Environmental concept art

[Venetia]

do you not work in layers? i see a lot of "eek i dont want to mess up things so i'll color around it" strokework. could be my imagination but it seems to me that that's the reason why the ocean looks rather lumpy.

a lot of PS artists will do like thousands of layers but i don't have the stamina to mess with that. but, at the very least, i'll work with a small number of very organized layers (in this case: sky | clouds | ocean | bg icebergs | foreground icebergs | monsta/canoe | li'l dude/details).

doesnt add a whole lot of effort but keeps flat surfaces flat. if you need to blend, make dupe layers.

 

[Perihelion]

Yeah, I'm still in practice mode with painting, so I'm not spending a lot of time polishing. I tend to make millions of layers and organize them into groups, but the idea is that I would spend time cleaning it up and smoothing everything out if I wanted to make it nice. I tend to make new layers and paint on top if I want to change things instead of editing the old layer.

i see a lot of "eek i dont want to mess up things so i'll color around it" strokework.

I'm a little confused. Can you give an example?

The ocean looks lumpy? How so? I'm still trying to figure out how to paint water effectively. What would you suggest I do differently next time?

 

[-Silver-]

I'm still trying to figure out how to paint water effectively. What would you suggest I do differently next time?

Oh man, painting water really well takes half a lifetime of study. My grandfather was AMAZING at oceans in oils, but that was because it's pretty much the only thing he ever painted.

In the UK we have a monthly magazine called ImagineFX, filled with awesome tutorials about digital art. There have been some great tutorials on oceans in there, but even if you're not from the UK I'm sure there are bound to be art mags in your country. Water always scares me, and it's something I keep putting off learning properly. I always find reflection and refraction are the most important elements though. Here's a screeny from one of ImagineFX's ocean tutorials:

Overcast weather, so reflections are less of an issue, but it's the light bouncing around and back out of the water that brings it to life.

 

[Perihelion]

Yeah, that's some really nice water! Water is really tough to paint. I'll try to look some of that up and keep light more in mind in the future. Thanks for the tip.

 

[corleonis]

Just checked out your artwork... I came.

Loving the concepts hope to see them appear in something soon.