Help/Suggestions regarding composition

[Dunkelziffer]

So, I did this overpaint/remake of an old painting yesterday. Although I think it improved a lot, there is still something that doesn't feel right about the composition.
I would be glad for some suggestions and propositions, where to improve my skills.
Thx

old:


new:

[cfhd]

Well, in the new one, everything seems to be pointing to the left hand side. The problem is that there isn't really anything interesting there to look at so you keep bringing your eye back to the right hand side but the characters there keep telling you to look left. So I'm kind of left darting my eyes back and forth asking my self "What am I supposed to be looking at right now". Like I can see that there is the making of some army and a castle maybe over there but it doesn't seem to be developed enough yet to keep my attention.

Also, the dragons or whatever they are are pointing right to the left and the wizard or whatever is pointing more diagonally towards the army and shooting some beam down the same sight line towards them. If you pointed the dragons in the same sight line as the wizard is pointing then it would read a lot better.

Just my $0.02 take it as you will.

[Velocity Kendall]

god i love the sense of depth and the green storm light. the dragons look amazing. maybe just put some middle distance things in; a great castle or huge army down on the plain in a middle dark-green-grey, very tiny to show the immense scale of the landscape, and these will really being working nicely.

[Dunkelziffer]

A middle ground, of course! This one little element makes a huge difference.
I'll try to figure out some more stuff to put in the middle ground, to give a sense of scale to the overall picture.

[Venger]

I'm never keen on placing thing at the edges of paintings, they always seem tacked on and a not well thought out composition.
You're already drawing our eye with the light on the midground, so thats where I'd place my sorcerer.
See OP -
Great mood and colours by the way!

(EDIT: Actually I'd move him left a touch more, somewhere in between the two rocks he's standing on in my OP)

[Dunkelziffer]

Thats so cool!
I probably wouldn't have came up with those Ideas.
Guess, I should experiment more with compositional thumbnails...

[Dunkelziffer]

Hmm... I don't know.
I realize, I lack the skills to pull it off.

But I think the addition of the claw is great, it just make sense.
The middle ground you, Velocity Kendall suggested gives the whole picture a much deeper feel, but I cant do it right.
Also the alignment of the glowing orb with the horizon line works better than having light sources all over the place.

[cfhd]

Dude, this is starting to look really good. You can totally pull it off. Just keep pushing what you have and get that wizards arm back in there.

[Velocity Kendall]

"But I think the addition of the claw is great, it just make sense.
The middle ground you, Velocity Kendall suggested gives the whole picture a much deeper feel, but I cant do it right."


man this is looking pimp, love the way you paint, im learnng a lot! the trick with distance things is they tend to be very flat. maybe pick up your whole middle ground and compress it vertically. tends to make distance work a lot better squeezing the shit out of things that are far away. tune for dramatic effect..

[Venger]

Again it comes down to focus.
It's got a great flow now, it just might need tweaking a little.
I think your sorcerer needs boosting some more - looks a little cramped - not overly sure about having them 'fitting' to the horizon - it wasn't something I thought about when I did the first OP.
It depends on how much focus you want on her/him.
Break the horizon (for the loss of the light perhaps) and make them more of a focus.
See OP -
Love the way you paint!

[DAMJAN]

I would work now on that far mountain castle by adding interesting lights and making that a second focal point. Or make the sky more luminous from thunder and also bounce light on the rocks and castle to show that something exists there but its not completely visible since the rest is in the shadows.

[Line]

Well, all I can do is suggest this direction which would have been my favorite as a starting point.