Smithy Background - seeking advice

[ThreeOhFour]

After creating this background, I am not sure where to go now. I've done it in as much detail as I thought necessary but it still feels rather cartoon-esque and I would like to give it more depth and perhaps better lighting or something. I am at a loss where to begin, I keep coming back to improve it but cannot find where to begin. The image is intended to be a small smithy:



If anyone could give me suggestions, advice or even a paintover, I would be most grateful. So far I have only used paint, however that isn't the only program I have access to.

Oh, and happy holidays .

[Akumayo]

Not dirty enough, I always picture smithing rooms to be covered in metal, ash, soot, etc.  Maybe adding a good bit of black around the furnace and anvil would livin the scene up a bit.

[InCreator]

The house must be in bottom of very deep valley to have such view outside from window.

I love the shading, but there's no way blacksmith's working room to look like this. It's clean like hospital!

Real smithys are almost black due smoke and ash. I mean walls, ceiling, lot's of trash on floor, etc. Dusty and ashy windows, so dark that it's almost impossible to see out...
Well, akumayo already said this. So I second. This is important!

Your drawing is good. But pay attention to ideas and composition.

[esper]

I might also mention that blacksmiths probably would not have nice drywall, or stucco, or wallpaper, or whatever we have here. Try wood. Or stone... Maybe some rafters.

[Mr. Mozzarella]

the perspective seems a bit weird to me, but maybe that's intended 

[ScottDoom]

Also, except for the dirt dragged into the doorway, it's hard to tell that doorway leads outside. You need to texture the grass and perhaps add a bush or something outside.

As others have said, it needs more dirtyness, and also more examples of smithy work. I like the style though. Good work.

[ThreeOhFour]

Ok, change walls, make outside look like outside and make it dirty. I'll get back to you when I've figured something out.

Thanks for the help.

[hedgefield]

I made a quick paintover to maybe give you some ideas.



Smoke, dirt and ash indeed. I did nothing about the walls, just something about the ambience. Also, I'd imagine the furnace would be the most powerful source of light inside the smithy (provided it's on).

[Ishmael]

It's way too bright.

largopredator's paintover is good, except I don't think a blacksmith's furnace would generate that much light. The furnace I've seen in a smithy generated about no light at all, but it was a coal and air operated one... If you've got a fireplace-like furnace in mind, then sure, the bright light would fit in.

[Evil]

Most blacksmith "furnaces" I've sene look something like this.

http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/jacob_wismer/resources/fortvancouver/blacksmith1.jpg

As for the building itself. Most of them have dirt floors with wooden walls. Yours has very few tools, when in reality a blacksmith would have hundreds of tools and peices of scrap metal everywhere.

[Ishmael]

Exactly what I meant, Evil.

[ThreeOhFour]

Ok, I've done some wooden walls and that, but how do I get that funky dark effect from the paintover by largopredator? I have little graphical  experience beyond paint and this is an attempt to change that.

[Babar]

Reddish tinge! The whole background should have a reddish tinge. Especially the furnace

[n3tgraph]

I think that this room looks like a bedroom with blacksmith tools init!

It looks like the walls are finished with creme wallpaper or glassfiber-wallpaper stuff

For the rest, I like the style! And it's drewn nicely! It's just the atmosphere

[Ishmael]

how do I get that funky dark effect from the paintover by largopredator?

I'd try the burn tool in Photoshop. Don't know what it's called in other programs, if it's called differently.

In paint I'd just select the base colour, open the colour dialog and make the colour slightly darker, paint the area I want darkened, then open the colour dialog again and make the colour yet a bit darker, then painting a little smaller area, and continueing so untill I have a gradually darkening result. Ofcource I'd do this in Photoshop too, with my own drawing style, as smooth colour changes really don't fit into my style at all. But into your style they seem to fit.