background (UPDATE: night version !!!)

[prowler]

this is the first bg i've drawn since i got my wacom, and it's supposed to be the first bg for my game. overall, i'm quite satisfied with it, aside maybe from a few touch-ups.

...

oppinions/criticisms?

EDIT: as you've probably noticed, i've finished it. the gradient is gone
i'm sure it still has flaws thoÃ,  , but it kinda fits with what i had in mind..

[Sam.]

its a nice bg. all I would say, is get rid of some of the pencil lines. the gradient, despite your expanation, annoys me. maybe if you added something behind the hill, gave it a horizon. I don't know. but overall good job.

[prowler]

yeah i know it sucks, i think i'll draw a horizon after i've drawn some more backgrounds, so that they form a unitary picture...

[Sam.]

i didn't say it sucked. I think it is a sweet bg but i don't like the grad. c'est tout.

[Tiki]

Very awesome background.  Great style.  The pencil lines look good, in my opinion.  My only crit is that the ground seems much darker than the sky, like maybe it should be a night scene.  And ,of course, get rid of the gradiant.

[prowler]

it will probably be an evening scene.. i found a great tutorial for drawing clouds, i just hope they'll fit in with my style. i'll also add some mountains in the back.

i'll post it when i'm done

-
"i didn't say it sucked" - i meant the gradient

[Chicky]

ahh clouds. they are the easy part

what i do is draw a outline of a cloud in a greyish kind of colour

fill the inside with a lighter grey, almost white.

Add a few bumps to the inside colour in the darker colour to give it depth.

use the smudge tool to blur the two colours of lines together

check out the clouds on my background to see what i mean...
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/statuebg2.png

[prowler]

thanks for the advice. i found a tutorial on drawing clouds with the aid of the dodge ( i think) tool and some other interesting stuff, i lost the link but i found it at http://www.sumaleth.com/links/

your bg rocks btw

[prowler]

bump? 

[buddha]

Nice background, I just think that the sky distracts a little bit too much from the rest of the image. A little more contrast between the sky and the foreground brings the mountains a little more to the front

here's a quick edit of what I mean:



And here is another with some tweaked colors.

[prowler]

i think i'll change the sky a bit, not as much as you did tho. also, i like what you did with the colours. thanks for the help 

do you ppl think the clouds (and that misty stuff) have enough depth?

[Haddas]

I think they have enough

[Mr Jake]

I like the blue one! gives a nice haunted feel the the scene

[prowler]

yep, but it's a bit too dark imo, for the context of my game

[Dorcan]

I really like the drawing, I like the clouds, but I think the sky and clouds don't match the rest of your background.

As buddha showed, the background needs to be darker and tinted in blue.
I think mountains should fade into the sky. it's night and they shouldn't be so bright...
There shouldn't be so much stars. I would suggest you to make them more subtle, just a few very bright, and others gray.
I don't think clouds are so visible at night. They normally hide the stars, leaving a sky completely black.
What would be nice, is having a light somewhere, maybe a window from a house, or a lamp hanging somewhere...

[prowler]

thanks dorcan, you've been very helpful too.

i'm going to edit my bg some more, but i won't post the final version here, if we're lucky you'll see it in my game.

i want to make it realistic, but i also want it to be an out-of-this-world experience. there will be similarities to our world, but this'll be another planet, sort of like in an alternate dimension.

that's why the clouds may or may not have more density etc

i have to admit i'm also using this as an excuse to hide my lack of talent in some areas

[Kweepa]

Nice sky - but the horizon should always be horizontal (hence the name!), unless this is supposed to be a rotated (rolled) camera. The mountains should then be along the horizon.
[I see you say you'll draw a horizon later, but the mountains look very close because they're not horizontal.]
After that, I'd move the clouds up a bit.

Oh, and are the graves all open for a reason?
The gravestones look like lids flipped open (possibly because the graves themselves are too short).

I'm not too sure what's going on with that path on the left (why is it two-tone?).
I think the path should extend downward to the bottom of the screen.

Cheers,
Steve

[Daz]

one thing the i notice about this bg is that there is no shadows on the grave stones or anything in the forground (unless the scribbles are shadows) and therefore lacks depth,

very nice bg though,

-Daz

[prowler]

the mountains were supposed to be considerably closer than the horizon.

only 2 of the graves are open, but you may be right about the gravestones being too large.

the path on the left is two-tone cuz it's a bit higher than the grass in the lower left corner.

originally the shadows were more visible, but when i did the night sky i thought they looked a little out of place, there being no moon to cast them and all... i think i'll do something about it tho.

[TheSaint]

i must agree that sky & clouds make a big contrast in style with painted part(thats bad). doesnt look good. also blue one is better than pinky one -both atmosphere and looks.

just my two cents