[Twacle]

I have a problem whith landscapes. They seem to me, much harder to paint than portrets. The amount of texturing and the complex surfaces are just too much for me. If you can help, explaining a techniquie, perhaps show an example of your own work, that would be great. Also if you know of good tutorials on the net, please post the adress.

Thanks!

[balistic]

The thing that helped me most in learning to make interesting landscapes is an understanding of how people perceive scale. In landscape, its often important to give the viewer at least one visual cue of how they fit into the world you're presenting. Usually I do this by including something very close to the camera that the viewer can relate his scale to . . . like the brick in "Alkali":
http://www.bprince.com/Alkali.jpg

If you don't include those kinds of foreground elements, you can still have a good landscape as long as you set up the depth of environment in a compelling way. You end up with more of a matte painting, because the viewer won't feel as immersed in the picture, but as long as you're establishing distance, you're doing good landscaping. And example of that kind of thing in my work might be "Sun Tower":
http://www.bprince.com/SunTower.jpg

There's nothing close to the viewer that invites him to walk around, but the piece works because I've used lighting and atomspheric haze to set up a very basic heirarchy of distance.

Always try and make your canvas as "deep" as you can . . . let the viewer know where things are in relation to each other on the Z-axis, and they will be more inclined to get lost in the image. Atmospheric perspective becomes just as important as lighting and textures when you're doing landscape . . . don't even worry about textures until you've defined the depth of your scene.

I'm starting to ramble so I'll stop

[balistic]

Another thing I wanted to add is that you should'nt be afraid of "empty" space . . . don't feel like you have to cover the canvas with visual clutter in order to create an interesting image . . . people like wide, open spaces.

We wouldn't appreciate mountains if it weren't for the prarie. And vice versa.

[Twacle]

Hey man, i love your Alkali painting. I remember seeing it posted on the forum, it's great. The advice is very good too.

Could you tell me how you actualy paint the landscapes. Do you box in the shapes an then start detailing and texuring, or start from a corner in full detail ?

Any steps you may have saved could help greatly

[balistic]

"Alkali" is a 3D rendering, not a painting. Here's what the wireframe looks like:




However, when painting, its almost always best to work from the general to the specific. Block in rough colors and shapes first, and then apply finer detail where its needed.

Starting from one corner of a blank canvas in full detail is like turning off your headlights and mashing down the accellerator on a moonless night . . . you need to see where you're going, of you'll have compositional problems later on.

Define your lighting, your mood, and your composition before you worry about detail.

[ceenda]

Hi there Twacle.

"The Composition of Outdoor Painting", by Edgar Payne is, IMHO, the definitive manual on doing landscape paintings. It has sections on light, tone, composition, colour theory and tons of other information as well. It's a bit of a heavy read at times, but great to pick up as a reference.

I could post in some scans if you want, as the book isn't really available anywhere at the moment.

[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: ceenda ]

[Twacle]

Balistic, if it's 3d it's a great piece of art, i have been in 3d for like 3 years and then decided 2d was for me. What i whant to say is: i know how hard it is to ger a render like that, great job indeed.

Ceenda, i don't have the money to buy the book, any foreign book for that matter (In Romania they get very expensive) so posting some scans, if you have any, would be a great ideea.

Another question: Is it a good way to paint a mountain for example, shade it and then texture it (no 3d software) ?

If you have any examples of good textures please post some. I have found Feng Zhu has a particular talent for this. Visit his site Feng's site

Another artist that i admire a lot and the one that made me go from 3d to 2d: Leoarts Can you tell me how he paints his images ?

[Tarandon]

If I had to guess, which I probably shouldn't, I would say he used the airbrush alot in 99&00, but he seems to have changed his style last year. I think its alot easier to get those good fades when using an airbrush. I don't know if you've seen Enalya's stuff, but I heard someone remark once that she uses and airbrush as well. One way or the other her art is always a pleasure to view. As for landscapes, I find them compositionally easier than human poses, but I'm not really good at either.

Anywho, I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

Toodles.