ruins

[DMTcat]

thumb nail and drawing, still WIP . Crit(if you wan to scribble some crit for me) or just type.Anything will be greatly appreciated

[Black Spot]

Not a lot to say as it's still early. You've nailed the perspective, now have you chosen where the light is coming from? The thumbnail doesn't give any indication.

[Lightship69]

I agree you have it at a good stage start shading it up and take it a bit further you will get more help with it if you move it on some more.

all the best with it matey.

[JeffX99]

You have a couple tangents that should be resolved - on the right the top edge of the wall meets the bottom edge of the Budha's base - that ties them together and flattens the depth.

The tip of the secondary temple on left just meets the overhanging foliage. It also leans a bit outward.

[DMTcat]

thanks for the help guys, still making changes. and going to do a value study real soon. Any more tips, keep coming. Thanks so much again!

[EduardoGaray]

That point (i market it with a circle) is distracting me from the center of the picture, the buddha.

[DMTcat]

Did some tweaks on line art. Did a quicky value study I need to build my form outside of the line art, suggestions and crit would be most appreciated again you guys. Thanks so much

[Lightship69]

I dont think you have the lighting nailed down as yet mate some of the shadows are not quite at the right angle. Also as the light seems to be from behind and to the the left of the main statue so I think some kind of shadow would fall on the building to the right and you have an odd shadow fall on the floor at the bottom left.
Is the focus on the Buddha figure or is it a tranquil garden scene? the lighting should support that idea.

[DMTcat]

From my reference photo the light is coming from behind (right side) I want the main focus to be the buddha, but am worried that if I darken it too much it wont be notices.

[DMTcat]

bump:
Would anyone be able to offer some insightful opinions. I'm really looking for ways to improve this from looking like poop.

[dierat]

Well, if the light is coming from the right (as opposed to directly behind that large structure), then I would imagine we would see some strong direct light shining onto the ground, some of which would bounce up onto the buddha. One solution to your problem could be placing a small pool in front of the buddha which would reflect even more light and act like a secondary light source. Is that dotted line of light running from us to the buddha supposed to be directly lit? If so, it needs to be much stronger. Make it clear what is being lit by the sun, and what's being lit by secondary light (the sky and reflected light). I would also skip those super soft edges you have on the structure; right now it just looks muddy and hard to read. Can you post your ref? That might make it easier to give you advice.

[DMTcat]

[DMTcat]

hope this helps. I know my perspective is a little off compared to the reference pic. Just the lighting is oing my head in.

[dierat]

Okay, so there's actually almost no light hitting the scene because there's a bunch of foliage over there obstructing the light. I think your issue here is you're working from a bad reference. The values on the scene are really subtle because there's barely any light and the brightest area is that glaring sky in the back. You want the buddha to be a focal point but you can barely see it in the original image. You could let go of the ref at this point and do the lighting on your own, but if you don't have a good understanding of how light works from experience, that would be difficult. I would personally recommend calling it a day on this one, you got a great perspective study out of it, and move on to either a better photo with simpler, clearer lighting, or even do some studies from life instead. But it really depends on what your goal is with this piece and in general.

[Lightship69]

After looking at the reference mate I would totally agree with the above crit from dierat, and it is indeed a fairly good stab at the perspective too.

all the very best with the next one mate I will look out for it.