Matte fortress in progress, would like some tips

[Lillpeter]

I´ve been working on this for about 4 hours, it´s far from finished but i would really appretiate some tips on how to proceed, i´m beginning to feel satisfied about the mountainside but it still looks a bit cartoonish, don´t really know what to do to make it photo realistic.
I´m going to make the upper left corner brighter to further indicate where the light is coming from and i´m going to add alot of detail to the fortress as well.

Lp

http://www.artbypeterj.com/main/gallery/inprog/nat.jpg

[B. Kachel]

Lillpeter I would suggest starting from some rock formation that matches up with your perspective and then begin paintng to extend the cliff. As of now it looks like a concept paintng, but I think if you start sampling colors from other photos, and merging photos with your painting it will blend in your painted elements with photoreal ones. Also if you add some atmosphere elements that will create more depth.

Great job so far.

[wpiggy]

I suggest to make reference of this fortress and cliff in 3D program, this can help to avoid perspective mistakes.
Rocks looks "cartoonish" because they too "uniform" and "depthless", looks like they created with clone-stamp :) That's not real. Try to paint different masses of rocks with different shapes and slightly different colours. Also try to add very detailed cliff at the nearest plane and mountains in the fog behind the fortress, this add depth to image.

Keep on painting :)

[AliK]

Seeing your portfolio, you can easily take this to the next level.
Add some photo elements-textures for the front rocks.
The rest will follow by itself while you are trying to blend the photos into your paintings.
Great job.

[weather]

Hi Lillpeter,
Looking cool so far.

But as the other have suggested, you should use some photo ref, either painted from the photo (lots of work) or simply stuck in and graded. Or use 3D.
Also it seems that you are getting stuck into the detail in the foregroud to soon. Sometimes it helps to establish the backgroud first (in this case the clouds) as it creates the lighting, mood and depth of field.
Either way, the image is coming along.
Cheers

[Muni]

i would say plan your composition first. Without that, no matter how beautiful you render it, it still won't work. If you're doing a matte painting then keep the aspect ratio in mind......this one has potetial!