I have all but given up on this! I just need to do other work too, since this doesn’t pay any bills.
Here is the plan as I’m contemplating it now. First, here is the render that was a base for the sketch:
And here is a raw “base plan” of the area to make it more clear:
These are the houses I’m planning to add instead of the boxes. There is numbers on both the baseplan and the house image to connect the right houses to right places:
Some remarks considering the houses:
- As a single family house, thinking of having a park / driveway on front of the house.
- Church is a thing I need comments on. Can I combine the tower in pic 3 to a design of 2 or 4? Which is the most likely church to find in a neighborhood like this?
- The style of the corner house would be this, but probably not as tall. I want to have a pub on the corner too.
- Houses on the right side of declining road. And built accordingly
- The other side of the road
- Boulevard. Will use different trees. More along the lines of those in the last church image
- Park like this, but with trees and more worn out and “London” feel. Other refs are from country palace gardens, so mix of them and this.
All the refs are not to be produced as such. Rather I aim to produce houses that resemble them in style and proportions.
My biggest problem is that I have never been in London. I therefore miss the actual feel of this kind of neighborhood and it makes it all the more difficult to create it from the scratch. Sure, I have stereotypical feel about London and the era, and I fear the painting will reflect that too, in a bad way.
As it comes to these concepts, I think the long, straight road is somewhat more “boring” to do than something with the little twist. Also, it easily looks like a single point perspective practice. I thought from the start that it would need at least some crossing streets. But as I was trying to do just what I was asked for, I did not mind and went for what was needed. I also thought from the start these buildings don’t look the sort that are by the side of narrowish street facing each other, and butt-joined to other houses. They both look like they are by the side of the park, or at the center of one. Or by the seashore.
The night matte concept was born purely out of the joy of drawing. It was also fun to try the night painting techniques to this very immature concept layout of buildings. I am the first one to admit there is a lot of things wrong in that picture, but it also clarified some of the ideas I had. Expecially the inclusion of park areas. The street decline and the city on the horizon are not what I want them to be, but I have a couple of ideas on how to get there.
As I get the buildings modeled and the composition nailed, I start to make a neutrally light photoreal version of this image. Once that is done, I will use that to make different moods and weather conditions versions of the same matte. Cameramapping would not be a problem with this approach, since everything on the top of the hill will be 3d.
Please comment on the buildings I have chosen and the cityblock as a whole. Is it realistic as a London street of 19th century? Or realistic as a surrounding in that it doesn’t combine elements you can never find on the same street in London?
4 maybe. The whole of row 3, doesn’t feel like london. Granted there are many styles of buildings in london, but there is also a distinctive georgian style that everyone associates with london what you typically find in films such as those mentioned above. The layout seems a little too wide and quite low.
