I'm experimenting a bit (as you can see from the size of the view window), and I thought that was best done on a static title page, so that's what I've started with. I'm not accustomed to doing landscapes, so I was hoping to get some help with composition at this early stage before I pixel myself into a corner. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/title_screen_plan.png)
Note: For the most part, the shapes of buildings and things are much boxier than they will end up being. For the moment I'm just trying to put things where things should be.
I am not very good at landscapes myself...but I did notice something.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/JuJu_Gurl/landscape.jpg)
I think the things I boxed in need to be smaller. to give it a look that it's farther back.
Your vanishing point is somewhere to the right and the horizon (which seems to be indicated by the foreground green field) seems to be slanting down to the left. This gives the image a strange right-hand side bias that needs some balancing.
I'd make the horizon completely straight if I were you. And I'd consider making the vanishing point either more extreme (ie move it further to the side and back) or more straight (dead centre). Now it looks a bit pointlessly half-hearted (/ constructive criticism).
Looking forward to seeing this with title.
I stare at the picture and I don't quite get what is going on in there. The left and right side seem to be unbalanced a bit, which gives me an impression that the buildings are in different scale. maybe put at least some small stuff to the left side as for better comparison and understanding of mass.
Currently the six big mushrooms aren't annoying, as they may be very large structures, but if you feel they don't fit in there, then its most certainly that you need to change them.
In this line mode you may also get slightly wrong impression, maybe you should try put in some values, you know, stuff going lighter at the back and darker, more crisp at the front. Also, in this picture, do you have some certain structure that definately must capture viewers interest?
I feel the reason why you are focused to the right is because the large building on the left is completely shown.
Take a look at this, I feel it helps keep the focus more balanced.
(http://www.bryvis.com/images/other/agsf/wip_pslim_city.png)
I only moved the wip lines to the left a bit and allowed you to see more of the base of the large building.
A good thing to start with is deciding one or two focal points.
It's much like melodies in music. Without one, the song will probably end up being dull to listen to, and having a bunch of them playing at the same time isn't that much better, as none of them end up being really heard.
So instead you pick or develop the most interesting and enjoyable melody you can, and then create an arrangement to support and enrich it.
In this case it could be a particularly interesting part of the city(?), an interesting part of the mountains, an interesting part of the sky etc. Doesn't have to be one, but it's usually good to have one dominating focal point (melody), and then one or two less dominant ones for added interest.
You then build the image around it/them, trying to make everything else enhance it/them, while not competing for interest. The focal point should ideally be clearly dominant already in the outline sketch, just by the way the image is constructed, and then further enhanced when values/colours are added.
(the current state is really confusing, with half of it with values and half still only in outlines. I suggest keeping all areas of the image at the same level of completion, as the sum of the parts is far greater and more important than the individual parts, and working on it evenly keeps you updated on the sum)
Hm, just looked at the date it was posted, and I guess you may very well have finished this one already.
Oh well, in any case, good luck!