Lost City

[.turtlehead]

I think i've found a new love.. matte painting!!

So fun.. I was always too lazy to complete a painting or illustration so being able to combine manipulation skills with my knowledge of painting has been a blast!!

The idea behind this matte is a lost city/village where outsiders must trek for days on end to reach it, it is surrounded by a beautiful river, and is concealed by surrounded mountains and foliage.

I'll attach the base plate to give you guys a rough idea of where I started, but basically, I painted and cloned the water, painted the sureline, that little path and house on the left, the waterfalls, river leading up to mountains and the houses

The plate is a tiny res so I haven't been able to do much detailing.

This is a wip, also, so I should be updating this periodically with updates, water, for one needs some cleaning up, and perhaps some more sky colour in there..

I am happy with my progress atm, I'm finding it really easy to go along with an image and actually stick with it, something I hadn't found before, but of course, I still have a long way to go!!

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=677191&stc=1&d=1242997269

base plate (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=677193&stc=1&d=1242997333)

[.turtlehead]

Update, painted foreground foliage, castle on the left, and just tweaked and adjusted stuff.. colours are beginning to annoy me, not quite sure..

I'm happy that I've stuck this one out, I usually give up after a few days.. but it is beginning to become a pain in the ass too look at it :/ colours are shit..

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=678167&stc=1&d=1243067010

[Alexander Lindner]

Hi there..about your color question...I think you have too much yellow all over the place.... Try the foreground trees in something different. I think they should be darker with more green, less yellow and more contrast. Could maybe be interesting to put one side of the hill (left one f ex) generally darker than the other one, so the hills get "sculpted" more under the light conditions.
There is also a unhappy tangent in your hills on the upper left (top of hill touching the hills behind)....and I think shadow of castle is too strong compared with the shadows just behind. Last minute thought: For the shorelines...try something more whitish than yellow.

Just my 2c, but hope it helps..

[Alexander Lindner]

PS: Just looked at the two again..I think the forground foliage in the first one is actually better than in the second one.

[.turtlehead]

Thanks Alexander, I agree, that tangent is a detail no one has picked up on yet, not even myself, thanks for noticing mate! I may switch the colours around. I agree with you about the original foliage being better, but for the sake of the Matte Painting I wanted to see how I went with switching it, I think the edit is believable, especially with this next update!

The cloud replacement in the update is terrible, I admit, and will play with it later on this evening. The colours are being pushed to their limit because I am constantly flattening the image which is a destructive way of working, but it keeps me fresh and loose, and I like that approach!

The castles shadow will be tweaked, and I will try and implement more contrast in the foliage, and the play on dark and light, thanks for the tips mate.

http://forums.digitalflow.org/download/file.php?id=340&mode=view/Lost_City.JPG

[.turtlehead]

Revived the colours, really pleased with it, fixed that awkward tangent on the mountain line there, and did a few other minor edits, including bringing back the original sky, it was more solid and the other one just wasn't realistic..

I will sign it up and call it done, unless you guys have anymore tips, thanks Alexander for yours, your a lifesaver mate :)

http://forums.digitalflow.org/download/file.php?id=342&mode=view/Lost_City2.JPG

[Alexander Lindner]

I am very happy I could be of some help :)