http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v352/chrismaz/Art/throne-room-WIP.jpg
This is my first proper environment/structure painting, so i thought i’d post some WIPs throughout the length of the process and see how it helps me. right now i’m just figuring out shapes and wondering where to put lighting etc, i’ll concentrate on details once i have a general idea of where i’m going…
please comment away i must grow!
also let me know if a bigger image is needed…
Good start, seems you have the perspective finely established, the image looks a bit lopsided, though, or at least the mirroring is off. Since the scene seems largely symmetric I’d definitely start off on just one side.
Some of the arches on the right are going up higher than those on the left, and the bases of the pillar look rounder, as if we’re looking at those from higher up.
The current form of everything would work if you’re going for some organic/dreamlike distorted type architecture. Do you have any references of what you’re sort of going for?
The scene is pretty cool right now, I think it would work very well to add some warmth to the throne area if that’s what you want the focus to be. That would also bring it forward some (at least visually) which might be important to consider since it’s so far back not a very prominent element at the moment.
The white behind the throne, is that a large window? Will light be streaming in or will it be fairly opaque? Will it remain white or are you thinking about a stain glass design?
I decided to start the image over and get the gist of what i was wanting down in a proper sketch before i started painting. so far here’s what i’ve drawn out in photoshop…
just played around with it again for about 30mins. i slapped a black border on cos the colours were getting thrown off. i’m trying to figure out what light to cast from the throne and where to. any suggestions?
Still looking great, but the light from the windows distracts a bit from the altar chamber. I don’t know if this is intentional, but it kinda buggers me that the light pouring through the windows is perhaps too intense. It also makes me wonder if there are two light sources outside, as the beams of lights on both sides are equally intense. Also, it seems that the light sources are not very far above the ground, as the light is going upwards, but light is still bounced off the part of the wall that is below window level. I don’t know if this is a good suggestion, but you may perhaps try to keep the intensity of light coming in from one side only, and change its direction downwards. I’m looking forward to see where you take this piece - interiors like this have always fascinated me 
thanks for your comments, for the most part I agree, but the back story i’ve been developing answers the questions of direction/brightness etc. I’ll post all of that when I eventually finish this piece!
been working on this for a few hours now, and it’s slowly nearing completion. i played around with the lighting and added some green…
right now i’m contemplating whether or not to add in details of rubble etc or whether to just clean it up and leave it as is. any thoughts?
this will be my last wip post before cleaning up the painting and getting it printed out. i’ve been working solidly for the last couple of hours as i need to get it printed out for presentation in class this week. any last minute crits?
You asked for an overpaint of this in my thread, but since there are 9 images backed up and I don’t have time right this minute to do any painting, I probably won’t get to this before you need it… so I just put some comments here instead, hope that’s ok.
The basic idea is cool, nice architeture and lighting, no crits there. The colorscheme is also very nice. The way you represent the lighting and atmosphere could be tweaked a little though I think. Right now it’s too contrasty, brightest red next to deepest black next to very light bright green… it falls apart into 3 very distinct areas, almost like a flag. The mist or smoke we can see in the upper part is missing in the lower part, try to introduce some grey at the far back (the thing to remember about mist, fog or atmospherical perspective as it’s also known, is that darks lighten more the further back you go, so there can’t really be any 100% black back there). You could also let some of all that strong green light filter down, a bit further down the pillars, gently and carefully… The red seems a bit strong, especially on the floor, unless the floor itself is a lightsource, it’s hard to decipher… Those brighter red lines, are they the sole source of the red light? If so, the floor would be much darker, especially in the center.
I agree with Mr. Stahlberg… I would add a little more ambient light… that maybe diminishes as you get closer to the throne… so you dont get that stark seperation of top, middle, and bottom…
Good stuff though…
Yeah probably too late now, but would love seeing some more colors and details to the floor, the throne, and all the windows (thinking maybe a kinda church window. you know, the ones with color and all that).
Thanks very much for the crits guys. I’m afraid the ground is somewhat confusing, but my idea was the the ground is actually painted in a flourescing red colour, so the light source is rather elusive…
as for the atmosphere and contrast, i’ll see what i can do!
ground is actually painted in a flourescing red colour
Ok that’s cool… I think what might be subliminally confusing a bit is the fact that some parts of the floor shine stronger. If all of it is painted with the same color it should all be pretty much the same shade. OTOH, if only those narrow lines are fluorescing, and the rest of the floor is stone or whatever (which I think would be kind of cool) then the unpainted parts would be almost black. Darker than the pillars at the bottom. Reason: the floor isn’t at an angle to catch much red light (none from itself for instance), but the pillars are (enveloped by a glowing floor as they are).
I like the composition. My crit though is that the windows can’t create light rays on both sides unless there are two suns. Besides you need something to break the symmetry.
I look forward to seeing the finished pic.
I’m no Stahlberg, but I’ll give it a shot. =)
As most people pointed out, the red glow on the floor is not enough to illuminate the ground, so you should probably tone it down alot and make it more subtle.
You have however a huge glass behind the throne that for some reason isn’t letting any light through. That’s your best shot to get rid of the flag effect Steve mentioned by adding colour of the the outside environment (whether it’s green or blue doesn’t matter, I used purple) in the interior.
I had a big problem to sort out the windows in your sketch, but you should probably try to get them well defined so you know exactly where they’re coming from. Don’t go overboard on the volumetric light, instead use the outside light to show your nicely detailed ceiling.
Last and not least, you had the throne as the heart of your image on an earlier version. I don’t know why you got rid of it, as it clearly defined itself as the point of interest of this image. I’d say to stick with it, it has this altar quality to it, evoking mystery.
You’ll notice I made the back glass larger, but that was unintentional, I missed the right outlines for it. :shrug:
Here’s the rough overpaint:
