The Journey Begins Challenge (2D) Entry: Ramy Badie

#161

Starting to look strong dude, don’t worry your getting there, keep fighting the painting!:thumbsup:

#162

Great updates Ramy! I agree with makaron about the man. You’ve got a great atmosphere going on in your image. Keep going!:slight_smile:

#163

slickgreekgeo- you have really highlighted the main concerns I am having with the painting right now, I’m pushing the contrast right now to try to give greater depth to the picture. Thanks for the comment :smiley:

corey- thanks so much man, the problem is that it looks a bit nicer zoomed out than it does in actual size, I want to refine it more so that it is print quality. Of course, I will finish the things that are big issues first, but there are some areas that are still rough but aren’t as obvious in the zoomed out version. I’m so glad to hear that you like the painting though :smiley:

makaron- I defeintely see what you are talking about with the guy, I made a few attempts to change it but they haven’t worked yet, probably partly because I haven’t really done the shading on the neck and clothing, so maybe that will solve the problem, but I’ll also try to turn the shoulder.

beelow- thanks, I’m really trying, I’m glad I haven’t been having TOO many issues, things have been going fairly smoothly (knock on wood) and that’s really what’s kept me going, seeing the progress happen almost unhindered. Thanks for the words of encouragement.

samanthie- thanks a lot, and I am definitely going to get working on the man. He is the farthest from finished out of everything in the image, besides the woman’s dress. There are also a few issues in the bottom half of the image that need to be taken care of, but they’ll come soon too.

Thank you so much everyone, you are really keeping me going on this one, it’s great to hear words of encouragement (as well as the helpful crits), I really could not have gotten this far on the picture without you!

#164

This update is really exciting for me, just because it brings together a lot of loose ends. I’m still extremely unhappy with her dress, but it’s a start, and I can work on it more later. An important question though: Is the composition fine as it is, or do I need something to sort of…“frame” the picture? Like, some sort of large trees on the two sides to hover over, but not necessarily that because it might not make sense, but for some reason I’m just a bit unhappy with the composition? Any suggestions? Also, it’s time for final detailing I guess, what do you think are the most important things to work on?

#165

hi ramy. its looking much better now tail is also very good but again a suggestion about tail dont make it touch the floor make it lift the dress a little up not much though just making a little curl on the dresses skirt. animals’ tails usually dont touch the ground especially while walking.

#166

Thanks, that definitely makes sense, I’m not sure if I want it to be a tail necessarily though, or just a snake that’s slithering at her heels.

#167

It just keeps getting better Ramy! :thumbsup: It’s your choice of course to add trees to frame the image a bit but personally I like it as it is. If trees are added it may take some of the sense of danger away because then there is something they could grab onto should they trip. Right now it is wonderfully precarious.

#168

This is improving day by day. There’s a couple things that aren’t quite working yet though. First, take a look at your perspective. Based on the horizion line your perspective is a bit wonky. the vanishing point of the path is falling well below your horizon. Also, look at the lighting in your scene. You have indicated 2 key lights in the foreground but the characters are recieving very little if any lighting from those sources. Also, pay attention to your shadows. The key light on the left is even (directly next to) your characters in perspective but the shadows indicate otherwise.You need to light you characters properly in perspective in order to build more depth into your canvas. And lastly, where is you’re focal point. The hue and value in your painting is fairly flat and even. You need to make better use of value changes in order to add depth as well as focusing the audience where you what them to look. I did a quick mock up of what I’m talking about. Good job so far. Keep it up!! :slight_smile:

#169

I knew I was having some lighting issues, but they were especially brought to my attention in recent comments, but before I try to tackle them fully I want to make some final color decisions. Which set of colors looks best? The first is the original plan, then I have a much warmer and then a cooler version. Please help, I’m running out of time here and I can’t make final decisions! bah ><

#170

im voting vor the last one, its got a nice contrast at the horizon and i think the color scheme fits your purpose best. or maybe i just love bluish colors^^ could be both.

#171

Don’t worry, you still have plenty of time. Personally I think you ought to take care of the core issues (perspective and lighting) before you start worrying about color balanceing your piece. You can color correct this to death near the end. It won’t take much time. If you don’t solve those core issues now, no amout of color balancing is going to fix them for you. Now get in there and paint! Hooraa! :slight_smile:

#172

I love to play around with hues and colors too but I usually will go back to the original. I like your image with it’s original color scheme simply because the water is full of dead souls and the greenish tone you have in your image suits it very well. :slight_smile:

#173

yeah, i prefer the green hue as it contrasts well with the red. anyway, this is looking good. not much time left so good luck with this one. looks almost finished to me.

#174

I agree, the cooler tones work better to bring out the spooky feeling of the piece. I don’t see a huge difference between 1 and 3 - i mean, i see it, but they both work and i don’t have a preference between them.

-mike

#175

Llynna- I actually made one that was REALLY blue, and I really loved it most of all, because I also do like blue tones, but I felt like it totally lost the mood of the image haha. I do agree about the contrast in the background though, I might try to make that a bit more clear even if I don’t choose the last one. I think the last one gives a more eerie feeling that is missing in the other two (as if dead souls aren’t eerie as it is), so I definitely want that in the image.

anticz- thanks so much for the mockup, it really helps a lot, the reason I’m trying to choose colors now is that I know that I lose a lot of contrast whenever I change the colors up and add color layers and such, and falsely adding contrast never works out well, so I want to choose so I can paint over the new one for the final effect. (By the way, I already fixed the perspective of the carpets, although it isn’t really showing here)

samanthie- I have to be honest that I am leaning towards the first one, I think it works the best, and that’s simply because the contrasts and choices I chose work together as they are, adjusting hue and such seems to skew the colors a bit and I feel like the image loses it’s sense of realistic lighting and such.

domclubb- thanks, I agree with what you are saying, I’m trying to hurry up right now to fix all my final issues before the deadline!

walrus- although 1 and 3 aren’t that different, I think that 1 is a bit more “real” looking to me for some reason, like just in terms of the color choices, but I feel like there is more contrast in 3, and I want to get both of those elements in the final image. It seems like nobody really likes the middle one, I wasn’t really thinking in that direction very much anyway and that confirmed my original opinions.

Thanks so much everyone for supporting me on this image, I am trying really hard to tie up all the loose ends so that I can have a strong final entry, good luck to everyone else too!

#176

I put together a new color arrangement that sort of combines the 3 ideas I had, I tried to take into account the comments that were left regarding the contrast and stuff, hopefully this looks good? I wanted to put some of the warmer colors behind the characters to bring some focus there, even if it was just a hint of it, and I feel like it works out well since that’s where the big castle thing is. I also dabbled a bit with the lighting and tried to fix the perspective on the carpet, hopefully these changes have made a difference for the better :slight_smile: With the lighting, I feel like I don’t want the lanterns to be making TOO much of an impact, I feel like lanterns in the soulful evil fog with a fairly illuminated sky wouldn’t make that much difference in the lighting of the characters? Or am I wrong in saying that? regardless, I’m going to try a few different things with the lighting and hopefully I can synchronize everything by the weekend.

#177

hey there,

your smoke and fog are looking great!!! i’m starting to work on that in my peice, no posting yet, and it’s tough. any tips?

cheers,
~B

#178

Thanks so much, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask for advice, I just used a large soft white brush set at 5% opacity and 70% flow, then went in and erased with a similar sized eraser, except with opacity at 20%. It was really just a bunch of layering of white fog ^^;

#179

Here’s a bit of a fix on the lighting, not perfect or anything yet but I think it’s improved and at least makes a little bit of sense (or at least moreso than before). Not so random anymore I think. I’m afraid the background is too bright or contrasty or something, the sky I mean. Feel free to attack and paintover and whatever you feel like doing with it, I’d REALLY appreciate it at this stage when I have 11 days 18 minutes 45 seconds left! (and counting)

#180

Hi Ramy,

I like the update and the new colors look great. I do think the cloud bank on the right has too hard of an edge. I also did a little draw over on the man in your painting. Just a couple of ideas for you. :slight_smile: