Cathedral BG - critics please

miguel · Sat 02/01/2010 17:40:56

I decided on going with this style of drawings for my next project,

What do you think?
Is it too "unclean", even if it's not fully painted?

Ryan Timothy B · Sun 03/01/2010 00:22:31

I hope that with such a large background you won't have such small characters. It's a big ratio. I usually draw my characters at 1/3 of the screen height.

Also I'm not a big fan of the generic photoshop craquelure texture. I much prefer the hand drawn cracks you have around the door and pillars.

miguel · Sun 03/01/2010 12:35:10

Thanks for the reply, Ryan,
I'll draw the characters on top of the paper drawn background on another paper, that way I'll not loose sense of dimensions, then will scan those.
This screen will be the opening sequence and I'm not planing on having inplay screens that far from our eyes anyway but I know what you mean, it can get weird with small characters loosing detail.

As for the craquelure efect I think you're right, it felt bad when I did it and it was a dumb choice when I think about it.

You didn't mention color selections so I believe I'm on the right track...

Ryan Timothy B · Sun 03/01/2010 18:31:56

Quote from: miguel on Sun 03/01/2010 12:35:10
You didn't mention color selections so I believe I'm on the right track...

I guess I kinda like the colors. They have this basic kids fairytale book style (hopefully that's the direction you're going for

).

(quick google search) The colors and style remind me of something like this: http://picture-book.com/files/userimages/260u/pb_hut.jpg

miguel · Sun 03/01/2010 18:41:24

As for the kids fairytale style I didn't mean to follow that, it's just the way I draw.
I guess I do relate to the link you gave me.

Thanks for the support, I will for sure avoid Photoshop effects and keep with the pen and paper direction.

miguel · Thu 07/01/2010 17:57:30

Another update with the tips you all been giving me!

ThreeOhFour · Thu 07/01/2010 18:47:26

Looks rad, Miguel, but I do wish the white spots weren't in there.

Still, very nice scene

Igor Hardy · Thu 07/01/2010 21:19:07

Those are really great. Very stylish and with a hand-crafted feel to them. I particularly dig the cathedral.

Three things:

1)The branch partially covering the view of the houses makes it confusing to look a them. I'd get rid of it, or move it above the roofs.

2) The puddle in the center is very distracting and doesn't feel natural. I'm not sure why, but probably the composition suggest it is the most important part of the picture.

3) A minor one - IMO the hay stack would look better without the green section at the front.

miguel · Thu 07/01/2010 22:49:08

Ben: thanks, coming from you it's a big YES to me. I'll get rid of those white spots! It's a promisse!

Ascovel: thanks for the compliment, I wasn't really sure I had the craft to go for this kind of backgrounds...

1) yup, I'll put it higher;

2) I didn't notice it and it was accidental, maybe the bright blue and not having any reflection contrasts with the pavement;

3) yes, that was the "fill" situation...

To both, thank you very much, hope you can continue to help me out on this on further improvements!

micamic · Sat 09/01/2010 01:41:24

Use layers to avoid white spots.
Color on one layer and contour on another.

Chicky · Sat 09/01/2010 12:07:01

Miguel, just make two layers. One layer for the line art and one for the colour, if you play around with the layer overlay settings you will be able to simply paint onto the colour layer and it will overlay just your lineart over the top.

miguel · Sat 09/01/2010 12:17:44

micamic and Chicky thanks for that tip, it will surelly simplify my next backgrounds.

auriond · Sat 09/01/2010 13:07:33

If you're using Photoshop, multiply will probably work best.

MrCheminee · Sat 09/01/2010 14:25:17

I think the stones in the street have to much detail, and too many different colors so it gets the unnatural look...

Layabout · Sun 10/01/2010 12:28:28

It looks like you put in a lot of effort in making these. A bit of advice.

No filters. NO no no bad.

Yes, multiply layers are your friend. So are other adjustment layers. Darken layers are ok for shadows, but give em a bluey-grey tinge.

No no no to hatching or shading in your pencil drawing. Shading can be added to the colour layers.

The further away things away are, the more desaturated they become. They also get blue. Atmospherics and crap.

Your lineart is too prominant. either draw over it in with vector lines, or change it's opacity.

Invest in a drawing tablet. It'll be the best $150 you ever spend.

Draw from real life. If you need to draw a tree with branches and stuff, go find a cool looking tree and copy it.

GarageGothic · Sun 10/01/2010 12:33:09

Layabout's advice is quite similar to what I would recommend and reminded me of a tutorial I once wrote on my own art style. Not saying it's the be-all-end-all tutorial on the matter, but maybe you can find a few tips.

miguel · Sun 10/01/2010 13:00:18

I've updated the outside screen with some differences...

Auriond: thanks for that, I'm using it right now even for characters;

MrCheminee: I get your point, maybe with some layers on top I can soften them...

Layabout: When I did the scan I was using "Fill" to paint the BG and I had to use "Find Edges" to cover the white gaps, that's why the lineart got so prominant, I'll try to play with those layers (depth and atmospherics) you're talking about.

GarageGothic: thanks for the link, I'll dive into it today.

Thanks to all!

Layabout · Mon 11/01/2010 11:22:00

Avoid using fill to be honest. Unless you are using straight pixels (no anti-aliasing), where it is okay, but there are techniques to make even pixelled backgrounds more interesting. It'll just come out crap. What you want is to choose a nice big brush and paint the details on a multiply layer. It makes a huge difference. Try it. You would need to start again from scratch, but it will be for the better, and much quicker once you get used to it. Just make sure to 'lock' the lineart layer, so you don't accidently paint on it.

abstauber · Wed 13/01/2010 12:33:54

When I used to work with scanned pencil art, I converted it to vectors first.
Ten years ago, Adobe had a programm called Streamline doing this, but I think nowadays it's included in Illustrator.

After having converted your work to vectors you can also begin basic coloring. Most of the vector programs (even Flash) can distinguish between outline and surfaces. So it's easy for you to get rid of the black outlines (which also have been smoothend for you due to the vector conversion process).

After the basic coloring feel free to get back to Photoshop and add the details.

Danman · Wed 13/01/2010 15:24:49

Yeah the white spots are a big problem cause you have spend a lot of time fixing that. which you could be making details and better art instead. If you do use the fill tool on a program like photoshop or even Gimp. Just better to change the tolerance to like 10-15 to fix the white spots easier. And that's my advice

. well for the white spots