[Snakebearer]

Okay, I've been painting on this for quite some time. Changed a lot of stuff around. But I feel stuck now. There are some obvious stuff left ofc, but that's not really where my problem is.

Like I said, I feel stuck. It feels like the piece doesn't work. I would really appreciate any comments on where to go next!

Don't focus too much on details or corrections now. More like, composition, colors, overall stuff-ish.
Help appreciated.




edit: another update. I played around with the composition and perspective. Hopefully it's better now. But I still need help! Anything would be appreciated.

[Ross]

When you get stuck, chances are you're just trying to paint something when you don't know what it looks like, and the solution is to get more and better reference. Of course, first you must decide what you are trying to do - where is this? Some forested lake? What season is it? What time of day? What is the mood you want?

Decide on a horizon line and at least give yourself some rough perspective guidelines.

Do some thumbnails first. The more the better, it may feel like a waste of time, but it isn't; a little more work in the beginning will make things much much easier later on.

Work up your whole image at roughly the same level. Don't start doing tiny details when the background is only ten strokes - that's wasting your time, because you may well have to change it all later because of what happens with the environment.

Get reference. Get reference. Get reference. You can't paint something when you don't know what it looks like. Here's some:

http://www.kidsgeo.com/images/lakes.jpg
http://science.kennesaw.edu/~jdirnbe...ke%20image.jpg
http://media.mlive.com/grpress/sport...09bc56e1a6.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3119/2...8e0019e1_z.jpg
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/an...sty-forest.jpg
http://www.keweenawadventure.com/can...nny_hooe_2.jpg

and a quick scribble of my own to hopefully point you in a good direction

[Snakebearer]

Okay, I've been taking your advice, plus some other advice I've been getting on other places.

I've gone back a bit with the painting, and started reworking the basics again. Shapes, composition, lighting. Plus I'm experimenting with colors as well. I've been looking at both a too dull and desaturated version and a oversaturated almost childish version.
I'm still not sure what I want it to end up as.
I like my current pallette, but I wouldn't mind making it a bit more ... vivid, nature-ish/growth and vegetation.. I can't even express myself correctly right now. :P

Here is the latest WIP btw.
I am paiting this on my livestream as well.

[ifriteg]

I really wanna see this get done!