December 2007 Day to night - Stephendm

[stephendm]

Hey everyone,

I know it's a bit late to be posting this up but since there's still a week to go I figured I might get some crits on it if you'd be so kind. There's probably loads of problems with it (I've looked at it for so long now, my eyes don't see stupid obvious problems any more) but there's a very good chance I won't get time to do any more on this so what you see here is likely to be my final version but you never know.

I fixed the perspective distortion on the building as best I could, added a sky and painted over lots of it and freehand drew everything else (with the excepton of the slight reflection of the church in the puddle).

As always (and I really need to stop doing this), I had no real plan or clue of final composition throughout the whole process...
I added some scribbles here and there and built it up as I went along.

Hope you likes anyway..

[URs3D.net]

Awesome!

[eyecon]

love your image dude! I like the way you did it. Especially changing the perspective... thats cool.

Theres one thing I'm concerned about though, since the challenge is day to night, this somehow (to me) is off topic, since from a realistic image, your's is now a fantasy image. That doesnot somehow fit on the category. But like I said it's my opinion, I would find it too bad that this might not be included since it does not adhere to the rules... just my 2 cents

hopefully this would be inlcluded...

[stephendm]

UrsiNMC: Cheers mate!

eyecon: Thanks for your comment..and glad you like it!

I'm not quite sure what you mean to be honest.

My image looks the way it does because it is just about as realistic as I can paint without spending a LOT longer on it. I don't understand what you mean by 'fantasy'!? I had no intention of that and I realise that's how you see it, but I don't see this as a fantasy image at all. Could you elaborate please, it would be much appreciated?

The way I see it, the challenge was 'day to night (and as realistic as possible)' and we had to use the supplied image as the base. This is exactly what I did, no? I extended the scene so I could put the moon in, in relation to the existing lighting on the church...this then meant that I had to fill the blank space between the left side of the image and the building and since no other images could be used (with the exception of the sky), it had to be painted.

I went for a stony/grassy garden with a path and trees and the outside light. I don't have any fantasy elements in the image...is it that the overall look of it you think has a fantasy feel or what exactly?

Personally I think this definitely fits the theme..hopefully the judges will see it the same way I do!

Either way, all crits are most welcome...thanks eyecon.

[eyecon]

I have to apologize... I think I saw the image differentlly and upon looking at it really close, I was able to realize my mistake.

Yes you are right, this is a very good image...

Please don't mind my previous comment...

I really thought the image has some sort of cave or huge rock structure beside the church... It took a while for me to realize that it was actually a tree beside the church.

If I may, the tree suggests a framing of the image, but that stops the viewer from looking at the image left to right, Left starting from the moon to the church, (focal point.) Probably the best way to deal with this is to exchange the tree and the moons placement... creating an unobstructed image properlly framed. That would also eliminate confusion. Of course this is just my suggestion and since I'm not an expert, this might not be all true.

All in all a very strong and wonderful image. Good luck! I plan to sit this challenge down and join the next one... I've already enjoyed looking at all your wonderful images and entries...

[stephendm]

No worries, eyecon. I haven’t calibrated my monitor in a while…maybe it’s a bit brighter than it should be, making the trees (and possibly some of the detail) slightly harder to make out on other monitors!? The resizing for web probably doesn’t help much neither Hopefully the full size version will be ok but I’ll recalibrate the monitor tonight anyway and check over my image. Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestion about the framing too – I should get a small bit of time later (I’m in work at the minute) and I will see how it looks reversing the tree and moon.

Shame you won’t be able to make this challenge – I just saw you’re image from the last matte challenge and it was most impressive. Hopefully we’ll see more of your excellent work in the next one.

Cheers,
Stephen.

[eyecon]

Thanks Stephen,

Just sharing a few of the pointers that I learn from other great artist. I hoping on the next challenge I can join, but looking into my schedule, It might not be possible... HAHA! but I'll be here lookin at all the cool works that you guys produce...

I have the utmost respect for mattepainters since this might possibly one of the hardest skill to master.

Good luck in the challenge!

[Yona]

Wow Stephen!
Very nice work!
I like the mood you created, creepy but realistic. I like your sky.

First time I saw it, I thought you put the church in a big cave... like Eyecon said. If you look more carefully you can easily recognize it's a tree, but at first glance it's confusing, mostly because the tree is so large/close to the viewer.
Maybe if you add some more branches it'll be easier to understand.
Another small comment is that the mushroom-lamps (very cool ) are a bit weird... Maybe it's the perspective.

Overall, very cool!

- Yona