Hello all,
I was honored to be one of the judges for this matte painting challenge. I think Jaime did a great job organizing this. Congratulations to all the artists who won and entered. Here are some thoughts on the winners-
1st Place- Alex Popescu
This piece had it all and was the unanimous winner. Nice composition with good color and lighting. This piece does something very difficult, it balances a wealth of detail without getting cluttered or busy. Nice points of light and subtle color variation. The large shapes and values read first and then you notice the detail and interesting design. I like how Alex took the time to design complex and inventive architecture instead of standard stuff we have seen before. The sense of enormity was also very good in this piece. The tiny lights in the distance imply an immense world.
2nd PLACE- Pavel Mikhailenko
This piece succeds through a very strong and dynamic composition. The vanshing point of the canyon leads us to our subject very effectively and the foreground fish give life and movement as well as scale. I also really enjoy the vertical perspective of the columns. The main thing this piece would need would just be some additional detail to make it photoreal.
3rd PLACE- Pavel Cucka
I really enjoy this piece for the simplicity of the composition. Too often matte paintings are overly complicated and cluttered. I how the piece had the courage to leave the right side completely featurless. It adds a lot to vastness of the space. The artist has used the full value range very effectively with the strongest highlights drawing out attention to the focal points. Nice subtle color variation in the foreground. I am also drawn to the art nouveau look to the dome.
And a few thoughts about the Runner ups-
Dave Edwards- Good composition and varety of architecure. I like how the statue becomes the focus. I would work on perspective a bit and making some more dramatic pools of light to lead the eye. It might be a little too monochromatic. Another thing that I like is the variety of architecture. There is a nice mix of ancient and modern.
Levi Peterfi- I really enjoy this piece. It is very dynamic and creative. It has a really nice energy and variety of light. But it really is more of a concept painting than a matte painting. In order to be more photoreal, it could use some more photo use and little less sharpening. I would definitely keep this a cool version but it might be nice to take it further.
Adam Richards- Nice simplicity of composition. I like to see the ornate architecure on the left. I think there could be a bit more interest in the right two thirds of the frame. Maybe punch up the light source a bit or hint at some distant architecture. Some more contrast would help this piece pop a bit more.
Raine Kuusi- Nice, strong values and a good sense of scale. The skull in the rock is handled very well. I think it might be nice to pick and area to be the focul point and emphasize it with lighting. I think if you want to play the skull with that much texture then you need to add some more detail to the foreground. The skull would feel bigger and further away if the darks were a little more hazed out.
Sean Murphy- This was probably the strongest composition of the whole challenge. It has a very good foreground, midground, and background. The repetition of shapes help establish perspective and scale. I also really like the giant structure looming above. I think the palette was also very succesful. I think the only thing holding this piece back was a lack of detail in the architecture. It has a CG render feel. I think the windows could use some detail in the them to make them feel more realistic. They are also probably a little too big.
Congratulations again to all the artists.
my best congratulations to all 3 winners and runner ups ! My best thanks to JamesVFX and CGtalk for this challenge, hope to see the next soon and try to participate again.