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Glaiceana — Distant Dunes
Published: 2012-12-20 16:57:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 1809; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 0
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Planned this one out with some thumbnail sketches. I would really like some feedback, I started this in greyscale, and had a lot of trouble painting it. I got there in the end by duplicating the layer, changing the new one to multiply, and putting a colour layer in the middle.Should I paint straight in colour for environments in the future?
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Comments: 20
I really love the building peeking out through the dunes in the backdrop. I love how the brushstrokes are rough in the front and then smooth out towards the sand dunes in the back.
The only thing I could think of is using a bit more variation in the colors on the sand, a little more than yellows and browns perhaps?
Overall it's a very lovely piece! I also love the cow skull in the foreground.
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Thank you for your feedback
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Awesome painting, has a really nice hazy desert feel to it and love your colour choices. Sadly, I'm no expert on digital painting (still in very early learning phases, I nearly always work in traditional mediums) - but as you said you were having some troubles, I thought I'd share the learning resource I'm using, which is by far the best concept drawing learning resource I've ever stumbled across: [link] (or search 'FZD School of Design' on youtube and look through his channel if you don't like clicking links from relative strangers on websites).
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I'm already subscribed to that guy, I just need to get round to watching all the videos lol xD Thank you for you comments!
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What I usually do is figure out the light/dark patterns with a greyscale or monochrome thumbnail, and then paint directly with color over that. This is quite atmospheric, as well. I love the details in the foreground.
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Thank you 
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Digital sketching isn't all that different from sketching on paper, it just requires a lot of practice and feels awkward at first. : P
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Yeah definitely awkward xD My hand feels all shakey when trying to sketch with the tablet and then straight lines come out jagged, which is annoying when I know that it wouldn't be like that with pencil and paper xD
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I really love your lanndscapes I cannot draw any
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I think I saw this in a different stage of completion on the forums, I like the additions you've made! I think you've made a good start.
I think what could really make this piece pop would be to apply some color theory in terms of the difference between a lit surface and an area in shadow in daylight. Specifically, I feel as though the dark side of the dunes are quite bright and red, they glow almost like a translucent section of skin. Often in bright sunlight under a clear sky, shadows will take on a slightly blue tint. In short, without the direct yellow-ish light of the sun, the shadows pick up a lot of the blue bounced light from the sky. It would slightly desaturate the shadows and make them a little purple overall.
[link] this picture shows some of what I mean. I feel like it's a little washed out, but you see the blueish tints in the shadows. Also notice how small piles of sand help integrate the sand dune biome with the rocky foreground.
You did a good job with the atmospheric perspective! You may try softening the edges of the furthest-away dunes into the edges of the sky with a low opacity brush, just to take emphasis off of them by reducing their sharpness. I don't recommend doing this with a blur tool or filter, because it comes out a little hokey sometimes.
Lastly, I'm not very fond of the composition, with the largest dune being smack in the center, but that was something better changed at thumbnail stage than now.
You're braver than I am, forsure, I need to do a lot of environment practice ;-; I hope some of this feedback is useful, let me know if I said something confusing (It happens more often than I'd like, XD).
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Thank you, that was very helpful! I think I will try to desaturate and cool down the shadows a little. And yes I did think about putting in some patches of sand onto the rocky part, I wish I had done it now XD I've had a few comments about the dune in the center though, I'm just wondering why this is a bad choice?
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Mainly just because it's, hmm, 'boring', so to speak? It makes a piece look more like a tourist snapshot than a 'discovery', at least to me. Centered compositions have their place, but I don't think it fits well with this environment. Just my thoughts!
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Ah ok, I see what you mean 
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Oh, dur, I forgot your direct question: I think painting in greyscale is a good way to get an eye for value, but you need to keep generally the same values when you color it otherwise it isn't going to look the same. If you paint in greyscale in the future, try just painting a smaller version and enlarging it, then using it as a guide while painting in color, that way you aren't trying to fiddle with adjustment layers and so forth
I normally go straight to color, because I am the lazy.
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Thank you very much for the feedback! Yes its all very helpful, each time I get some feedback, I look at the painting in different ways, and it all helps for me to see different ways of approaching it. But yes the next environment painting I do I will start in colour and see how that goes
And yes I see what you mean with the saturation, and also about the sunlight cutting over the dunes in that example, looks interesting and I might give it a try
So thanks again for the feedback
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You're welcome! I'm glad I could help ^^
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This looks pretty good, i love deserts
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Thank you!
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