I'm not great at scenes so any Tips or comments would be great, I trying to give the Island a very imposing and intense feel but I'm having problems not knowing what details should be accentuated

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hey Slaine,

Things are looking pretty good here.  it's a nice start. one thing I'd recommend is to try and keep your style the same throughout the image. the landmass seems to be in oils, the water seems done by pen and scratchboard, and the sky seems to be airbrushed. though there's nothing wrong with blending mediums, try to work them into one another for a complete piece instead of keeping the mediums separated into different sections.

Remember that you want the piece to flow and not look segmented. 

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"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat

You're making a common mistake of concentrating on detail and losing track of the silhouettes of the overall composition.

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yeah I see what you mean  fabledgoat, it seems mess with the perspective

I'll get on the case of getting the values right, cheers for the advice guys its awesome to get good creative feedback

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actually it was Em that gave you the perspective feedback.

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"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat

aye though the mixing of media does mess with the perspective! anyhowI've taken what you guys said into account and redone the image I pretty much left the sky and sea alone because I have no idea what media I could use to make them blend in better

 

 

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It's different, but the silhouette problem is still there.

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any ideas on how to fix it dude?

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Landscapes aren't really my thing, but I did a quick scribble to show what I'm talking about.

Basically, I just reduced the range of tones in the buildings/hill area, so that it reads as one shape when put against the higher contrast of the sky.

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We are covering a big distance here so as you get farther away, ie the horizon, you should be losing detail . Notice how your trees all are the same no matter how far away they are?, this makes your depth less realistic. You shouldnt focus on individual trees when they are far, but more like a mass of tree shapes that is one thing, and then highlight the top areas with a lighter color for to break up the blob into more tree like feeling. Also the colors of the trees should fade as you get farther away, ie they should be lighter, and the ones closer should be darker with more pronounced shapes and details. Do not think of water as a whole bunch of little whitecaps , this kind of water is only out at sea. When water comes into the shore line, it breaks and forms long channels. A wave can be really really long, there should only be about two or three long white lines coming into the shore, where they should meet a beach or a cliff, not just trees . Try adding light fog , or mist, starting at the top and making it dissipate towards the foreground. The farther away, the more fog you are looking through, therefore the 'thicker' the fog. This will also give more sense of depth. I like all the little details you have in the city.. looks good. Try doing the lights on a different layer, and then going to the layer menu at the top, and setting that layer to 'outer glow'. This really makes them look like lights instead of just color... try messing around with those settings if it doesnt look good initially. inner glow is cool too. Hope to see this updated, nice work --

slip

thats some awesome feedback I'll get cracking on sorting it out, cheers dudes

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right! I've lessened the tonal range on the building silhouette but then I changed the sky sos I have no idea if it worked like it was supposed to, I've also tried to sort out all of the problems that slip pointed out, though I'm kind stuck with the sea, the problem being - how do you paint rolling waves from behind, originally I tried doing the same technique as the shore line but it looked rather dire, I don't know if you've noticed yet but I don't usually do scenery but you guys have turned a pretty  crap sketch into a scene, which is nice, cheers dudes!

 

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hey Slaine. looking good but I don't think the sky is working quite well with the image. though the sky itself looks good, it seems a lot lighter than it should. your shadows and buildings give off a really distinct night feeling to them but when you look at the sky it just looks a little overcast with the sun breaking through.

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"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat