Mountain and and a river

[Timmo]

Hello everybody!
I worked about 1 hour on this picture, i used Artgem 1.2.
I know that it can be more beautiful, but i am out of ideas.

[Khris]

It doesn't look bad, but it's a bit hard to see a mountain and a river in that pic.
Is it bird view?

[Fizzii]

I think it looks more like a mountain-side slope, with river going down it, am I correct?

I think the river could be thinner, and it would look more like a river if we could see the other side of the bank.

It's not bad at all for a start, but colour wise, the areas further away (that is, closer to the horizon) should be lighter and less saturated. Also, a natural bank of the river would not be lined with rocks that look like they've been put there by a bricklayer ... it'd more likely have dirt and some rocks scattered loosely, or something. I personally would've chosen a more yellow-green green than a very green green too.

You could also fill up the scene by adding rocks, trees/shrubs, and mountains in the distance. Even flowers (if it's spring)

This is a quick paintover I did, showing my ideas... I don't know if this is something you had in mind, or not, but your piece certainly has potential

[Timmo]

Thank you, you put life into this pictre.

[Bartimaeus]

A crap-load of life!

[Phemar]

Criticising the original pic:

- I can't really see the mountain here? Where is it? Is the river on the mountain?
- The whole thing is at an angle, so it's difficult to look at. Dunno if you intended it to be like that.
- It's hard to see the difference between water and sky here - If you turned the pic upside down, it would look the same to me!

Anyway, that's all for now.

[Timmo]

Fizzii, with what you made that picture?

[Fizzii]

I use Photoshop CS, but it should be possible to do similar stuff with Artgem, since I don't use any fancy tools or effects (well, I do have a tablet, but if you're using mouse, you'd just have to spend more time doing mouseclicks )

- The main idea is to get the colours down with correct shading and lighting. Details, such as the grass, should be done last.

- I usually use a hard round brush. For the clouds, I coloured in whites/bluegreys, and smudged together for a softer look, but you'd have to be careful not to oversmudge things, or get carried away using that tool

- I also pick several colours from the colour pallette, including for shadows and highlights. I used around three different shades of blue for the sky - lighter blue for closer to the horizon; and four or five different greens, with lighter green further away (this adds to the depth of the picture, otherwise it looks more flat and not so realistic).

- As Zor pointed out, the river didn't really look like a river. I think that it's not just that it's highly unlikely to be surrounded by rocks, but also because since the water is a reflection of the sky, the bank side should also reflect in the water. I lower the opacity when doing reflections.

- Opacity, (meaning lack of transparency), is useful for blending colours when you lower it... that is, making it more transparent. (Artgem should have an option for it somewhere, but I wouldn't know where)

Anyway, probably the best thing to do is to sketch your ideas properly on paper first, then scan it in and paint over it, instead of going straight to Artgem and starting with a blank canvas... or at least use it as reference when painting it, so you have your ideas down to see. Hope this helps

[Timmo]

Yes it helped me alot, if i could only have scanner...