town of Ankh Morpork

[Sillmarien]

hello all, here is a wip environment for my dissertation.. I do not think its coming along very well although i liked the initial idea of it. Not sure about the composition and the colours. It feels really populated and the depth is not there, i dont know what to loosen and what to detail, dont know where to focus. Any suggestions/ critisism would be very appreciated thanks

[Artfix]

Hi there,

Its hard to give any help when I dont know what u want. You need to choose a focal point. Is there a story behind this? Are all those birds flying toward that distant tower? The tower seems like a good focal point. Move it off to one side instead of center, and then put some moon-lit clouds behind it.

I like the painterly style of the whole thing. Its just too dark with no focus at the moment. I have trouble seeing some things, like the near birds are a little hard to discern. And the bright spots on the left house?

It definitely has potential!

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

I agree whole heartedly with Artfix, I also think one of the problems you are going to face here when dealing with a subject as widely known as this, is the battle with other peoples preconceptions of what Ankh Morpork looks like so "Big Respect" for taking that one you are braver than me.

I think you are going to have to do the following,
1) Decide what the story behind this image is all about or what it is that you want to show us. Without a story you will not know what to do or when to stop!!
2) decide where the action or scene is in the city, and which famous landmarks you can see from where you are setting the scene.
3) focus the attention on a single aspect and focus the detail around that, make suggestions of detail elsewhere. Form and abstraction will be the key as you are painting a dark scene.

have a look at what other people have done with similar works, in here:-

http://mattepainting.org/

other sites like this can give you all sorts of instruction and inspiration also

http://www.googleartproject.com/en-gb/

some serious inspiration from famous landscapes!!

all the best with it mate, we will be able to help more if and when you get a better idea of what you want.

[Sillmarien]

Hi,
first of all thanks for the fast replies, it is so cool to have feedback so fast!

Let me start by saying that I just wanted to make a moody painting of that town, Artfix, Ankh Morpork is a town from the books of the discworld by terry pratchett (great books ^^) The landmarks that this town has is a University for wizards called the Unseen University( which i tried to include , that tower on the background lol ) The bright spots are supposed to be fireflies haha. I probably need to change that somehow. I generally wanted to show a square of the town and convey that dark /fantasy mood that it has. The crows are supposed to be heading towards the University.I just decided to keep it on the background and make draw a close up so i can focus more on the town surroundings. I was just thinking of I just dont like the composition in general and i am aware that perspective is dodgy too but i liked parts of it like the light on the right i wanted to keep and the crows. Should i change the buildings on the foreground? whats your take on this? I was thinking of introducing an old medieval sign hanging off a wooden stick with name of the town on it on the very front on one side, and a crow sitting on the stick but that cant happen the way the foreground is set atm. I am just so indecisive! lol
Also, thanks for the links!( matte painting.org is really cool, didnt even know it existed!)

[vineris]

When I think of Ankh-Morpork I think of a crowded hive of humanity (as well as dwarf-, troll-, undead-, gnome- and golemity), chaotic, with buildings built on top of one another and hanging on precariously. To illustrate Ankh-Morpork I'd probably portray it during the day, or at least lighten the palette so you can see all the chaos, make it feel claustrophobic by crowding the buildings together and shoving them up against the camera, add a bunch of detail and include people.

[Sillmarien]

Hello Vineris and thanks for your answer,
I know what you mean, and I am planning to attempt different takes and explore perspective more, i was planning to try different concepts of its market and the river, with more interesting perspectives as well,, but when i started , I didnt really plan it, I started real messy, but i knew I wanted to make a dark take on it,and include artificial light sources, no daylight. It s probably not a very representative illustration, its very quiet, you cant see the big river, theres no life. Also, i see what you mean about the buildings as well, Ill see if i can make them less ordinary, more AnkhMorpork like. I might as well start over, but i didnt wanna leave it till I make it look decent at least, technically speaking ^-^