I’m finishing up some architecture for the interior crevice/cliff (not shown in this concept) to go with the landing pad. Not totally sold on the idea of the raised landing pad, so might end up sinking it down into the canyon more.
Meanwhile, here’s my basic Concept…
. . .
(Landing Pad Concept)
(Original Photo Composite)
WIP 1
Have been spending most of my time up to this point working on some canyon outpost architecture. Would like to
keep going with it, but really need some time to finesse my lighting this week, which is something I’ve had to rush
through at the last minute in previous challenges. Definitely learning a lot about workflow and time management
under a set deadline, something I’m used to with my decorative/mural painting business but rarely worry about
with my own personal artwork. So it’s great! Because I tend to needle my GAK into the dirt if there’s no deadline. 
detail 1
detail 2
Some great details there, but overall it’s looking quite ‘muddy’ - lots of texture overlays all blending together.
It’s also odd to see so much sky when all of the detail is crammed into the bottom 30% of the image. Be great to either rack down to see more of the bottom of the frame, or add something to the sky to give us reason to have so much of it…
AJ
Hey Alex, thanks so much for the nice input, I appreciate it. Great points and yes I’ll keep them in mind of course.
Not sure, but I think you may have overlooked my earlier Concept image and were maybe just referring to my WIP1 instead? That’s what it sounds like from what you said. The concept is a better representation of where I’m going with this piece and hopefully addresses the things you mentioned. The WIP I posted last night is just my base plate composite… because I wanted to highlight the architectural stuff I’m placing down in the lower canyon area. Yes, lots of photo-stitchery and overlays, some hand-painting, a few coffee stains and probably too much green muddiness, I agree. :arteest: I got carried away with it this past week and probably overdid it. But it’s really just raw imagery right now, so I’m happy with it considering the time constraint and was mainly focusing on creating believable detail. The silhouette still feels a bit wonky to me though and the whole thing needs color correcting. The good (or maybe bad) news is that most of it disappears once I add my nighttime lighting and canyon uplighting. All of which I’m working on…
Thank you again for your feedback though. I’ll post another WIP in the next day or two and hopefully you’ll see some solid improvements.
Thad
(Meanwhile… Drat! I was hoping to dodge a bullet this week, but my dreaded jury duty summons just kicked in and I have to report for jury duty tomorrow morning. Hope it doesn’t cut into my painting time! I’m nowhere near finished with this painting and was counting on having time this week to resolve it.)
You are entirely right - I was determined to make good use of 20mins or so I had spare (a rare thing) and comment on some entries, and was just looking at your last image.
If you follow your concept, and make sure you don’t overwork / muddy the source images, this looks to be heading to a good place.
It’s a shame jury duty is always so incredibly inconvenient - it’s an important civic duty, but it’s made so damn annoying that everyone hates it.
Haha… yeah, my feelings exactly. Part of me would actually like to participate as a juror for once, just to sit in on a courtroom melodrama and feel like I’ve done my civic Barney Fife in Mayberry duty. But it’s soO0o inconvenient and never good timing. I’ve lived in the SF bay area for some time now and have never been called for jury duty until about 6 years ago… and now they’ve called me in 4 of those past 6 years! Something’s not right about that. I already deferred this one so can’t defer it again, but hopefully I’m off the hook after tomorrow, we’ll see.
Anyway, thank you again for your kind words and advice, Alex. I’ll take it all to heart and hope you’ll weigh in again in a few days when I have something more resolved to chew on.
Thad
One other thing the bear in mind -
Your plate has very strong shadows and defined light direction. Not sure how you were going to approach them, but painting out or grading these kind of shadows is very tricky to do.
This light direction is nicely reflected in the planet in your concept, but not on the landing platform or the distant hills. Maybe try integrating the whole scene together with some consistent (faint) light source.
Alternatively, you could treat the shadows on the left of frame as coming from the light source on the canyon floor. Problem is, the shadows on the right of frame are then incorrect (on the wrong side of the rocks). You’d need to invert the shadows, which as I say is difficult to do successfully. You would also need to darken the ground surface, as the canyon would be the only light source.
Wow, are… are you my conscience? :eek: (Speaking in Pacific coast whale from the deep dark depths.) Because you just read my mind. I was literally sitting here analyzing (among other issues) how to move forward with doing precisely what you just mentioned. I knew going into this image that it’ll require a classic day-for-night light grade on my canyon walls, but have been putting it off until now because I was working on my architecture and landing pad tower, etc.
So, yes, my plan has been to do exactly what you’re saying about using the left-hand wall canyon shadows almost as is, since they’re matching nicely with the proxy uplighting I have coming up from the middle/right deeply recessed (hidden) floor area. But the other canyon walls (far BG and right side) need a lot of work like you’re saying.
It’s really helpful to hear you get specific about it like that, thank you Alex. The feedback means a lot to me. I’m going to try to push this along and will be curious to hear your thoughts in a few days if you’re inclined… Because I have a feeling I’ll be at a point of saturation and exhaustion where I can no longer see it clearly anymore.
Your architecture has a very fluid, organic, bio-mechanical appearance. It reminds me a lot of Giger’s work, particularly the vertical structure, a lot of interesting shapes. I have to say that I really hope you further emphasise the structure and have the canyon take a back seat to it though, as for me that’s the selling point of your piece. Great job on the architectural design though, its nice to see a more organic approach, just get the spotlight on your hero structure now!
Hey, thanks for that really nice assessment, Aaron. I’ll take the compliment because I happen to be a huge sci-fi fan too (the classics, be sure to read the classics) and love Giger’s work of course. I think you’re probably right about the canyon taking a backseat to the vertical landing pad structure… so I hear you. It’s funny though because I spent so much time constructing/stitching/painting my 2D canyon wall structure last week, whereas the landing pad took me about 15 minutes. haha Strange how that works and how a painting basically begins to take on a life of it’s own at a certain point, almost like a living thing you’re just helping along. So, yeah, I’ve been busy setting up a nighttime lighting scenario that’s starting to look interesting and does put the focus on the tower.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice, man. I appreciate it and agree with you.
. . .
I’m a little surprised, but as of today, I’m officially juror #11 of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, CA for the next 7-10 days. :wip: :deal: :shrug: Should be interesting, just not the best timing for my matte painting efforts this week. So we’ll see how far I get with it. I’m not going to give up easily (really pushing hard to built up my portfolio, so these challenges are great!), but believe it or not sitting in a courtroom all day listening to lawyers is friggin’ exhausting.
Good luck everybody.
Thought I was completely out of the running because of jury duty, but luckily it ended Thursday instead of next
week like it was supposed to. So I’ve had about 2 1/2 days to push this past where it was in my previous posts.
Still working on it, trying to finesse what I can in the time I have…
WIP 2
I promise there are subtle differences between this afternoon’s WIP 2 and my final image…
Final Matte Painting
Hah! We meet again at the end of the month Thad (we really have to stop making this a habit lol). Final looks great man, those subtle differences always take me forever to implement at the end of the painting. They do have a huge impact on the final read though.
Cheers! 
ToO0o funny, Hemal. 
Yeah, if I had my way I’d be finessing this image for another 3 days or so. I had jury duty this past week! It was actually enjoyable and definitely interesting, but totally screwed up my matte painting schedule. Guess I can’t complain and am pretty happy with how the painting turned out.
Anyway, thanks!
Hi Thad, just to let you know your piece is reaally nice… excellent work.
:keenly:
Hey Thad,
your piece looks very clean and i like the style and detail in the platform in the foreground.
Only the drop shadow of the rocks in the lower midground seems a bit too strong for me, since there´s no bright light on the platform for instance. Maybe you could just soften and brighten the big shadows a bit.
cheers
Guten tag, Jannis… wie gehts?
Thanks for the nice critique. Yes you have a good point about the shadows. I think you’re right that they’re probably a bit strong for the lighting scenario, although I personally feel it almost works as is. (Especially if I use my overactive imagination and pretend there’s another large moon off-frame to the right. :p) Alex mentioned the same thing about the shadows and actually it was my plan from the beginning to spend some time altering them properly, but I really just ran out of time.
Anyway, I appreciate the feedback. It’s always good to hear honest criticism.
Danke, mir geht´s gut 
Haha! Yea, it´s always good to have a large reflecting moon around. I was lucky i had one as well!
keep it up
J