TOKYO Street Scene - Help with value

[reaxion]

hey heres a scanned pic i did recently (pencil took 3 hours with no refrence was an in class test on 2point) and then blocked in in Photoshop (1hr) i added some color and am now wondering, as i am new to this, and self taught when it comes to value and color and the whole realm of color theory. Any crits at this point on anything would be appreciated as i really want to make this peice CA worthy.

peace
reax

[DSillustration]

nice!

want you want to start doing now is develop a believable sense of form.
FORM is implied by shadows, so start indicating a light source across the image.

i dont know what time of day you were going for;
but heres an example of what light/shadow will do for form:

[reaxion]

wow thanks!
hey Dan im a huge fan of your stuff,among ALOT of things the detail and realism throughout your work is utterly shocking...

with that said thanks for taking the time to help me with the light/shadow play in my peice. Its supposed to be around sunset, and and hoping to give it a soft hazy kind of feeling// Once again DSIllistration it really nice to get some insight from somone with immense amounts of talent and the paintover you did has helped me just being able to visualize what it "could" look like when done properly... im swamped with work but ill try and have an updated version up in the next couple days check back!

thanks and cheers
reax

[tensai]

next to what dan says about light/value and form, i would try to add more life to the scene by putting on some lights in the buildings, adding more peeps and random city stuff that you would find on a street. think about how you can add life to your environments without adding figures. than after that, add the figures.

i think the area in the foreground is still a bit unclear - is there a gap between where we are standing and the rest? if so shouldnt there be some kind of fence?

but my main comment would be that perpsective studies often result in totally rectangular floor plans. i understand that its easier that way but especially if you say this is tokyo than it would be good to rotate your buildings (in plan view) and have their vanishing points shift on your horizon line (that might have scored you good points on the test too) - as well as off set your buildings a bit from the street line (having them not all on one line in plan, but come forward or recede backwards etc.).

finally - more variety between your structures, some huge modern buildings, next to older one floor stores, adds to the believablity. variety in scale, architectural style, age, materials etc - show how a city is not built by one architect in one point in time, but is designed by many different architects, and develops over time...

hope that makes sense somehow.

[BillyDead]

The shadow on the lower right hand side makes it seem more like a ramp than a ledge... but I think that's intentional, right? Also your vertical lines a barely off (for me) - the buildings look just a little bent towards your two points. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Well, that's all I got - keep up the awesomeness and take care

[tensai]

good point - your verticals are converging slightly, but the wrong way. if anything it would help if they slightly converge skywards. of course we're now in 3 point perspective but this might spice things up...

[THUNDERCOCK]

also if you used some solid opaque colors on the light sides of those buildings it would help really drive in the 3d forms....especailly if there is a particular place you want to draw attention to. opaque lights / transparent shadows....

[Aremis]

I really like the perspective on this one, but as for critique on value, I suggest making the light values where you want them really light and the dark values really dark, which would make the piece look very dynamic. I'm assuming you wanted this as a night scene, cos of the palette you chose, right?

[Nerahla]

He already said sunset.

I think changing it to three-point-perspective was the right touch.

And - why on /earth/ would he need to add a fence in the foreground? Bizarre.

It's fine the way it is.




Looking forward to updates -- it looks promising!

[reaxion]

hey guys,
ive been so swamped with work and trying to find a new place for September i havent had a chance to update since Dans crit earlier in the week but soon enough itll be done. School work is just piling up

tensai: big fan of your work man your, im glad you replied cuz i figure you know alot about TOkyo The night prior to the test i watched a BBC documentary on the Sendai Media Library in Japan, not sure exactly where, but the images were burned into my head for this test. I saw the paintover u did for the "neoTokyo Overpass" and am intending on doing somethign similar in the ways of adding lights/reflections/glare etc.. and i agree with the 3point conversion it looks much better // The guy standing, theres supposed to be a ledge there not like a gap that he would fall into, its all solid.
"show how a city is not built by one architect in one point in time, but is designed by many different architects, and develops over time..."-Tensai
*noted, thanks

BillyDead: i was trying to give like that fishbowl kinda look, like exteme FOV... if that makes any sense, and yea thats suposed to be liek a concrete enbankment in the bottom right

Thundercock: yea when i get back at this im going to really try and add a sense of 'form' to the buildings

Aremis: its needs more contrast i agree, but its not supposed to be completely 'night-time' just before... so the clouds will have alot of color to them like they do on a nice

BillyDead: i was trying to give like that fishbowl kinda look, like exteme FOV... if that makes any sense, and yea thats suposed to be liek a concrete enbankment in the bottom right

Runecaster: yea i cant see the problem

self crit tho after looking at it for a while, the stairs in the foreground are TINY!.. the size of the guy inb the left compared to the stairs=him being able to step up the 10 STAIR flight in probably 2 steps... so the entire foreground will be changed for the next update... hopefully soon.

Here are some screens from the video, i was talking about wiht Tensai, i highly suggest checking themout "BBC Architecture" series, they are filmed beauitifully and run about 45mins


My favorite, the colors outside are so nice