[Nex]

here's a small doole i just finished and ended up liking some kind of:



full size (1024x768): http://unet.univie.ac.at/~a9627269/river.jpg

crits 'n tips are very welcome

[Edit] I just see the compression did terrible things to my gradients there.. maybe i can get that better

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- Nex

http://on.to/nex

[This message has been edited by Nex (edited August 05, 2000).]

[Fred Flick Stone]

Im not too sure about the stars. Seem a bit cliche...

But I really like the way the city is looking. Sort of odd worldish. Lie the organic flow to it. You should crop in the image a bit more and focus on that city. There is a lot of promise there...

Also, although it is dark, try using more color in it. For example, to help better define the mountains, you might want to add deep tones of reds and purples in it, put some deep blues into the water, deep I mean reflecting the starry night sky back into it, not like the blue water you see in the daytime. Color even in dark paintings help out so much in defining an image. Otherwise you might as well just go black and white...

I want to see a bigger shot of that city. It looks really intriguing...

[ceenda]

Now this is swwweeeeet. I like this alot!

This pic has a very soothing atmosphere about it.

The only thing I can say - and it's not really a complaint - is that I can't really get a sense of how big the village is. It could be a little mushroom village or a large town.

Either way, I know what I like, and I like this alot.

[daz199]

very nice...but i'd make the lights in the distance brighter..it would draw more attention to them and theres not enough contrast in the image anyway..but well done!
oh and maybe reflect the lights in the river a bit

[Nex]

whow this must be a record!

3 replies in 5 mins

Fred: Thanks I will try getting more detail on the city and moving it closer to the viewer. When i look at the stars I have to admit that they are really VERY clich�.. like on one of those romance-books some women tend to read (the ones with the shirtless guy holding a beautiful woman in their arms )

ceenda: great you like it. YOure right about this scale thing too, now that I look at it the distance is not really defined very good, so its hard to say if its a fairy city in the middle of the river or a big city at the end of it.. lets see what i can do about it.

daz199: I will make the lights a bit brighter, lets see if it looks better.

Will work on that one a bit more and post an update maybe tomorrow.

Comments are still welcome however

[psi burn]

it looks really dark, too dark to make out much besides areas that have glowling lights =[

hopefulyl when the sun goes down i can see it

[Jeezus]

I like it, but it's just too dark. it's too hard to make out a lot of the elements.

[Anthony]

Nex, you and I must have the same monitor gamma, cause I see it just fine, but everyone tells me my paintings are too dark as well. ^_^ To me this looks like a comic book drawing, and that's not a bad thing. If you want stars, I'd make them more in focus, and smaller, and don't have the lens flare type stars-they've been a tad overdone. Nice job, good mood.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Rinaldo]

Yeah I had my contrast turned down when I saw it. I was like "what's he doing putting up a black square?"

It was honstly that bad. But I like it now that my screen is brighter.

[edit note] I usuialy don't have my monitor that dark, It looks fine on my normal settings I just had it down to make some white pages I was looking at not so blinding.

[This message has been edited by Rinaldo (edited August 05, 2000).]

[Nex]

hmm my monitor is set at

6500�K

100% contrast

98% Brightness

- it displays quite ok for
with that setting me.. does not look all too dark.

great you guys like it, I'll work on it a bit more (now I'm kind of motivated )

[Loki]

Nex - your monitor is waaaayyyyy to bright - that's why we, with moderately normal adjustments, see the iage as too dark.
Measure your colors in the image and check out what the brightest value is - I guess not more than 75%.
Bring up a gradient from 100%black to 100%white and check if it's even ...
You should adjust it, otherwise, noone else will be able to enjoy your images ...

[sydneyshan]

Alot of people on this forum (who are good) seem to use some kind of opacity on the brushes they use- where they've scribbed up and down using a large brush, you can still see some detail behind the strokes. What's the secret to this kind of painting? I feel like I'm missing something very important....!
I usually paint with 100% opacity all of the time, and choose the colours using the HSB method.
Thanks (in advance) for filling me in!

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Shannon Murdoch
www.bounce.to/shan

[Nex]

here is an update..



How is this now? better?

I boosted the brightness up 10% I hope now it shows up normally.

Loki: I tried the gradient thing but even now with reduced brightness to approx 78% the picture looks not that dark.. maybe its my cheap monitor. I don't use any gamma correction software.. maybe thats the problem.

sydneyshan: I painted most of the time with paintbrush, set to 100% pen set to opacity (and size for detail) most of the time. It comes out like this then, just try.

[edit] hmm, still see some errors there

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- Nex

http://on.to/nex

[This message has been edited by Nex (edited August 05, 2000).]

[Fred Flick Stone]

Where the water meets the shoreline, it looks like it is convex. Looks a little strange, you might want to fix that up. Or is all that supposed to be fog? Sorry if it is fog, and dismiss my remark earlier...The color injections are really making it look nice...

[Anthony]

Looked infinitely better before. Let's start an exclusive "ultra dark pictures/bright monitors" club. Seriously, it looks way better in the first version. My monitor is set to about 40% brightness, 100% contrast. If I make it any lower the interface is too dark!

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[SewerRat]

Something happened with the water, and I can't figure out what it is, but it just doesn't look as watery now.

[Nex]

SO here is the last version (I promise )



fred: it was supposed to be fog.

Sewer Rat: I rewaterized(tm) the water a bit lets see if this is better now..

Anthony: I'm in for the flaring-bright-monitor-club


oh comments still welcome of course but I won't modify the pic any more i think.

[Danny]

Phew... all I get is a few faint yellow dots.. What a nightmare monitor settings can be...

Danny



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[email protected]

Trust in Trance

[Nex]

hmm this really begins to bug me..

I can clearly see it at

Cont: 82
Bright: 67

Can anyone help here? Got no idea whats wrong...

[edit] re-saved it with ICC profile. maybe thats it.



[This message has been edited by Nex (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Dean Welsh]

I'll Join that Bright Monitor Club.

I'm sitting here. Doop de doop. man. that's a nice picture.

Scroll Down.

Oooh Even prettier with those brighter lights.

Start Reading.

Too Dark? What are they talking about.

Check my monitor settings
100% contrast
85% Brightness.

OH... maybe that's it.

[Binke]

Nice pic Nex! I like the mountains.
Although I think that, the glows looks a little too.."glowy" and a bit too matte.

I don't think the picture looks too dark.
I got my contrast on 100% and my brightness on..uhm, so that the black ,stays black.
uhm.


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http://binke.gamesquad.net

[Anthony]

Ah, so there are quite a few that have bright monitors. Can send secret messages painted into the bgs of our pics and no one will be able to read them. Lol
I still like the first one Nex-looks like a good comic book frame.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Dean Welsh]

Next time I paint Something I'll write "I love you Anthony" in the Greys

Sound good?

[Nex]

hehe did noone notice this small pyramid-with-an-eye symbol that i have in every picture :P

"Trust nobody!" Muahahahaha

thanks guys for all for the very positive feedback.

Cya

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- Nex

http://on.to/nex

[Dean Welsh]

you almost made me look... I must be tired.