably a bit too late anyway, and it's looking gorgeous already! Good luck!:thumbsup:

[ramras]

Hey its great work. Really magnificent colors:applause: . This is first time I visited your page and really impressed. All the best.

[Stahlberg]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1148542462_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/10942/10942_1148542462_large.jpg)

There's a small village a couple miles to the east, away from the Long Road, an ancient highway from a previous long lost civilization. Two young restless friends have decided to leave that village, perhaps forever, and walk the Long Road as far as they can, to discover what's at the end of it. They've heard legends of a pass through the mountains, and of wondrous things on the other side.
The weather is perfect for a long walk.

.

[Try]

Congratulations on your final Steven!

You managed to keep the great impressionistic feeling and mix it with a fair amount of realism!
And the feeling of depth is in a class of its one.

Great job and the best of luck to you!

[Norberg]

You did an impressing work with this!
I really liked your first sketch and wasn´t sure if more work would improve it. I see the sketch and the final as two different versions of the theme, each with its own qualities. As for this competition the final version is without a doubt the best of them.
Good luck!

[warpy]

stahlberg,

i really didn't see any future to this piece a few weeks ago (story wise), but i gotta hand it to you. i am impressed and i think Try said best "You managed to keep the great impressionistic feeling and mix it with a fair amount of realism!".

i wish you all the best and again this piece is stunning.

[Nickillus]

Wondeful sense of distance, while using a strong colour range. I'm suffring from serious palette envy.
Great landscape too. I may have to hate you from afar, but in a good way - honest.

Nick
Glad to meet you by the way

[Slav]

look very nice Steven, the figures are outstanding but i do think you could of done more with the background. either way :thumbsup: :thumbsup: from me! and i love that road. i assume you made all the texture with standard brush? it doesn't look like a rock texture brush. anyways, good stuff.

[Stahlberg]

Thank you guys!! :D I'm glad this is over, I'm so tired of this image now!
Yeah, many artists could have made a better landscape in the background, I've never been good with making landscapes up in my head, but I couldn't find much reference for this either. :)
The textured brush is not a standard brush, I made it, but using one of the standard textures in CS2. It's quite simple, just a round hard-edged brush with a texture added.

Here's a closeup:

http://www.androidblues.com/roadtripdetail.jpg

[makaron]

well done :bounce:
tjusigt värre...

[jeromoo]

Really great entry Steven! The little changes you have made since I last saw it nailed it! The depth of field is amazing! I wish you all the best for the final judging! Haha, I know how you feel about getting sick of one's own entry after so long. I feel the same way too!

P.S. Thank you very much for your kind words on my entry!

[Slav]

thanks allot Steven, i have always been a big admirer of your work but could never really get a hold of full sized images to check out your details i have spent at least an hour just staring at the fine things you did in the close up. now i only wish i had a better computer so i too can use the uber large resolutions, it would be really nice if i can work on a nice large canvas of 12000 x 8000 but alas i am stuck doing this stuff on my dated 2ghz 1gig pentium.
my one day ill win but i doubt it :P

[Ramitxon]

Congratulations Steven, what an amazing piece!, you have a winner one. The landscape and colours are wonderful, I wish you the best of lucks for the judging.

[dinodog-jr]

ahaha...i am stopping my painting and study on this one now..

Amazing landscape coloring in high details.. I wish i got this wonderful skycraper in my entry works. ~..

I am digging the pose of the gal. Looks so cool and far better than the prev concept.

Congrat in ur final piece~!, Mr. Stahlberg.

Next step, right click>Save image... for reference..

[MDN67]

This pic is really nice remember me the south of provence, a really great atmosphere and a wonderfull envionnement, realy great work

[Glosep]

One of my fav. images and probably a finalist. All looks great, specially the color, details and dept. See you later.

[Squibbit]

Sweet stuff again, Stahlberg, great detail, poses, colors , everything


.

[walrus]

Really nice work, Steven, you've done a great job with it. Congratulations on finishing and ending up with such a nice painting! :)

-mike

[AWaqas]

This is what I call perfect.. Im happy to see the final image of yours, its so inspiring (i dont believe I said that on the last day of the competition:twisted: ).. the lanscape looks good, you;re actually good doing landscape I think..

Congratulation Mr Stahlberg, another great painting to CG world!! :thumbsup:

[paperclip]

Congrats on finishing! This is a great image, so bright and appealing, I'd love to go for a walk down that road. Thanks for helping me out with my challenge so much, I sure appreciate it. I hope this entry places- you deserve it! You pretty much had it nailed from the second post though. :applause:


Congrats again and good luck in the judging. :thumbsup:

[Istmo]

I think your work´s my favourite one so good luck!:) A GREAT landscape:applause: :applause:


Zalo

[beelow]

I forgot to leave my congrats to you Stahlberg! Your entry is a winner dude! And thanx for helping me with the improvement of my image with some of your suggestions!:thumbsup:

[kmest]

very beautifull image stahlberg...the composition,the colors and the pose of the guy standing are all beatifull....
nice job:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[ASCIISkull]

Absolutely fabulous... All of the sketches and the finals image are amazing- you put a lot of weight into even your simpler "sketches", such a feeling of possibility- and when you see it in the finished piece it just takes the breath away!

I also really love the key sketch- I hope you revisit the idea some day.

Ok, I think I'll stop now since I found this too late... but just wow!

[EdP-Art]

Lovely stuff Steven, no doubt a winner.

It struck me that we could make a story with a number of pics from this challenge. Here's the bones of it...
A Soul gets drawn down into the physical worlds (see EdP-Art (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3580133) )
The Soul gets a physical body and is born (see BlackDidThis (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=351638&page=13&pp=15) )
It goes through many tasks and adventures (here's just a few suggestions MrFreeman (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=323086&page=14&pp=15)
- Omer-n (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=339627)
- Cyberone (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=323443)
- Stahlberg (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=328432&page=23&pp=15)
- Jeromoo (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3570838#post3570838)
If you have more please suggest them to me.
And finally the Soul finds its way back to its home (see Beelow (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=322671&page=1&pp=15) )

Jerome might even put it to poetry :)


*Ed

[individium]

congratulations!

yeah some posts ago for a moment i though that you would overwork this one but after that (especially after thinking of your previous works) i became sure of you're knowing what you've been doing.
(hope the sentence is not crap, i'm not sure about the grammar)


anyway i think you'll win a new award.

[Stahlberg]

Thanks guys! Your wonderful support has made all the work worth it. :D :D
we could make a story with a number of pics from this challenge
Yes, we sure could, that's a cool idea. I'm sure with the right story we could tie dozens of these challenge entries together. :)

[Womball]

Fantastic work. Seems like an aftermath of an earthquake too. The girl in the distance is a new addition too. Well since I last saw this entry. Very lovely usage of colors and it reminds me of Vincent Van Gogh's works.

[iamawizard]

hi steven

GREAT piece of work

very inspiring..
nice depth and colors

good 2 be in the community, with artists like you..

regards and good luck for the judging
Sivaprasad Velayudhan

[Siggef]

This is my favorite! 5 stars! If i deside, this is the 1st! Have looked at al the major competitors and this is the winner... The depths and the feeling you get from it it very journyfull... VERY VERY VERY NICE!!

[xric7]

i love this one.congrats and good luck.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :bounce:

[kazziu]

My vote, surly this painting has the best colour palette.

[individium]

hi stahlberg,

i must add this:
i hope you to finish the alien abduction concept too, that was a pretty cool one too.

see you later

[Muttonhead]

Great piece, amazing depth and atmosphere. Fantastic color..... Good luck to ye!

-Sean

[Anatoli]

Cool!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Greater work, it is perfectly made, fine color and a composition!!! But Steven why 2D?
You the excellent artist, and perfectly own 3D.
Thanks, for your comments to my work, it is very necessary for me, among my colleagues in small Siberian city there is no worthy artist what to give good advice.
I shall necessarily take advantage of your offer on " PaintOver please " - painted crits on demand.
I shall make it after the termination of competition CGChallenge XIX - The Journey Begins (3D).
Certainly, I understand that I do not have chances to borrow any prize-winning places, but nevertheless shall wait the terminations of competition. :)

Thanks

My work: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php? t=350690

[EdP-Art]

Well done Stephen on getting the honourable metion. I expected you to be in among the winners but well done anyway.

*Ed

[snowkiwi]

Sorry Steven,

I really thought you had a killer piece. I was pretty sure you were going to win something. For what its worth, I think you did an awesome job.

[Muesli]

compo works great, beatiful image.
I really tried to find something that could be improved. Didn't find anything =).
Maybe the colors on the rice field(or whatever it is) are a bit to much...

good luck !!!

[changzb]

Comprehensiveness been in love with you

[Neubius]

loved this one from the outset. congratulations on your mention!

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