Need help with Iron Hills!

[Jakerpot]

Hey there guys. Yesterday i started to paint a scene about an old fortress between the snow mountains. It didn't turned out so well, so i'm updating this post to receiver critics on the new image.

I'm having a hard time defining things up. Looking at speed painting videos it looks so easy and natural, but its really hard and require some talent.
Thanks a lot!

[Jason Rainville]

How many mountain studies have you doe up till now?

[Jakerpot]

Probably none i think. You mean how many times i drawed mountains or if i did some observation homework? I like to draw mountains, but i can't get too much real on them, specially close ones like those. Probably i'm lacking the experience to do it.
Thanks for the reply.

[Jakerpot]

I actually made another painting, in about 4 hours or so.
That's what i got:



I think it's fairly better isn't it?
Can't say it's finished yet, but i'm quite happy with it.
What do you think?

[Jakerpot]

Did some improvement:

[Blackthorne]

Not seeing anything...

[Jakerpot]

Sorry, now you do.

[Artimatum]

Use the attachment manger to upload images

[Jakerpot]

I will try that. Hope you guys can see it now.

[Jakerpot]

Did some progress:
Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[tjmsaint]

I don't see any snow on the snowy mountains. If you look at photos of mountains with snow they tend to have a lot of variation between the lights and dark's.

[Jakerpot]

I don't see any snow on the snowy mountains. If you look at photos of mountains with snow they tend to have a lot of variation between the lights and dark's.

Sorry about that, my other picture was about snowy mountains, i forgot to change the title name!
But the contrast is something i'm working on. It seems that the image is dark overall, because always when i try to do some real shadows i have to use almost pure black to do it.

[LJFHutch]

Get some reference for the rocks, I can tell your knowledge about them is rather blurry at the moment and as a result your painting lacks confidence.

It depends on what feel you're going for and possibly some scientific stuff but here's some reference.
http://morguefile.com/archive/display/190939
http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/190932
http://morguefile.com/archive/display/130626
http://morguefile.com/archive/display/34857
http://morguefile.com/archive/display/130767

[Jakerpot]

Yeah, get some reference will make my shapes look clearer, but i'm afraid i will have to remake almost all the shapes...
I will try refining it later.

[Pavel Sokov]

your rocks look like cocks I find...

[Jakerpot]

your rocks look like cocks I find...

Ahhn... Sorry?

[Pavel Sokov]

Your mountains look a bit like penises. There is a repetition of phallic shapes.

[moltazia]

use a bigger brush the farter away the mountain is, the more small strokes the more muddy and closer it will seem. maybe put something that everyone knows in the picture aswell for scale? like a tree or a siluette of a man. also simplify your sky. it distracts from the mountain. if the distance between the first mountain/stonepile is large betwen it and the second mountain, work on the ground between them. now its more of a slide down the 2mountain that seems to go straight into the one in the foreground good luck

[Jakerpot]

Your mountains look a bit like penises. There is a repetition of phallic shapes.

yeah, kinda does. I agree with the shape repetition, must work on that.

Will dedicate some time to it on the weekend, try to fix some shapes and define the right ridge better.