A forest background.

[Dan2552]

in my opinion the grass looks perfect, don't change it 

i think the cloud-like tree leaves is a unique feature of the artist, don't change it 

the water in the newer still looks a bit like a flood, i'm no artist but i'm sure you can get it right 

the red ?berries? on the floor look a bit odd - i'd advise not so many of them spread out. just doesnt look right


great pic anyway

[Reptile]

in my opinion the grass looks perfect, don't change it 

i think the cloud-like tree leaves is a unique feature of the artist, don't change it 

the water in the newer still looks a bit like a flood, i'm no artist but i'm sure you can get it right 

the red ?berries? on the floor look a bit odd - i'd advise not so many of them spread out. just doesnt look right


great pic anyway

Those are the flowers. The berries can only be seen when used in full resolution. Thanks for the comments.

[Babar]

I dont think grass is such a major issue, I cant spend all my time doing the grass pixel by pixel.

you could use the clone stamp (or whatever it is called in whatever you are using).

The grass would be OK if it was all blurry, but having some blurry and some defined is not so good looking.

[Reptile]

The grass looks the same all over to me.

[AndersM]

The water looks strange. I'd make it more blue. Else it's good work.

[Fizzii]

Actually, the water should be darker and more murky, because the forest is thicker and so there is less sky for the water to reflect off. In the first picture, the sky in the background indicates there's enough light, so the water was fine there.

I actually liked the first version better - with the horizon you could have drawn some mountains in the distance, and that could have fixed it up (you can also say that it's the edge of the forest, which would explain why it didn't seem to get thicker).

With the second version, the trees further away should look darker (like as you walk into the forest, it gets thicker, and hence less light) .

About the tree foliage - well, it's nice in a stylised way If you're aiming for something more realistic, maybe it's better to define the areas of the tree in which the leaves are coming out towards the viewer. Leaves will cast shadows on itself, so you should have some areas which are brighter, others that are darker...

The grass, I think is fine. If you want sharper grass though, maybe it's better not to use the grass brush in photoshop (Or choose two colours that contrast a lot more).

I thought lighting could have been brought out more, shadows particularly.

Quick rough paintover of some of my suggestions:


For the foliage I used the leaf brush, and two different greens. I don't usually use that brush (I usually paint with a 1-pixel round brush).

It's a great improvement on your previous paintings Reptile Keep it up.

[Bad Voo-doo man]

Damn, I wish I could draw like that It looks great!

[Haddas]

Any chance of you having a .png version of that image? I'd like to see it up close to really see what's happening.

[Fizzii]

Umm... no I didn't save it in png format *feels a bit sheepish*

I take it you wanted to look at the leaves in greater detail? (Most people have problems with that, myself included)

I had a go at doing the foliage again, this time as a png image I couldn't replicate the same results as before though...


I used the scattered maple leaves brush, size 3. As I said before, I don't really paint leaves like this, it was just a quickie. The main idea is to have an idea of how the leaves should sit on the tree, and which parts of the tree would be in the light or in the shade...Ã, 

[Haddas]

Thanks. I can learn something from that

Yeah. I wanted to study up close what you had done in that image, and were disappointed because the jpg artifacts destroyed it for me. Great detailed work I must say.

Now that I have the zoom plugin for firefox I kinda like zooming in on everything

[Reptile]

Fizzii> Thats simply amazing, I really will take you're advice and use it on my other backgrounds. Can I use this paintover?

[stuh505]

this picture has improved much from the criticisms so far!

the mushrooms are all the same size.  they should be of varying sizes, and they should get larger in the foreground like the trees do

[Reptile]

this picture has improved much from the criticisms so far!

the mushrooms are all the same size.  they should be of varying sizes, and they should get larger in the foreground like the trees do

*flowers. 

I have made them slightly smaller if you look closely. I think the flowers arent a issue really. I think the background looks perfect now.

[Fizzii]

Stuh is right about the flowers - they should get much more smaller as the forest gets deeper (perspective).

You can use the paintover if you want - you'll have to fix up the lighting on the log in the png version, and tidy it up here and there as well.

[Reptile]

I'll work on it. Thanks.

Expect another background soon.

[Reptile]

... EDIT ...

Sorry removed it for now, will be improved soon.

[Reptile]

Heres the final version, Comments and everything is more than welcome, I really apprechiate you're thoughts. 

1x:


2x:

[CoffeeBob]

That is wunderbaum, Reptile. Keep up the good work!
Final version's really lovely, one thing though, the grass looks a little bit too blurry.
Other than that, great stuff!

[Reptile]

Looks like I'll really have to make a template for me to use to define the grass in all my backgrounds, wish me luck. <Grey hair springs out of head>

<I've made a lot of backgrounds, Im currently working on a japanese style one, when our hero travels there>

[Neutron]

these are great backgrounds.  one thing i would suggest is making a faint white line or two indicating a ripple at the waters edge to better define it.