Looking for advice on my artwork.

[Josh R]

I've resumed work on an old game I was making about a year ago. I went to play the game today, and it's actually pretty far along. The only problem is the poor artwork. So I've started re-painting the scenes. I'm not a great artist though, so I am looking for some tips. Basically I am going for the KQ5/KQ6 sort of sierra look. Also, the screens are supposed to be dark, because you play a vampire in the game, and you travel by night.


So here is the first screen I have redone. Any help is appreciated. I will post more as I do them.

[Jimmybob]

Your artwork is poor? LOL LOL LOL LOL

Do you seriously think that?

I think this a beautiful scene, if I were you I would keep this  .

But if you want there is a tutorial somewhere on this site that will teach you how to make seirra looking backgrounds.

-Jimmybob-

[Josh R]

To be fair, I think this is a far stretch further than what I thought I was capable of. It took me quite a while, but it turned out well. I've actually suprised myself a bit. Anyhow, it still has some flaws, but thanks for the compliment. I will post some more scenes here soon.

[Fizzii]

I think it looks good.

Some things to consider:

- The Photoshop grass brush is rather obvious, especially as the grass is all going in one direction.
- There is grass growing out of the concrete, on the edges
- The black patches in the grass look burnt and out of place. (Don't use the burn tool... pick the colours instead)
- Given that this is nighttime, I would not expect green to be so saturated. Things tend to lose their saturation with less light, and when it's dark, it'd take on a more bluish tinge because of the sky.
- The path seems rather bright, and I'm not sure where the light source is from, so I'm also a bit confused as to the placement of shadows (eg, the tree trunks on the left are lit from the right, but the trees on the right of the background aren't casting shadows to the left)Ã,  Ã, 
- It seems that you used photos for the trees, especially as they have more artefacts compared to the other parts of the background. Not that collaging is bad, but the textures are obviously from different places (eg, soft grass, whereas the leaves are very sharp and altogether a different 'style')Ã, 

Hope this helps.

[Josh R]

Yes, those are helpful tips. I actually haven't added the light source yet because I wanted the photo to be a bit brighter during critiquing. Once I add the light render, the whole thing will darken and give some sense of light direction. Thanks for the advice, I will make some alterations.

[lo_res_man]

I going to give you some advice on night I gave someone else, the pic IS quite good, but it  doesn't say nighttoime to me. look at those horrible night scenes you see in old Technicolor movies, they look darkened, not night.

Umm, It is supposed to be night, right? Well I have noticed that night is often more blue. And this picture IS dark. Now a photo might record night as dark,  but when our eyes adjust we often see it in a differant way. as well the moon creates pale blue highlights.  here is a good example
http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?id=24

Note the highlights on the log, the blueness of things though nothing in the pic in daylight would be blue