Beach Background

[evilenergizerbunny]

Hey I haven't really had a lot of experience with painting backgrounds but I've been working on drawing this background of a beach.




I used Gimp, And I've already been working on animating the water.
But the picture as you can see Is really really plain and boring I just was hoping somebody could gimme a nudge in the right direction.
Suggestions/criticism/paintovers, all welcome!

/I updated a little bit removed the overly light spot and funny line on the left end of the screen, and straightened the horizon, I also blurred  the clouds a bit I'll still work on proper clouds and some flair later/

[Babar]

some umbrellas? A towel? A stall? Distant ships?

[Matti]

1. The horizon line should be a bit smoother

2. The clouds don't look like clouds. Look at some pictures to get inspiration for them

3. There's a strange line on the sand near the water. I don't know what to think of that

To make it less boring you should add a few things like rocks (on the sand or in the water), shells or sticks..

[evilenergizerbunny]

1. The horizon line should be a bit smoother

2. The clouds don't look like clouds. Look at some pictures to get inspiration for them

3. There's a strange line on the sand near the water. I don't know what to think of that

To make it less boring you should add a few things like rocks (on the sand or in the water), shells or sticks..

I agree I don't like the clouds either

and the line in the sand's is just an odd perspective it was kind of supposed to be like a big hill or dune.

thanks to both you guys for the speedy suggestions though
Like I say I'm really new to this whole thing this is really the first thing I tried to draw in Gimp

[Matti]

I know there's a line of the dune and it's okay (black arrow).

But there's a very strange line above (red arrows)

[evilenergizerbunny]

Ok ya I see what you mean I don't really know what I was thinking I was still messing around with stuff at that point I think it was supposed to be part of the dune but I messed it up a lil and made it to bright and left a funny little line. I'll make it disappear though, I also did all that part in the same layer which I'm figuring also wasn't a good idea.

[Makeout Patrol]

I agree I don't like the clouds either

Good-looking clouds are surprisingly easy to draw in programs like photoshop and gimp. What I do is make a new layer just for the clouds, with the blue of the sky on a lower layer in the background. Set a brush to a low opacity (or high transparency, or however gimp does it) - exactly what level and the shape of the brush will depend on what sort of clouds you want (thin, wispy clouds should have a thinner brush and lower opacity - I'd say about 20% off the top of my head; big, thick, fluffy clouds should have a bigger brush at closer to 50 or 60% opacity). Experiment with the settings until you find something you like. Make sure that it is the brush's transparency that you have lowered, not the layer's.

Pick a light shade of gray. Do not use pure white. In a single stroke, draw the vague shape of the cloud. Maybe go back over it a couple of times to make it a bit more solid. Now pick a brighter shade of gray (that is, closer to white). Paint over the areas of the cloud that are closest to the sun to brighten them; the brighter the area looks like it should be, the more you should paint it. Remember, this isn't just the side of the could that is closest to the top of the picture; clouds are three-dimensional objects and some areas in the middle will be brighter than areas above them. Set your brush to a darker shade and start adding in shadow. Keep screwing around like this until you're happy with it.

[evilenergizerbunny]

Hey thanks Makeout, I'm at work right now so I can't really screw around with painting stuff right now but I definitley will try that when I get home.