BG for practice

[Saberteeth]

Hi,

I just made this background which Is supposed to resemble some sort of a street in a city. The thing that bothers me is that:

1. It looks empty,
2. It lacks general atmosphere.
3. The metal thing on the red building since the horizon is on the same height as the metal thing.




Is there any way to improve this background? Critics aswell as paintovers are welcome.

[Andail]

Well, if you have a viewpoint, all lines going "into" the picture must converge at it, not just some.
The grey stripe on the red brick building is awkwardly positioned, since it appears very straight. This isn't a perspective error, it's just a matter of composition. Don't position things in this way, simply. Move it up or down a bit so that it becomes more apparent how it's angled.

You have a horizon indeed, but then the parts in the distance are much above this horizon. This means the path and the grass must be a steep hill, which it for some reason doesn't look like; it looks like a plain field, just incorrectly drawn.

[ildu]

I don't think the main problem is the perspective in this bg. The horizon is at the height of the beam on the red building, but that's ok. It just makes the grass in the background into an upwards hill. The main problem here is the red building. You've chosen such a high-saturated red color, and an intricate design for the building, that it grabs most of the attention of the viewer. For example, I had to look at this for a while, until I saw the window and the colors of the other buildings.

Composition-wise it would be better if you would show more of the pink building. Appearing from the center of the building like that makes it look like the image is zoomed in. Same thing goes for the lack of variation on the red building. Where are the windows, scaffolding, etc.? As for looking empty, I'd suggest adding garbage bins, posters, trash, streetlights, etc., but now before you've corrected the most fundamental issues of the bg.

1. Show more of the pink building and less of the red - shift the image to the left and move the window more to the right.
2. Make the brick design of the red building less prominent - make the lighter colors darker and the darker lighter.
3. Change the colors of the buildings so that they look more natural - decrease saturation, switch to grays and browns.
4. Add detail by throwing in some objects.
5. Add shadowing.

[radiowaves]

The rode in the back is rather wide, isn't it? Its as wide as Red Court in Russia.... Make the road narrower and block the horizon with some house, that should solve most of your problems. Horizon doesn't have to be seen, duh...

[Saberteeth]

You have a horizon indeed, but then the parts in the distance are much above this horizon. This means the path and the grass must be a steep hill, which it for some reason doesn't look like; it looks like a plain field, just incorrectly drawn.

You are correct, this is indeed incorrectly drawn. There should be nothing above the horizon(in my bg there's the far side of the fence seen). I'm surprised I didn't notice this before.

Composition-wise it would be better if you would show more of the pink building. Appearing from the center of the building like that makes it look like the image is zoomed in. Same thing goes for the lack of variation on the red building. Where are the windows, scaffolding, etc.? As for looking empty, I'd suggest adding garbage bins, posters, trash, streetlights, etc., but now before you've corrected the most fundamental issues of the bg.

Hm I see your point. Now I'm considering totally redoing this background but with two point perspective. I'll take your advice ildu and add detail, variation and improve the coloring.

Oh, as for the road, yes that needs adjusting too. It needs to be VERY thin 'cause it's near the horizon line. The same goes for the sidewalk.


Thanks guys, you've been a big help.