Handdrawn background

[Pet Terry]

Hello. I'm trying to learn a new style to color my handdrawn backgrounds and decided to try it today, so I made this test background.



I known there some things wrong and the water hasn't got much detail, so I could need some help with that. I would also like some comments about colors, composition etc. And yes, I've been playing CMI lately

[MadReizka]

MI3 style rules!

[Mats Berglinn]

Very classy!

[R4L]

Very nice but I have one problem, your little island is the same color as the water. It looks like it is just a hill. Thought I'd point that out, but its very nice. Goob job on it!

[ScottDoom]

For the water, try using light and dark shades in swirls to make it look like the moon reflecting off of rising and falling waves.

As the last person said, the island and water are almost the same color, but I don't think it'll matter once you add the detail.

The only other bad thing I see is the rocks, especially those closer to the foreground. They look bright and seem to stick out.

[Erwin_Br]

Very CMI-ish, but blended with your own style. It looks very, very good to me!

The water is obviously not finished so there's not much point to discuss that.

Good use of colours, great shading... I love the moon too.

I have one technical suggestion: raise the horizon. Currently it looks like the island is only a few meters away from a giant waterfall at the end of the world (anyone remember Grim Fandango?). Moving up the horizon will improve depth and realism.

--Erwin

[Pet Terry]

Thanks for the tips! I noticed that the rocks are too bright, I have to keep that in my mind, aswell as the horizon, I noticed it looked weird.

About the waves, should I draw them already on paper or add after coloring? Hmm, I guess I have to try and see what looks best

More comments please!

[After]

I like the whole style as it is. Even the completely flat area is very distinctive.
The only things that I think need attention are
a) consistency. The rightmost leaf and edge of the island are just too smudgy (overly reworked errors would be my guess), and
b) Stronger hue difference in the shadows.

[kaaZ]

I reckon the individual objects look pretty good on itself (like that palmtree is a beauty just as the woods and the house) but they rather look like a collage of objects than one picture to me...
You could add some darker shadows...some dropshadows might work as well. Also the shading on the island self are blury while the shading on the tree and clouds for instance are sharp...I'd go for the sharper shading...
Apart from that it's a good background...keep up the good work...

[AJA]

Amazing work, Petteri!  :o

[Matt Frith]

Petteri ^________^

nice work, nice emulation of teh CMI style, make more

[Sam.]

that is exactly the syle i want. how would you like to be my artist? seriously. this is me begging. i suck at art and u are great. dont if u don't want to but, ya know

[Pet Terry]

Thanks for teh praise ^_^ Here's a slightly modified version:



And Zooty, I would like to see my art in games, but unfortunately I'm really busy with other projects at the moment.

[jannar85]

It looks great!

[Evil]

Looks great. I know Pessi did an example of this before but I dont know where to find it. So I did a quick sketch.


Add a moon glow on the water somewhere.

[Sam.]

thats cool. just checkin ya know. just have to go threaten some people into drawing stuff fro me.

[n3tgraph]

w0w petteri, great background! :o

very nicely done!!!

my whining:
I think the outlines on the trees and the island itself should be a little bit darker, as for the water, evil gave a pretty good example for the reflections, maybe use a gradient in teh water, I know the next example is from a more pixelly monkey island, but just to show you what I mean:

[Pet Terry]

Thanks!

Great Evil, now I remember too that Pessi made an example once, I'll see if I can find it somewhere.

[Fizz]

looks rather good!
the water needs life though...

[Al_Ninio]

Wow Pete, this is great!
A reflection in the water would be a nice addition, and the island could use more shading.
Other than that, teh awesomity, man.

evil, did you mean this:


Image (C) Pessi.