First matte painting attempt

[NickATnitE]

This is my first one, I can't wait to do more...
Please give me comments and crits :wink: I have A driving need to get good at this artform. It really satisfies my god complex. cause like the big guy (or girl) if you do you job right no one will know you've done anything at all. Heh http://www.houlden-onwebdesign.com/Nick_Clark/Nick_treyandmike.jpg

[graphmac]

Wow, if thats a first go, thats amazing.
My first goes have ended up looking like manga backgrounds.
Did you hand paint everything including the people, or is there some photographic element??
You can use sharper edges on your clouds to define the shape.
pocketmole.com has a link to clouds and smoke tutorials.

[Tchook]

Hi
Nice first try
But i thinkl you can tweak your compose a little bit.

There is something wrong with the hardness of the shadows of the rocks, cause you have something like a hazy sun (coming from the left of the image) and your shadows are much too hard.

You need to blend the rocks under the water line especialy the big one on the right .The "shadows" need to be harder just under the reflection line and lighter with the distance(you can find tons of references over the net).

The rock in the middle of the comp looks very wrong, you dont know where the light is coming from, and where the reflection starts.

And watch out the big rock in the distance seems to float at the rear.

The blending between the rock and the water ,where the two kids stand, is good.
: :wink:

[max4ever]

I think the edges of the rocks are too soft...you should use hard edges for something like stones.
in rest looks cool even though the perspective(I mean the depth) doesn't work for me.

[Ross Forster]

This is looking really nice...

Looking at your reflections though, I dont see any displacement happening due to the water, so I would have a look at them.

[NickATnitE]

hey guys thanx for your comments. unfortunatly for my painting skills these are not all painted, the guys are a picture of two members of phish at their last show. and the three foreground rocks are pics. The archy rock in the middle is painted cause the pic was to low res.
graphmac thanx for the link I'm gonna mess around with that method, clouds have really been a pain for me I can never get them the way I want them.
Tchook thanx for the crits I will fix that stuff up. btw I love your work! the quicktime breakdowns on your site are really helpfull to us beginners.

Well back to work...
8)