Critic on painting

[cat]

Hi!

I tried some digital painting but I am not satisfied with it. Can you help me to improve it?

[Anian]

Don't know if you're trying out painting with a tabelt, but still some lines are not clean, the arch edges especially.
You could put some details into the edge of the path, like the grass is kinda sticking out onto it (sorry can't remember the word for it).
Also the castle sort of has perspective problems.

On stlye note, it looks ok. Personally would add a few more trees on the hills (btw those on the left are maybe a bit too big when comapraing to the castle).
Also maybe move the point of view a bit back, so the bottom of the archway can be seen (a bit of the floor as well), it makes the "frame" of the picture a bit more clearer.

I'm sure other people will give more artistic and greater comments, but I hope that helps.    

[Azraq]

you could add some midground elements along the roadway to help cement the scale a bit.  to give the eye something to follow to make sense of why it's winding around the way it is.  some rocks, bushes, signposts, ect.

little details to give those rolling hills a sense of proportion and depth.

[ThreeOhFour]

I think it could benefit from a little more atmospheric perspective - which I tried to add by washing over the distant objects with a low transparency brush the same colour as the sky (maybe I went a bit over the top though).



I hope this helps a bit

[cat]

Thank you for your critics, here is a new attempt:
Added "floor" to the archway, detail to way and grass, (hopefully) fixed perspective issues and lowered saturation in background.

[Snarky]

I think the biggest problem is that the motif is kind of boring, and the composition, with the archway framing it in dead center, too static.

Also, and you may not care about this, the architecture of the castle doesn't make too much sense. Towers aren't that much taller than the surrounding walls, there should be more defenses around the gate, and generally there's one central keep (the main building inside the walls), not just arbitrary individual columns. If this is a real fortification, there'd probably also be other walls on the hill to provide a primary line of defense. I'm not saying you have to stick 100% to realism, but this looks more like someone's vague idea of what a castle looks like than a building with a function and history. To me at least, it just doesn't look right, which makes it more difficult to believe in the picture.

That aside, consider your light source more carefully. Not just the castle, but also the landscape will have bits that are in the sun and bits that are in shade. Currently the hill seems shaded completely flat, and I don't know why the foreground is darker than it. And while the castle has sides that are in highlight and shadow, it doesn't seem to cast a shadow at all. Also adjust shading on the archway itself; that way you'll give it more depth.

I think you'd probable see more of the distant landscape behind the hill. And adding a far background layer would enhance the use of atmospheric perspective and sense of depth, anyway.

Are the three trees to scale with the castle and the vineyard? They seem too big, and make the whole thing look like a miniature.

Add some detail strategically, where people's eyes are drawn. And by that I mean: clean up the castle. I'd also recommend adding some color. Wouldn't the roofs at least be in thatch or tile rather than brick or stone? You'll also need to turn the lines of bricks in the close wall from a single brush stroke into something with more volume and add texture to the wall at some point.

I don't think the perspective of the distant bit of the road is sound. The widest part seems too wide.

Finally, one small detail: be careful that you paint all the way to the edges. Currently there's a kind of fringe of lighter grass by the left side of the archway, and the vineyard on the right seems in places to stop right where we can't see it. Hopefully you're drawing on separate layers, so you should make a habit of painting a little bit beyond what we can see. That way the cutoff will be realistic.

[cat]

Actually, the towers are loosely based on San Gimignano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gimignano). They do not serve any purpose, each family wanted to have the highest tower to demonstrate wealth.

I will try to do the changes you suggested. I did not use layers for this (except for the archway, which I merged in the meantime), I wanted to try it without them.

[Wesray]

The towers reminded me of San Gimignano the minute I saw them, so you definitely got that semblance right.

As for the picture itself, I'm afraid I don't have any constructive criticism to offer - I'm no good with the technical side of drawing. But I do prefer your second attempt with the more detailed foreground.

[Snarky]

Actually, the towers are loosely based on San Gimignano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gimignano). They do not serve any purpose, each family wanted to have the highest tower to demonstrate wealth.

Oh, OK. Those are separate structures within a walled town, though, while I took your design to be a single castle (given how small it is). In that context, it still looks wrong to me: not functional enough to be a fort, too small to be a walled town, not ornate enough to be a faux-medieval palace.

Like I said, it may not be something you care about, and you can still get the painting of it right.

BTW: You can probably submit this to the Background Blitz if you want to. It suits the topic well enough and seems to have been created in the right timeframe.

[TheJBurger]

Try to experiment a lot with the composition by using thumbnails. That way you can get down a proven design before you start painting.

Here is one idea that only took 5-10 minutes to do:


Not perfect by any means, but it may give you some ideas in the future.