Random Landscape - Noob Matte Painting

#1

To be honest, I am quite overwhelmed coming on this forum and even thinking about sharing my WIP since it’s ridiculously amateur. Still, I suppose that’s the point of sharing artworks and looking for advise.

Here’s my second ever matte painting. I will be undergoing a couple of courses in the next couple of months so I’m looking forward to seeing how I can continue on this piece of artwork [if we can call it that] with the knowledge acquired from those courses and the experience that comes only with time.

This is an idea for a project I had wanted to carry out sometime last year. After trying to plan things out in simple text, I didn’t see myself capable of implementing it all in art. Almost a year later, I can’t say I’m exactly implementing it all perfectly but I’m definitely way beyond where I was then. I’ve only really focused on the sky colours, mostly, but briefly painted in the other objects in the shot.

#2

AAGH! I can’t do the mountains! Yes, okay, not that I seem to be able to do anything properly in that picture, lol, but i’m tryingggg haha.

I changed the shape of the original mountains. Don’t ask my why. I think I just liked this look more.

Grr! How do you make mountains out of these molehills! =P

#3

Thought I’d add a story to my matte painting. Changed the mountains yet again and added some … creatures? =P

Obviously everything isn’t finalized. These are simply ideas and concepts, maybe? Next I want to work on a “what then?” aspect of the painting. As in, what’s going to happen then? What happens after this shot?

At the moment, the guy is carrying a shotgun that looks like a machine gun … badly! =P And the guy behind him has a torch when it’s obviously not that dark =P

I feel sorry for the poor person running away from those creatures. These two people don’t seem to be caring or even aiming to help. Unless…they sent the creatures =P nahhhh

IT’S A WORK IN PROGRESS! =P

#4

Quick change. Thought, maybe, this gives more sense to the picture
I’m also including the reference I used for rough sketch of a person

#5

I wouldn’t mind some criticism, actually.

#6

Hey TheSkorax, thought I’d dip in since you’d had no replies yet!

Looks like you need to decide what you want to paint! If you’re definitely going with the guy shooting at a bird, think of what you could do to make it more dramatic.
Should the bird be some greebly monster on an attack vector?(as favoured in these forums)

I’ve done a quick scrawl. Green lines are lines of action and the red is an adjustment to the background to get your figure clear of the horizon. In your image the shooter’s head and arms run along the horizon line, so his action wouldn’t be clear.
If you adjust your background so it appears to funnel the action toward your shooter it would make him look more in danger.
You could enhance this more by making the image taller than wider.
Makes sense?

#7

oh wow. Thank you so much for your comments. I get what you’re saying.

Here’s the problem. As I began painting, I didn’t have a clear picture as to what I wanted. I was merely painting from a reference drawing. What bothered me was that the scene itself didn’t have a story.

See, the shooter isn’t exactly going for the bird but those creatures. I get that they’re so far away and don’t look like anything but I guess I’m just putting forth ideas.

I understand your ideas on the action lines and trying to create a focus for the painting to emphasize a feeling or story.

Let me try to modify the drawing a bit to see if i can create a better story. I’ll try out your ideas too especially going longways rather than wide

Thank you a lot for your comments. I was a bit lost as to where to go with it. Wasn’t satisfied with it and wasn’t sure how to go. Your comments helped a lot. Thanks.

#8

LOL! Looks shocking but a slight change in the story following EvilGnome’s comments and suggestions although I think I did it terribly hehe

The references I used for the bird creature were

#9

Hey TheSkorax,

Looking better, you’re beginning to tell a story!
Think about the relative sizes of the two characters, can you make the scene more dramatic and the monster more threatening?
How much of the story are you cutting out by only seeing half of the person?

Do you think there would be more movement in the piece if the bird wasn’t coming directly at the viewer? Perhaps turning it more 3/4 view would allow the viewer to see more of it and give a better sense of the motion?

Oh, and cool reference!

#10

EvilGnome,

Thank you for those comments. I’ll try to see what else I can do. I might try to create another creature. I’ll try to work on it tonight. Thanks again

#11

You need to understand the difference between what a matte painting is, and what an illustration is.

Matte paintings are specifically meant to be used in movie or game productions, where they are used to fake a fictional background when there’s no real life counter-part available, or it’s too costly/time-consuming to build one. They are meant to be absolutely convincing so that you can’t tell an entire expanse of the scene is actually just a painting instead of reality of complex CG.

Illustrations are artworks that are meant to convey something–a story, an idea, a statement, an emotion, and they are usually meant to accompany or represent something, such as a news or magazine article, as covers or interior images for books, or as posters for a product.

If you haven’t spent time in the Art Techniques & Theories forum (linked below in my signature), I suggest you read the sticky threads in it–they contain a lot of stuff that will help you immensely in your artistic journey.

#12

Robert,

Thank you so much for that. That makes perfect sense to me.

I will definitely spend some time in the forum you suggested.

#13

i’ve been quiet, i know. busy with work and uni.
i’ll work on this soon
i miss it =P

#14

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