An evil-filled castle in the sky that needs C&C

[Secret Fawful]

Hi, I am going with a whole new style now, and I need a C & C on it. I am wondering on soem things. First, the clouds. There is something not right about them. Next, the castle. I am wondering if it might be a bit, too jagged. Next, I am wondering how the colors in the sky look. And lastly, something in the moon is missing. Be reminded that not all of this is finished, but I need C & C on some of the finished parts. Namely, the ones I have listed. Thanks
and let me know what you think.
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/skycastle1.jpg

[Peter Thomas]

Firstly let me say that the clouds are my favourite part of the whole thing! With just a touch more shading on them, I think they'll look perfect. The only other comment regarding them is: you say the castle is already in the sky? And yet the ONLY clouds in the pic are above the castle, suggesting that THAT is the sky, as opposed to the whole picture. You need to add clouds to the BOTTOM, ie - covering up portions of the floating mand-lass, so people realise that it's sky EVERYWHERE.

Regarding the castle, I wouldn't say it's too "jagged"; rather that it's too "wobbly". Having bits look they'll be sliding around  is a little off-putting. Also, as far as castles go, it's quite small - it's only about 6 cactuses (cacti?) high!

The colours for the UPPER sky work well, though I think the gradient change between the purple and black happens a little too quickly. For the lower sky, it's a bit "in your face" to have all purple. I'd try incorporating blues and creams to make it look  more natural, and as I said above, try adding clouds around there to take up space and make it more obvious that the whole thing is in the sky.

As for the moon, I don't really have a problem with it. A little more shading could be nice, but I think all it needs is for you to tuck a bit of it behind a cloud, so that we only see a bit of it (e.g - the top two thirds sticking out from behind a cloud).

Overall I love the picture and think it has great potential. Just a few little quirks ironed out and you'll be well on your way

[Secret Fawful]

I don't know about incorporating creams. As far as the purple sky, it is part of the style I mentioned. If you look closely enough, you will notice that the upper sky is not a dark purple, but a greyish blue. It is meant to be a bg for a fantasy game, plus a bit cartoonish. If you think darker blue is needed though, well, I will put in some darker blue. As far as the gradient change problem, I will try to find a way to make that look better. I didn't want to put the moon behind some clouds because it is a one-quarter moon, and I believe that putting it behind some clouds would make it stand out less. I could be wrong though, and if so, it will be changed. I will put more clouds under the castle so it looks like it is in the sky, and will also make the cactus smaller. Thanks

[Cerulean]

The castle is rather person-shaped. That may be intentional or not, but if you want it to look evil, the "eyes" have to be made mean-looking. Also, the parts that are tilted outward may be a bit over-exaggerated; some of those floors are nearly 45 degrees.

[aussie unplugged]

I agree with Cerulean.

To me, the castle looks "cute" rather than "evil".

[Secret Fawful]

Hmmm, ok, thanks, I will try to fix that.

[Damien]

The biggest problem I see is that it's over crowded with different styles, for example the cloud outlines are pencil like, and there are no outlines on the rocks/mountains.
Also, you used a gradient (not a very subtle one) for the sky and moon coloring, but you used solid color for rock coloring. To me it looks like you've sketched your bg first (good job on that), opened it in photoshop (or gimp, or whatever) and used gradients/freehand tools for coloring. What did it took you to do that? 10 - 15 minutes?
Here's the way I suggest you to do things:
-draw a sketch
-scan and import into your paint program
-resize/crop it into some normal resolution
-trace the outlines
-color it (and be patient about it)

[Secret Fawful]

Um, ok. BTW it was actually a practice thing at first cause I was just using Gimp for the first time. It took me about a half an hour to an hour cause I had no idea what I was doing. So...

[hedgefield]

Yeah, I agree on the castle. It needs more size. At least make it broader. It somehow reminds me of some sort of elvish treehut. Except it grey. And not quite tree-like at all. Anyway...

That...thing under/next to the bridge, what is it? Is it some sort of Zeppelin holding the island up or something? I love those clouds though, they're cool.

Oh, and before you color in a pencil sketch, try adjusting the levels, or the contrast. I don't know how that works in GIMP, but in photoshop it works quite well. It mainly blacks out the lines, creating a more pen-like drawing. Also, clear up any noise from the paper and line-bleeds, as they tend to create havoc when you unleash the paint bucket on it. For instance at the bridge and the castle.

Otherwise it looks pretty good, keep working on it.

[Secret Fawful]

ok, thanks for the feedback everybody. *Goes and works on it*

[Khris]

When creating bgs from scanned drawings, I put the scan in its own layer and set that to about 30% opacity [and to Multiply].

Then I color it on a different layer using the drawing only as reference.

See this tutorial for a full explanation.

[Secret Fawful]

hey, thanks