Advice on this ...

[DrewCCU]

I'm new to the whole photoshop painting thing ... so i figured i'd fool around and pain this little landscape as a learning process.  Obviously it's not done but i figure its far enough along u guys could give me some tips ... i got the basic shapes and shadowing down for the most part and ijust need more detail i guess ... what could i do to make this better?




also (because the bright colors where annoying me) - i played with the hue/saturation a little bit and came up with a more pleasing (less contrasting) color scheme:

[Tuomas]

It's actually pretty easy to add details just by using moreaccurate brushes, and basically losing all the blur. With changing the saturation you went from English moors to American plains, which isn't bad, if you like it, but I didn't find the first image that bad anyway. The most important thing would be for yo to try to draw with no blur at all. I won't say more because I know there are people here who know better, and I don't really know any easy hints that would always work

[Moresco]

First of all, you said you're using photoshop?  This is a fine start for just roughing out an idea before you really get started.  It's all very blurry at the moment, so now you need to go in and start painting in a little more detail to give it depth and clean that up.

Second, you adjusted the hue and altered the entire image? Are you painting each area on layers?  I would go so far as to put every separate object on its own layer.  Take the time to find a good tutorial on using photoshop layers (probably google "photoshop layer tutorial" or something).

Third, some general tips.
1. Whether you decide to go with the greener grass, or the brighter sky, is up to you.  But, you can grab your color picker and take some of the color from the sky - set your brush to low opacity (like maybe 5-15%) and paint some of that color onto the surface of your river.  That way you're reflecting some color from the sky.

2.  Remember to separate your foreground, midground, and background layers.  The foreground will have your darkest darks and the color will desaturate as you go from foreground to background.  Meaning your background should be a bit of a haze, less strong, while the foreground (what is up close to the camera or viewer) will be crisp detail and stronger color.

3.  [ ] keys in PC Photoshop are hotkeys to change brush size.  It makes it easier to switch from small to large brushes quickly.   I read that apple hotkeys 1-0 are opacity settings, but I have never tried this on PC....I probably should check it out.

Anyway, good start...keep at it.

[Layabout]

The basics are there, sure, it's an impression of a landscape.

Firstly, please explore using layers. Layers are one of the most powerful and useful features in Photoshop. Think of what you see in this world as layers. Anything overlapping should be on a new layer. Some may disagree with me, but I also find it more effective to shade in layers as well.

Layer masks. In my experience the most underused tool by amateur photoshop users. Hell, I didn't discover them until a few years ago and I've been using photoshop since ever.Masking off each layer ensures you do not break your 'outlines' so to speak, even if you don't use lineart.

Get colour reference from high quality profession photos. Directly colour pick (alt-click when on the pain brush) from these sources. http://www.sxc.hu/ is a great site for stock images.

Got background details? Hell, use stock photos as well. As long as the lighting is correct and the foreground art matches, it's okay to cheat. It's how they do it for matte paintings, it's ok for you, me, everyone.

Find custom brushes. The stock brushes in photoshop are ok, but you can do so much better. That grass brush is very noticeable. Also brush size and hardness!

Clouds have volume too. Don't leave them out! Darker desaturated blue's are nice. Best look at references.

And references! Reference reference reference. It's the basis of all art!

Did I mention reference?

Hah, I notice Red Press has said alot of what I have said. It's because it's all important!

[DrewCCU]

thanks guys/ i have been using layers ... every part of the painting is a seperate layer - the river - the grass - the hill in the background - the mountain - the sky - all seperate layers. i think the clouds are even there on layer. i guess im just having trouble (the most) with all the fine detail that comes next.