Environment W.I.P. critique please

[GON3POSTAL]

Hi,
This is an environment concept for a specific group of characters I am designing. Basically they are tree dwelling goblins. I will eventually be adding the tree goblins to the tree-houses to give a sense of size. I am looking for a critique on the over all composition and the perspective of the trees-houses. Obviously this is very far from being finished, I just wanted to get the placement and perspective of the tree-houses critiqued before I went over and did lighting on them and did details and all that good stuff. Does it look like this is located in the treetops? Also, how is the lighting looking? Any suggestions?


Thanks!

[lkinnebrand]

My first thought was unfortunately that the houses were placed on the ground. I'm not very good with composition at all, but I would suggest some kind of perspective, like looking up on he houses to show that they are far up, or a looking down perspective, so the ground far below might be visible. Might I suggest doing a lot of thumbnails and trying out different solutions? The correct composition is not bad (it leads the eye around very well), but it's not very interesting either and does not stand out very much. I imagine this idea could turn out really cool if done with a more daring composition.

Also, how do the goblins get from one hut to another? I see one bridge, but the other houses seems pretty much unconnected. Are there different kind of houses, used for different things or belonging to different goblins of different wealth? I would try to show as many different kind of buildings and constructions as possible, because that gives more backstory to the goblins, and it will look more interesting avoid looking copy/pasted.

And just a word of warning: use the leaf brush, or any pattern brush, with cation. It's fine in this stage, but when cleaning up the picture, be careful because it tends to look very amateurish when it's too obvious a pattern brush has been used.

Hope that was some help! Good luck!

[GON3POSTAL]

Thanks for the advice! Yeah I can definitely see how it doesn't really look like they are in the tree tops, so I'm going to try a different perspective, like you had suggested. I will probably go for a from the ground looking up view first. I intend them to get around via bridges. Good idea on bringing more variety into the housing, I will be sure to incorporate that. Yeah, I realize the leaf brush does give off that feel. I had intended to go back over the trees in the final stages, and will do so in the next composition, and adding some different leaf textures by hand in order to give the trees some variety, so I did not intent to leave it with only the leaf brush texture on the trees. It was just to sketch out the idea and composition quickly. Thanks again for all of the advice, I will do some thumbnailing and update when I have a sketch of the new composition.

[Matthias Kinnigkeit]

Hey GON3POSTAL! You could give the whole pice a lot more of value separation, particulary regarding the forest and the two houses in the front, to give more depth to the invironment. Dont forget that the trees that are farther in the background should not just get darker but also loose some of their saturation.

[Chris Sanders]

Two things that will help you. 1, stick to black and white, and 2. Please no leaf brush, it makes for a flat uninteresting image that looks amateurish. You can get away with it when you really know what your doing, but it kills beginners work. If you want to get better pick an all purpose brush and learn to paint the whole picture with it. I recommend the hard round or the default chalk brush. Using these custom brushes without the knowledge of how to go about it will seriously falter your progression. Also some perspective training wouldn't hurt.