GFaught - Gate of Hell WIP

[GFaught]

Hi everyone. I am new to the forums, I joined to participate in this challenge actually.
After I started going I saw that I am doing something similar to someone else on here with a skull shaped rock being the gate, but I think I will proceed anyway.
I started working on the challenge this morning and have been going pretty steady most of the day and have actually gotten fairly far. But I will post where I started for now and then post what I finished earlier today a little later.

So I thought the people in my sketch would have to climb through the eye hole on the skull to get to hell, but when I look at it now it seems more like an entrance down to the gate of hell, and not really The Gate to Hell. maybe I should rethink this.


I think I will also do some more sketches to see if I can come up with something more exciting.

[GFaught]

Ok. So, I didn't post them earlier but, here are two updates from this afternoon/night.




So while I was working I ended up running across a perfect photo which I wanted to use as my base. I extended it on both sides and bottom. I had some problems extracting the sky which I have started to clean up a little bit. I then added the waterfall and my skull shaped portion of the cliff, I also started to add a little trail which I think I may have some adventurers walking down.

Looking at it now I think that I am lacking depth, and I am not exactly sure how I can fix that problem. Perhaps some foreground elements could help, or like a Mount Doom or something sticking up from the background, anyone have any ideas?
C&C always welcome.

[Nocturn8]

shaping up really good....welcome to the forums!

[GFaught]

I wanted to add more depth to this so I did a quick mock up of what I am thinking about doing. I think this works for the most part, although there will be a lot of work to get it looking right. I think I still need to rethink the foreground rocks as well. I was thinking maybe adding a bunch of jaggity rocks.
C&C always welcome. Let me know what you think.

[eyecon]

awesome! I like it so far... very good updates! keep on going man!

[MatejaPetkovic]

Gfaught hope you don't mind, but i couldn't explain it with words.
It looks like sleeping dragon(or it could look like sleeping stone dragon)


M

[GFaught]

Mateja, That is pretty cool. Now that you mention that it is all I can see.
I was just playing around trying to get it to look more like the sleeping stone dragon but it always comes out looking funny. I really like the idea of doing something like that, maybe when I get better at this I will try it again. Or I would love to see what one of you could do with it.

But for now, I have another little update. There is still a lot to do, but I think it is going fairly well so far. I think I need to add more stuff to make it look more menacing.
Comments and Critiques always welcome.

[GFaught]

So I have been toying with the idea of having spikey rocks about and I am not quite sure if I like them or not. They are just roughed in there for now obviously, but do you think I should proceed on them or give them up?

[Goodwin]

Your concept is quite original. I think you should leave those spikey rocks out, especially the ones close to the skull, i think they don't suite the composition. But may be you can leave the ones on the sides. : )

[Suirebit-3DT]

i agree, central ones dont make sense, but you can keep the side , front ones

[GFaught]

So, I have not updated in awhile I have been slowing down on this project but I think I will finish on time. Here is another update, there is still much I would like to do with not to much time left. Let me know what you think.

[eyecon]

Looking great! I will look forward to this on the finals! Great work so far!

[Suirebit-3DT]

looks good, i think you should push it for the final One thing that I notice is that the light on left rocks/cliffs is too bright compared to the rest of the scene....maybe darken it and add light and shadow interaction with the gate itself...Also, overall the light is too uniform, you need to guide the eye towards point of interest by playing with intesities.

[GFaught]

Thanks for your critiques Suirebit, I found them to be very helpful.
So I worked late into the night yesterday to get this thing finished and I think I am very close. there is still more to do but I think I am about finished and was looking for a last round of critiques.

[mordecaidesign]

The foreground is looking a little bit flat. Keep working on those rocks