Grand Foyer

[Ethan D]

Hey, it's been a while since I made a background and I've been working on my art. (hopefully there's improvement)   This is a grand foyer of a mansion.

1x


2x


A few things that I think may be wrong with it but am not sure about:
Too much open space.
railing looks a little bit off
No ceiling

Let me know what you all think!

Thanks in advance for any comments!  

[Tuomas]

A couple of things that I can spot with just a quick look. The railin on the right starts at floor level. Should the first bar just rather go up vertically so that the handhold would always be at hand level. If you get my drift.

The stairs and the balcony look extremely thin. Sure, they have these pillars under them, but I think a sturdier support of a fatter floor/stairs would be more safe.

Everything seems awfully big axcept for the stairs :/

other than that, it's nice. I like the colours.

[Babar]

I agree about the stair railing. I'd also suggest that you lose the pillars (or at least make them a lot less).

I don't know if it is near completion, but just in case you didn't know, you appear to be missing that 3-4 inches tall thing that is usually at the base of walls, running along the ground. I have forgotten what it is called (someone usually brings it up here from time to time), but perhaps a picture is better for explanation?
http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/images/width350/reynolds-room-1095.jpg
(That thing along the lower right corner of the wall in the picture).

Some more things you could add to fill up the space (although remember, large space in the main hall is usually a good thing for mansions!):
-A chandelier
-Chairs in the corners
-A table in the centre of the room (perhaps for guests to sign their names?)
-A sort of "entrance room" right after the main door, where people store umbrellas and coats and such
-Unless it is a public mansion type thing that rents out rooms, I'd suggest against such extensive wall-to-wall carpeting. I mean, it goes right around each one of the pillars, and even right up behind the stairs. I'd say that (except for the bits on the stairs) you should remove it completely, and instead have strategically placed rugs on the wooden floor.

[Atelier]

I just added a fleur-de-lis pattern to the wallpaper (made it a bit darker, mansions are spooky!), added some "marble" flooring at the edges, and put a skirting board around the room. Just for show, to point out some things you could do to smarten it up a bit.

Also the front door and pillars are a little blurred, and the window should be re-designed to look less like an easter egg. Plus, on top of a patterned wallpaper, you should chock it full of paintings of former owners of the estate, so the player can infer some history. A grandfather clock and suit of armour on the landing would be good as well. Heh, then if it's still not cluttered enough you can remove two of the pillars and site a fireplace there, complete with coal scuttle and curios on the mantel piece. A lot of ideas to work with. Parfait.

[krishaw]

It looks pretty good but aside from what the others have said (And I'm certainly not one to judge on this  ) the wall covering the left half of the balcony, which I'm guessing leads to another room, looks a little bit like a corner that cuts everything off. Maybe a shadow or something to give it more of a "hollow" look? Looks good though.

[Tuomas]

Quite frankly I think it's worse now. About the texture: You have to make the wallpaper visible also through the gaps in the railings, this looks unfinished. The wallpaper, or the pattern must be in perspective too. The pattern goes horizontally all the way, while two patterns next to each other should be toward the vanishing point. Easy, but not quite done with a pattern filter. My advice is, don't use a ready effect to do wallpaper if you want depth to the picture.

[Matti]

Regarding the stairs and the pillars, the perpective is WAY off.

1. The green lines indicate the area below the gallery/matroneum. The pillars are somewhere in front of it, but not beneath.

2. The pillars below the stairs are in a row despite the fact that the stairs are going towards the camera.

3. The railing looks totally arbitrary with its wobbly lines.

EDIT: 4. The way you drew the stairs they look more like an assembly line.

I don't have time for a paintover now, but maybe tomorrow.

[Ethan D]

Thanks for all the feedback so far, sorry I haven't posted an updated version yet.  I'm slow with paint, but i'll be working on it until it's done and should have the changes made by later tonight.

Just posting to reassure you guys that I didn't just leave and hope you'd fix it for me. 

[Tanique]

The biggest issue I have with the railing is that the ones curving shouldn't come to a perfect point at the top.  On the railing starting closest to the front door, make the curve a little wider, and end it BEFORE it meets the other railing at the top.  That side of the railing will meet up with the back wall and stop, while the other one becomes the upper floor balcony rail.

I hope that makes sense.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Most grand staircases I've seen usually have one or two landings separating the stairs, either with the lower stairs curving up to the landing and continuing on or in a straight line (one set of stairs will run up and then turn 90 degrees and continue after the landing).  Adding this small but significant area is not only realistic but it reduces some of the pain in creating a curved staircase.  For example:




I've used the vanishing point here for the depth of the walkway and for some general adjustments.  You can see as the stairs show more of their 'top' the lower they are with respect to the VP and the higher they go the more we see of their front.  this allows us to fake depth and distance as the stairs curve towards the landing and then continue up a small set of stairs and left.   Naturally the left set of stairs can be higher, and this is missing the inner railing entirely to make the lines easier to 'read', but this should give you some ideas on how to approach it.  Just remember that you need not make a perfect curving staircase unless you want to since there are ample examples of both in architecture.  Another bonus with using landings is they are ideal places for statues, frescoes and the like to help pretty up the background.

Another thing to be aware of is scale.  Take a look at the window above the doors and then the size of the doors and everything else (including the walls).  You'd probably never see a window that large in a mansion considering it is about 6-7 people heights judging by the door and it looks like you just put it there to fill up space more than anything.  My advice is to chop off part of the top of the room so there isn't a massive empty space (leave about 20 pixels above the top door) and then have a look on google for the entrance halls of some actual mansions to get a feel for decoration and placement.


Good luck!

[Ethan D]

@ProgZmax
Posted while I was typing this.  Wow, those are some great tips.  I figured that the window was grossly oversized but at the same time the man who owns the house is arrogant and therefore likes big things.  But you are right that I put it there to take up space. (I also have a cool lighting idea for when I get to that...)  Although looking at the window it's the size of two doors therefore the height of about two people.  It still should probably be made a bit smaller though like you said.

@Mr. Matti
Wow, I hadn't noticed that.  I agree that that is a problem though so I've taken the stairs out for now and am redesigning them from scratch.

@Babar
Thanks for posting that link, it's given me some ideas of what to do with the ceiling as well as the wall sidings.

Also, I liked your suggestions I'll definitely be adding like a coat holder and a place for shoes to be placed, etc,.

@AtelierGames
Thanks for the suggestions, although the owner of the house's character is very arrogant and he has the house redesigned just so that it would be absolutely his so any more than one portrait would be too much for the room.  (Not to mention I'm woefully bad at drawing portraits)  I like the suggestion of using marble by the way

@Tanique
Yes, that makes sense.  Thanks for the note!

@Tuomas
I didn't actually do the edit with the wallpaper that was Atelier.  I agree though about not using designs from photoshop.  (I doubt I could find them anyway.  :)  I can't expect someone to put a ton of work into giving me a quick tip though.

Do you mean that the stairs look to thin as in both how thick it is and how wide the stairs are like from left to right?  Or just the actually thickness of the flooring on the upper level?

@Krishaw
I see what you mean.  Like I said I'll be redrawing the stairs so hopefully I can give the upper level more depth so it will be more obvious that it leads into a hallway.


I'm having difficulty redesigning the stairs and I have homework to do for college...      So I thought I'd post the redesigned floor/ wall with the stairs and 2 of the doors edited out.  

I'm redrawing the stairs from scratch because editing them is difficult and usually editing one section of the railing makes another section look off.  (Besides, I didn't do it very carefully last time.  :)

I'm very thankful for all the feedback it's helping quite a bit.  I'll post what I get for the staircase tomorrow when I get the time to finish it.  

Anyway, here's the redesigned floor.




2x

I decided to have the... wall thing be 2- 2 1/2 ft high because it looks classier.

Once again, I appreciate all feedback

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Just remember that people are very rarely the height of a door.

[Ethan D]

Alright!  I finally made some progress with this.  

1x


2x


A few comments.

That plant is driving me insane and I'm  not sure how to make it look better.....

I made the chandelier have a white and black design which I ended up thinking was pretty cool although it was sort of an accident.

Any idea why the clock looks as bad as it does.

The hat stand is ok...

Main thing that I'm not satisfied with is the smaller objects around the room.  Not sure why I can't get them to look good.

What do you all think?


EDIT:  Here it is with the changed window

[markbilly]

I like it, it is simple and clean and attractive.

re: the window. I liked the old one more if I'm honest. I agree it should be shrunk down but the new one is unclear.

I like the clock, there is nothing wrong with it. You could make it bigger I suppose, allowing you to put more detail on the face. As for the plant, yes, it is a little strange looking. One easy solution is to just make the tree one of those cut ones. Like a ball or something:

[abstauber]

You're still having a slight perspective problem, I hope this image explains it:



To match the upper left exit, the stairs have to be more "inside" the room. Also the right pedestal needs to match the depth of the stairs.

Btw. isn't Snake supposed to draw your backgrounds?

[la_bouteille]

Looks nice!
Additionally, I would recommend using shadowing to create more depth - e.g. the wall under the stairs a little bit darker.

With the moonlight from outside and the light of the chandelier it will be possible to create a fantastic atmosphere. I'm looking forward to the result.

[Ethan D]

Btw. isn't Snake supposed to draw your backgrounds?

Yeah, I'm just working on my art in spare time.

I see what you mean about the perspective.

I'll work on updating it.  Hopefully I won't be as slow this time

With the moonlight from outside and the light of the chandelier it will be possible to create a fantastic atmosphere. I'm looking forward to the result.

Yeah, I'm working on getting the construction of the room done before I start attempting lighting.
Hopefully I can get a good atmosphere. 

Hmm, it's looks much cleaner than mine but I was trying to get something with several larger leaves.  I'll see what I can come up with.

[Ethan D]

Sorry for the double post everyone!!

Here is another change to the window along with fixing the perspective, I'm pretty sure I've got it all looking right.  I also changed the plant a little bit.



I'll start working on lighting now. 

[Snarky]

Here is another change to the window along with fixing the perspective, I'm pretty sure I've got it all looking right.

Uh... but the corners of the ceiling don't match up with the edges where the walls meet!

You should also change the color of the black crossbeams in the window. Currently they're almost the same as the sky behind them.

And I don't know what you had in mind for this screen, but technical fixes aside, the hall now look much less grand than in the original design. Your first version seemed to go for something like the entrance to a palace; now it looks like the foyer of a moderately well-to-do family with a taste for tacky faux-masonry.

[Ethan D]

Uh... but the corners of the ceiling don't match up with the edges where the walls meet!

It's supposed to be a raised ceiling like the one in the link:
http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/images/width350/reynolds-room-1095.jpg

Although it's nowhere near as grand.

Anyway this is supposed to be the entrance room to a large mansion owned by an arrogant man.