So recently I made this piece. I don't usually do backgrounds and I tried a different painting method on the background so I would really appreciate some critique on it.
At 3/28/24 12:20 PM, Artcompany wrote: So recently I made this piece. I don't usually do backgrounds and I tried a different painting method on the background so I would really appreciate some critique on it.
https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/artcompany/camping-chell
The main thing that I can't help but notice is that the floor hardly interacts with the character and the cube, they look pasted into the background.
Luckily, this can be easily solved with shadow and form, by showing how the character is sitting on the grass, a little cast shadow between the character and the floor makes the difference. Even if the main light source is coming from the bonfire, an occlussion shadow is still present when two distinct objects are close together.
Now with form, this will be way easier to do with a stylized style, one way to fix this is by showing how the grass is being pushed and squished becuase of the other objects, again, way easier to exaggerate with a stylized style.
What I think you did well is the color picking, especially with the sky and the leaves, the tree logs can have a bit more work put into them, but overall, it has a good color.
I would also suggest to use hard brushes often when doing backgrounds, especially for objects that aren't being affected by ambient occlusion or that need clearer shapes and details, painting backgrounds gets a bit tricky when it comes to hard and soft brushes, so as a general rule of thumb, keep the hard brushes first to make the big shapes clear.
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At 3/28/24 12:35 PM, BroSkullEmoji wrote:At 3/28/24 12:20 PM, Artcompany wrote: So recently I made this piece. I don't usually do backgrounds and I tried a different painting method on the background so I would really appreciate some critique on it.The main thing that I can't help but notice is that the floor hardly interacts with the character and the cube, they look pasted into the background.
https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/artcompany/camping-chell
Luckily, this can be easily solved with shadow and form, by showing how the character is sitting on the grass, a little cast shadow between the character and the floor makes the difference. Even if the main light source is coming from the bonfire, an occlussion shadow is still present when two distinct objects are close together.
Now with form, this will be way easier to do with a stylized style, one way to fix this is by showing how the grass is being pushed and squished becuase of the other objects, again, way easier to exaggerate with a stylized style.
What I think you did well is the color picking, especially with the sky and the leaves, the tree logs can have a bit more work put into them, but overall, it has a good color.
I would also suggest to use hard brushes often when doing backgrounds, especially for objects that aren't being affected by ambient occlusion or that need clearer shapes and details, painting backgrounds gets a bit tricky when it comes to hard and soft brushes, so as a general rule of thumb, keep the hard brushes first to make the big shapes clear.
I can't believe I forget about the shadows that Chell and the cube would leave. Thank you for the advice, with this my next work will look better.
At 3/28/24 12:20 PM, Artcompany wrote: So recently I made this piece. I don't usually do backgrounds and I tried a different painting method on the background so I would really appreciate some critique on it.
https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/artcompany/camping-chell
So this would be my process
step 1: Find the horizon line
step 2; Construct the cube with a 1-point perspective
Step 3: Define the forms. Look at it as a scene that the character is a part of. Everything should be in the scene, not a background with some stuff on top of it.
Did some adjustment of the anatomy while at it.
Step 4: Add colors defining light and dark areas. We have a fire closer to the viewer. Stuff farther away will not show up in great detail.
Airbrush is hard to get to look good.
I don't paint. I do line-work and coloring. So I did my reworking in that technique.
See my profile page for link to showroom
My main critique is the lighting, the trees should be getting darker the farther they are from the fire. The light from the moon would touch the tops of the trees, so the lighting should be darker underneath. The side of the cube that is away from the fire and moon should be darker.
Here is a very rough edit to show what I mean. Other than that, it looks pretty cool.
There's a lot to say, but it boils down to this: Things need to affect things. I can tell how much of this was drawn one element at a time without regard for any of the other subsequent or preceding elements.
Start asking yourself basic questions about how one element might affect the other. For example: "would fire sit on perfectly green grass, or is there SOMETHING ABOUT FIRE that would affect that grass somehow? Hmmmmm."
Shadows were mentioned, light falloff was mentioned, these are things you wouldn't have gotten wrong if you just did a little searching for what actual night scenes look like. There are a million photos of campfires in the moonlit woods, use at least one. Don't do all the work in your head, your head doesn't have any of this stuff memorized.
At 3/29/24 11:16 AM, Yopenatals wrote: My main critique is the lighting, the trees should be getting darker the farther they are from the fire. The light from the moon would touch the tops of the trees, so the lighting should be darker underneath. The side of the cube that is away from the fire and moon should be darker.
Here is a very rough edit to show what I mean. Other than that, it looks pretty cool.
Your edit conveys the mood I was going for way better than mine did. Thanks I'll remember this for next time
I like the idea of the composition a lot, it's very moody and atmospheric. But the perspective is pretty off. PerKGrok gave some good advice on that, but I think his redraw would have been better if the cube was redrawn too with the vanishing point being centered behind Chell instead of all the way to the side.
The lighting on Chell makes her look kinda... Blobby? You do have the concept in mind that light highlights muscles, but you shouldn't overdo it by making every individual muscle have a large circular highlight on it. You can getter better by learning more about how objects are affected by light sources in reality.
I really like the texture and lighting on the Companion Cube, though. It looks so good!
