January 2015 - Thaddeus Warren

#1

I’m excited about this month’s challenge, but not sure I’ll have time to finish. Will definitely try!
Here’s my clean plate with subtle lens correction…

#2

Nice clean up I am looking forward to seeing where you go with this, that is the most exciting part for me. OK stop reading this and get back to work, the clock is ticking,

all the best Richie

#3

My CONCEPT:

Forgive me for not being more vocal with the critiques here this month. :rolleyes: That’s what I like about these challenges; giving and getting valuable feedback. But I was too busy mid-month so now I’m just focusing on my own painting. I’m seeing some really great MP’s for this challenge though. Hope I can bring mine up to snuff too by the deadline! I do have it further along than this concept and will post WIPs in the next couple of days.

. . .

Styleframe References:

Love this painting by Jason. It really captures the flavor & lighting I’m going for, minus the wharf. (Sherlock Holmes)


(Sherlcok Holmes)


(Penny Dreadful)

#4

Lovely clean concept, I look forward to seeing it realised :slight_smile: Hope you got time to get it finished!

#5

Cmon mate agreed with Aaron, want to see how this comes through, quite excited with the foreground elements as suchlike,

Rich

#6

Thanks Richard and Aaron, I appreciate the nice words.
Yup, that clock’s ticking really loud in my ear at this point… faster, paint faster! :bounce:

#7

Here’s my first WIP. I’m happy with it so far, but have all sorts of issues to deal with and some paring down to do with the jumbled mess I’m currently calling my MG & BG buildings. Not really sure how far I can bring this painting in the next few days, but am definitely burning some midnight lamp oil. So starting to see a flickering light at the end of the tunnel…

WIP 1

. . .

WIP 1 flipped

#8

Looks cool for me. Only the background a bit not in perspective anymore. Too huge for so far buildings… But forground nice clean. Keep cleaning :beer:

#9

Here’s my second WIP.

I’ve resolved quite a bit of the BG on the right side and in the FG. Now my main concern is making sense of the left BG mass of buildings, adding more window alterations to the main building, and a bit of finesse work (color, light, fog) here and there, etc.

Please please let me know your thoughts and if anything looks wonky. I’m at that point where I can’t see it objectively any more…

Thank you Mouki for your observation. :thumbsup: Yes I knew my BG persp was off in my previous WIP 1, but your point was well taken and I realized I was trying to make that one B&W image on the right fit into my scene and finally realized (with your help) that it was going to require a lot of push & pull to set the persp on it. So I’ve revised it and am much happier with this new look!

You guys really should check out the site I just found and posted a few days ago on the main forum here.
It’s a massive databank of hi-res Victorian-era photos from all over the world. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/

WIP 2

www.thadwarren.com
LinkedIn

#10

You’ve been making great progress in such a short time Thaddeus, I’m really impressed. The only thing I might pick on is your buildings on the left horizon look like they might be creeping higher than your concept sketch, almost unnaturally high. I hesitate to pick on anything else because I’m sure you’re working out the details. Maybe keep an eye on the coloration of similar items like the oak barrels, especially if they are the same distance from the camera and in similar lighting conditions. You’re nailing the desaturated look of your reference image though. Keep at it!

#11

Good points Joel, thanks. I am wanting to create a raised/stepped hill appearance receding into the BG on the left side, but yes I don’t want it to look unnaturally high. So will keep that in mind and appreciate the observation. Working to edit & resolve that entire area today, which should leave me just enough time (oops, I mean not nearly enough time!) to finesse everything else tomorrow. So much still to do… I can already tell I’ll definitely want to continue refining this piece past tomorrow’s deadline, but think I can manage to present a solid painting.

Oops, but not if I keep talking to myself. :wink: Lunch break’s over, time to get back to it!

#12

Hey Thaddeus! This is looking great. Love how you’re maintaining the flavor that you called out in your reference.

I agree we what Joel mentioned about the height issue. Front the few people I’ve spoken with that have been to this part of the world, save for a few shallow slopes in the streets here and there, the city is quite flat. I ran into this same issue with my piece and I still might have gone a bit overboard in the far back left.

The other area that caught my attention were the awnings in the bottom left. Currently with the lighting and perspective it looks like the awnings connect flush with the street below. If you changed the canvas material to wooden boards you could almost have the pass as cellar doors. But I imagine that’s not your intention. So what I might try is dropping a cast shadow from one of the surrounding buildings on the I street under the awnings to really lift that canvas off the cobblestone.

Keep plugging away. You’re going to have a solid piece when this is all said and done my friend!

#13

Hey Thaddeus !
You’re doing a nice job here. I really liked the idea of the wall on the FG.

Looking forward to see it done !

cheers

#14

OK, here’s my final matte painting… and with an entire 5 minutes to spare. :slight_smile:

FINAL MATTE PAINTING

Thanks Jason, Milan, and David …and all the amazing artists on this forum!
I had a lot of fun with it this month. Good luck everyone.

Thad
www.thadwarren.com
LinkedIn

#15

Hey Thad looks great, we both cut it pretty close this month haha. Good job man!

#16

Yeah, I saw that you posted your final about 30 seconds after me.
Your painting looks really good!
:beer:

#17

Nice FINAL. So much work with elements and stylish. Amamizing.
Good luck.

#18

Wow. You did an incredible job on this piece. The set extension is just flawless.
The FG elements look really convincing, and the small details like the posters on the right wall and the barrels on the left really add to the realism and storytelling.

I’ve had a really hard job finding buildings and FG elements that matched perspective, but yours look perfect there. Any tips or tricks? Just patience and use of different search engines? or do you have a secret? :slight_smile:

#19

Umm… Hey there Malte. :wavey:

Apologies for never writing you back. I hope you get this reply.
Somehow I completely overlooked this until now, sorry! Figured I’d respond finally since you asked a specific question…

Unfortunately I don’t have any tips or advice about finding good reference imagery. And yes I’m taking 9 months to tell you that. haha If I had to try, I guess I could sum it up in two words: persistence and coffee.

It’s seriously really nice to hear that you like the FG elements in my image, thanks! (And thank you mouki). The right FG building area with the added yackity-yack poster gak is my personal favorite part too. I spent a lot of time on it, playing with the poster imagery and yes trying to get the persp right. Some of the building references I used already matched up but most of it required a buttload of tweaking.

Actually, come to think of it, I do have one bit of advice: it’s probably not the best idea for gathering reference imagery, but at one point in Jan. I was having such a hard time finding the exact kind of imagery I wanted that I ended up pulling up google maps and google earth… exploring the streets of Nottingham and London, etc, using “street view”. I finally found the location of the building in the plate image (“The Castle”), but it wasn’t much help for more reference. So instead I took a virtual tour around Nottingham and found some nice old brick buildings on a river. Got my browser sized up as large as it would go and then snapped off some screen grabs at the angles I needed. Was only using them as partial building details (red/black brick in upper left FG), so it worked like a charm.

Anyway, glad you like this image. I appreciate the input, man. Hope to see you around…

~Thad

#20

OK, so maybe this is old English news, but…
I decided to turn my January MP entry into a 3D camera projection this past month and wanted to share the results.

(PS+C4D+AE)
[vimeo]138149243[/vimeo]
The title, “King’s Crook”, is what I named the tavern in my scene. Since Milan’s original image was shot in Nottingham - of Robin Hood fame - it seemed fitting to refer to that. I always liked that the wide angle lens gives the distorted appearance that the street/alley angle is less than 90 degrees, because it reminds me of a bent archer’s bow. Or an elbow. Meaning the tavern is located at the notch in the bow, or the crook in the elbow.
A bit obscure, I know, but these are the things we think about while painting, right? :rolleyes:

~Thad