My first background....

[sloppy]

This is my first background that I drew using mostly MS Paint and then finishing up with Photoshop.Ã,  I may have gone a bit overboard with textures.Ã,  I'd like to know it looks to a pair of fresh eyes.
Thanks!

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Livingroom1.bmp

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

One of the first things I noticed is the clashing of colors.  I like the way you drew it, but red, purple, olive green, and brown don't go together good.  The textures, I agree, you might've gone overboard... everything else is flat, so it doesn't go well with the rest of the image.  But that's only for the walls, I think the carpet looks good.  I think it might be a good idea if you had a warmer color for the walls, but I'm not sure what color that would be 

It looks good for a first backround... but try not to use bmps.  I think it gives you an "I'm With Stupid" sign pointing at yourself... but i'm not sure 

[Nacho]

Not very bad, you are good at a very important part of process of making an image, Ã, composing. You put sensible objects, in a sensible place, and this gives a "harmony" to the overall image. I would remove some wires, unless they're needed for a puzzle. I would use darker lines in spite of black outlines. And I would recommend to remove the filters in the brushes and the gradients.

The perspective is totally bad, google for good tutorials, I'll post links here asap.

Ditto what King said about the colours.

Keep with the good work.

[Oz]

The perspective makes me dizzy.

[sloppy]

Thanks so much for the observations.Ã,  Especially regarding the perspective, I gave absolutely no thought to proper perspective because I was going for an exaggerated cartoony look.Ã,  But I can see how spending a bit of time on perspective will make the bg better.

If someone knows of a good tutorial on that subject, I'd really appreciate it.

Here's two more backgrounds:

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/prison.PNG
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/JewellryStore.PNG

I spent a lot of time on the 2nd one, but it just won't quite come out the way I picture it.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

It looks good... but once again, perspective.  Mostly the pictures in the jewlery store.  I like the colors in both of the pictures... The prison has a "mundane craphole" look to it... and the doormat adds a comedic touch  .  And the colors in the jewlery store... great.

[ildu]

Google a vanishing point tutorial and once you've got them down, you can start thinking about wacku shapes.

[Nikolas]

I know that perspective is the main point here, and I can see that all the pictures look like their taken from inside the tower of Piza, but

You've got to get used to my buts

You see I think that if all the backgrounds were made this way (and all three have the same coloring ideas and same errors in perspective), this could really work. This could be a bizzare world, with strange looking BGs.

On the other hand if sloppy, you're looking for a more realistic BGs take a look at the jewellry and think. Is this right? Isn't there something wrong? If you can't find a tutorial, save the image to a different name, take all uneccessary items from inside, thus leaving the bare walls with the windows and door, and toy around with that, until you get it right! Then start adding the rest of the items inside the room, which BTW make sense and are fine...

[sloppy]

Okay, I did some research and here's what I came up with:
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/apartment2.png

This took a lot more time to do and I think it looks okay.  Again I wouldn't mind some observations.

[Nikolas]

Now I like it!

The perspective is right, first of all. And you tided up everything in the room. You put a plant in.

The only thing weird is the coach. Is it half open to go into becoming a bed?

And the bookselves are nice, but empty. I hope you will put some books into them. The colours are nice, and they give an earthly feeling to the BG. It does remind me of a cottage or a country house, with wood... This has to do with the two wooden bars on the roof (which is nice texturized)

The other thing I don't like, but I've seen it a lot of times, are the two pictures. You have a, somewhat simple BG, with perfect photographs. It makes them strike out too much. But I've seen it before a lot of times, this is personal...

Good work though, and much better than the last one. And you did keep the same feeling with the colours which is a good thing...

[TheYak]

I really like the way you've got lots of overlapping detail with good perspective.  It's just a background without sprites and such but I still want to stare at it checking out the details. 

One place where some perspective & shapes gets a little confused is on the couch (those are throw-pillows on the couch, Nikolas).  I saw it as half-open for the briefest moment too. 

I'd rather see it with colored lines vs. black lines but that's a personal preference.  The photo inter-mixed with a drawing is just a bad idea in any background that's not 3d-rendered or digital capture.  Maybe if you used a posterizing filter to drop the color depth down, it would match a little better. 

This is much more friendly on the eyes than the first picture was. 

[Nikolas]

(those are throw-pillows on the couch, Nikolas).Ã, 

Silly me. If you hadnt mentioned it though, while playing the game I would try to find a way to open the coach. Sorry for that.

[sloppy]

Good observation Nikolas and YakSpit!  The cushions on the sofa were confusing, so they're gone.  I wouldn't have noticed that if you guys hadn't mentioned it.  I've finished the room as far as I'm concerned.
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/living_room2.png

The pictures on all the walls of my rooms will have photos of my family because that's who the game's going to be for.  At least for my first game.  Hopefully I'll have more confidence in my second game to release it more widely.

I can't believe how long this takes me to draw.     I wish it came naturally, right now it's just hard work.  It's a good thing I get a kick out of this.

Thanks for your help everyone!  You've put me on a whole new direction with drawing backgrounds.

I really like the way you've got lots of overlapping detail with good perspective. It's just a background without sprites and such but I still want to stare at it checking out the details.

One place where some perspective & shapes gets a little confused is on the couch (those are throw-pillows on the couch, Nikolas). I saw it as half-open for the briefest moment too.

I'd rather see it with colored lines vs. black lines but that's a personal preference. The photo inter-mixed with a drawing is just a bad idea in any background that's not 3d-rendered or digital capture. Maybe if you used a posterizing filter to drop the color depth down, it would match a little better.

This is much more friendly on the eyes than the first picture was.

[InCreator]

Only some tiny bits that stuck out:

* The plant that's hanging in ceiling: Hook it's attached to suggests that the plant is in the very corner of the room, but the size of the pot makes that quite impossible! I suggest making more of these hanging vine-thingies (so the plant was thicker), but reduce the size of pot by half or so.

* The books seem to exactly fit into into the bookshelf, I mean, they perfectly reach the edge of shelf. By making some books shorter, you could add much more feeling of 3D.

* The cord of telephone sticks out too much. Make it a bit darker gray!

*  The floor lamp at lower right corner looks extremely flat compared to everything else. That's because very straight lines. Even if it's perfectly correct by perspective & rules, giving it a bit more irregular shape (round the shade a bit, whatever)  would fix the "cardboard cutout" illusion.

* Making shadows to everything would DOUBLE the value of this already magnificent background.

* Using dark-toned colors instead of black ones for outlines may remove some stress (stress? well, I just feel art in some way) from picture and also make little mistakes much more forgiveable / harder to notice