Alright, time for some comments!
Misj': Interesting comparison of shots, and unfortunately, I agree that the walk in shot is perhaps the least interesting of the potential sections of this scene. I'm wondering if it's at all possible to make it a little more dynamic, perhaps add some more depth, but the high horizon line does make this difficult (though I totally understand your usage of it due to the busy nature of the scene and the difficulty in getting a clear walkable area with a lower angle). Curious to see if you can solve this problem a little with your colouring, perhaps.
Cassiebsg: A fun thing to do if you feel stuck with a shape is to do an image search for buildings/market stalls/etc and see if you can find some of a different configuration - L shaped market stands, angled/curved roofs, that sort of thing. Another thing you can do is to make the contents of the stall break the outline of it - whether it's a big barrel, or a cart/wheelbarrow that sticks out from behind/in front of it that helps break up the plain forms into a more interesting silhouette. I love the big tall building, though, working such a big structure in is very fun and breaks up what could otherwise be a pretty flat scene.
Myinah: Yeah, I like that much better! Although the crate might be a bit awkward in terms of walkable areas, I'll often favour a
slightly awkward design over the most practical one if I think it looks better. Good work getting rid of a whole bunch of those tangents, too, this really helps your forms stand out!
cat: I think you're definitely onto something with the composition down the bottom, it definitely reads more clearly and is more interesting than the rest. One thing I think would help a little is to move the top of the big building down a tiny bit from the top edge of the frame - this will let the shape of the building stand out a bit better and read more clearly. Another thing that might help is dropping the height of the roof of the building directly behind it, to let the shape of the main building stand out against the sky a bit more. I totally agree that it's tough to fit all of the various elements into the scene while still coming up with something that looks good (as you noted, my exits are a bit tough to read, thanks for the feedback!), but I think your last one is pretty well balanced while catering to all of the elements listed in the brief.
Ykni: You've gone with "Striking visually, but not very practical" and "Very practical, but a little more crowded" here, and while I prefer the feel of the first, I totally understand going for a more practical approach in your second sketch. One thing I'd have liked to seen in the first scene is more buildings breaking the silhouette of the clifftop behind and making interesting shapes. I'm hoping you can find a way to balance the visual appeal of your first image with the practicality of your second one!
Lasca: I think you're off to a good start, and I like the idea of splitting the areas between light and dark. It's a little hard to read the "goal" of the game at the moment, though, maybe you could find some way of distinguishing this shape better from its surroundings, although the general composition currently looks quite nicely balanced! Looking forward to seeing more.
Sox: I love the structure up on the cliff, it really adds interest to the scene. I'd suggest bringing your plant (if that's what the cylindrical shape is) into the centre of the image a little, because at the moment it doesn't quite feel part of the composition, almost like it's stealing all the attention off to the right hand side of the scene rather than reading as a whole. This might change if you get more interesting shapes in the middle part of the image, of course, but currently it grabs my attention away from the square shapes in the middle and ruins the balance a bit.
Loominous: It's really interesting to watch how the lighting affects how the image reads as a whole, on the basis of a single rough layout, the changes are immense. I like the idea of trying to balance the large building with the height of a ship's mast, reminds me of
this. One thing that catches my eye is the shape of the round tree and the square directly above it - two very similar sized shapes right in the middle makes a kind of weird central focal point that I can't quite look away from. Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
Selmiak: I like how the shape of the land (?) breaks up the straight lines, that works very nicely. One thing I'd be wary of is that the opening is a little hard to notice at present - maybe you could adjust the angle of it to catch the light a little better? It's a great start, I want to see more!
As for my own sketch, I've updated my
original post with a fourth set of progress images!
I'm wary of posting a FULL image with all my wip stages in a thread due to the size, does it make sense to everybody to just include a smaller, single image like this?
