Three post-apocalyptic environments

[latus]

Hello everyone,

I've been sketching for a while, mainly doing linework and painting from photo references. I haven't done that much of environments from my imagination and I really don't feel confident in this field. Thus I decided to go hard on my weaknesses and work on three pieces simultaneously!

I've chosen post-apocalyptic setting (which I like a lot) for this.

At first I created some random thumbnails and chosen three I liked the most. Then I opened new canvas for all three paintings, established perspective grids and drew linework by looking at my thumbnails. Finally I increased brush size and started establishing values in order to get general feel and start correcting composition mistakes. And here I am...

I would really appreciate any critiques and suggestions of any kind so I could correct my mistakes while I'm still in early stake of my work.

Thank you very much!

[Renzowolf]

Your perspective is skewed in the second image. It looks like everything is lined up along the horizon line (as it should be) but the distance between the vanishing points seem to change for the different elements of the painting.

Also, well, it's just not post-apocalyptic. At first glance I would not have known that these are supposed to be after an apocalypse. The first image could just as easily be a run down part of town, the second looks like maybe a ship crashed or something, and the third just looks like some high tech temple or something.

Overall, if I were to go with one concept, I would choose your second image. It has a lot of potential even though it currently is a little bit too unrealistic. For instance, the building would not be standing if some giant spaceship crashed into it, maybe might have some ruins fall over the crashed ship, but it would definitely not hold its previous shape after such an impact. Also, like I mentioned earlier, the perspective needs work. Look at the bridge, it looks like it is going way into the distance; but when compared with the perspective on the spaceship and the background buildings, everything looks off. Another thing that I would change to make it look more post-apocalyptic would be to make the bridge and railings a lot more damaged, this adds the effect that there is actuall damage to the world and not just piles of junk.

Anyway, I hope this is useful and I would love to see how they all turn out.

~Lorenzo

[latusma]

Thank you Renzowolf for your critique. I don't like foreground in my second image as it is completely aligned with horizon line. It looks like some sort of sidescroller video game. But as I assume in order to change it I will need to redraw almost everything because I'll have to change camera position and angle. But what's wrong with different elements having different vanishing points? In this image they all have same horizon line and I don't find them distorted. Crashed spaceship is flat, well at least I drew it that way, because I really don't know how correctly apply perspective for an element being in that kind of angle...

This is quite rough stage of my drawings and I didn't want to start drawing all the crashed vehicles, holes in the buildings and other elements indicating post-apocalyptic world. But I'll keep that in my mind... basically I have to smash things more.

Yes, you are probably right about the building being more damaged after such an impact. Almost everyone I showed this image told me that. I just couldn't resist the idea of having the spaceship hanging out of the building after its crash-landing. Maybe I'll shrink the spaceship a little, since it takes too much image space anyway.

Here I did perspective check on second image. I managed to find couple of mistakes.

[DAMJAN]

You should definitely destroy the environment more if you're going to the post apocalyptic environment.

[self-epidemic]

I really like the first one, the composition looks really tidy and it looks good, the other two, especially the second are much weaker. The third one is boring. The first is however, really really good and I do think you should push that one a little further. It could be a wonderful final painting.

[latus]

Thank you DAMJAN and self-epidemic for your feedback.

I reconstructed second image from the ground up. And yes, I know, I still have to put some more damage on those buildings...

I also worked on third image putting one extra tree to cover some of the sky (it seemed to me just too open) and detailing it for a while.

Oh, and one last notice... well since I don't have much experience drawing things for a such detailed level, I really find my progress extremely slowly! I draw some things here and there, then erase them or overpaint them, I try to find reference for this and that... I've probably changed contrast and brightness of every image like 10 times. It is quite frustrating process but I'm also very glad that I found my weakness. I will destroy it!

[self-epidemic]

The first one is still wonderful, I think its just all the layers of interesting focal points that the other two don't have. Also whats with the last building? Whats its purpose?

[michaelharris]

Watch those trees in the last one. Go look at the some real trees. The ones you have no are so haphazard that they are drawing attention away from the image.

[DAMJAN]

I would go with the first myself and then the second.