ship designs, question on color or other advise?

[hamster]

I'm having one of those moments questioning my color choices and feeling a bit stuck on moving in different directions for designs, helpful tips/critics welcome.
thanks

[dedguy]

although i rarely ever draw vehicles myself, just like anything else they need a good silhouette. i suggest drawing up some quik silhouette's in like black ink first to get an idea of the shape you're going for, then getting into the detail. i think the main problem with most of those is a lack of a strong silhouette.

[sodomizer]

It looks to me as if you sketched it, scanned it in, then painted over it, because it has that sketch / nuetral look to it. I'd say add some constrast, maybe a good light source, etc?

[look]

Those are really nice designs. I don't see anything wrong with perspective. And they are really details. Only complain I have is none of them work with the background. You may want to put more attention to your background to make them match. Especially the second one, the light pillar in the background cast no lighting on the ship at all.

[Helium Macaroni]

don't see anything wrong with perspective.

Uh.. sorry, there's plenty wrong with the perspective here. The best thing for you to do is to start with some sort of perspective layout, whether it be a grid from which you can measure and build the shapes from, or just a simple centerline and guiding x,y,z axis. Head to www.drawthrough.com for Scott Robertson's work. He's pretty much the authority. You need to focus ton's more on the actual drawing and correct representation of the shapes in space before you focus on the paint overs. When done completely right, the drawing will speak for itself. Think about shape structure and drawing through the design. Section drawing, as Scott teaches it. That will give it a very realistic and tangible feel. The more correct your shapes are in terms of perspecitve and measurement the more realistic it will look. My advice also is to stay away from the paint jobs untill you get those shapes down. Right now it looks like you're trying to correct some shape problems with the coloring.

[Aberrant]

I agree theres a lot of perspective problems. Especially that last one... pick a few points and try to resolve them to a vanishing point... woah! Way off. I'd also like to see more contrast. And the backgrounds don't work at all, doesn't seem like more than 10 seconds was spent on any of them. The second (Edit: I mean THIRD, glad I glanced over my post) one seems built for speed but the background just destroys that completely. Second one seems like the blue lines in the background highlight that end peice for some unknown reason, but then it's like theres a motion blur behind it. The 2 completely clash and ruin everything. The ships themselves are pretty cool though, with some more attention to perspective and some basic understanding of composition and movement it could look pretty good.

[hamster]

Thanks guys you've made a lot of good points, and alot of good suggestions for me to work on in the future. That sight Drawthrough is great there's some amazing people on there Thanks (Helium)

Thanks guys for being honest that really helps me out.