[Marucha]

Hey, I need some advice here. I don't have much experience dealing with backgrounds, and I feel kind of stumped on this one. What I feel like I'm stuck on is the color and the lighting. I have problems with composition as well. This one is fine, but there's nothing particularly exciting about it.

The painting has gone through a few revisions. I'm going to post a few versions just so some have an idea what I have may tried, what didn't work.

Um, I don't have super high expectations for this painting, but it's been something I'm practicing on. It's more of a personal work and is one of a few paintings that I have been working on over the long term. I want to push myself to address interest. I've been practicing to make my work more polished hence why I have a paintings. Hopefully I will get to the point I do more professional like work and churning out interesting compositions and the like won't be so difficult... I'm still trying to learn to paint what it is I actually like to paint.

Don't know if that's important, but I just put it out there.

Thanks in advance!

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[Cookiedough]

Hmm, i'm gonna kick in an open door and say: if you don't know what you want to draw, how are we to have a clue? What i mean is: what is that background you've been developing supposed to be? A door? Hallway? Spaceship entry? Where is she? Once you decide on that, get some references. There are quite some famous hotels with amazing halls, all pictured beautifully. Lots of ideas to pick then.

I'm not very fond of how you've placed her, the gutterthing she's standing in leads our eyes to the bg, not to her. And because it ends around her knees, you need something there for the viewers eye. With pix like these, it's better to lead the 'gutter' into the bg and let it fade or place a solid door there, so the focus stays on the main char. If you want to keep the two sides, put the horizonline around her calves. That will elevate her and make her 'taller/bigger' looking, adding prominence.

For lightning, well, you have a blue highlight, so what's causing that? Personally, i think the boobs are a bit strange looking, too big for her and robotlike all individually drawn out like that. Treat that area more like 1 large bulge pressed together, instead of 2 parts. Also, hiding 1 arm behind her back hurting her pose, as it makes her stiff looking. Maybe she could hold something or relax it more.

In short: we need more info on where you're imagining her, why she's there and what she's doing.

[Marucha]

@Cookiedough I am still learning to do backgrounds. I had ideas, and I tried to do 'em. But it feels like I don't have enough experience to do what I want to do, like even if I had ideas, I don't feel I could render them accurately enough. I tried looking up references, but that didn't help. It gave me some ideas, but again, I kept coming back to problems with color and I think that's really where my enemy is. I could do a contour of it fine, it's giving off a 2d perspective in COLOR I have issues with. I don't want it too cartoony, but I don't want it too extra realistic either. I guess that's where I am still experimenting.

The panels in the back are supposed to be doors. It was clearer (at least in the working stage to me) during the earlier stages before I started re-rendering. Might put a light underneath the doors to make it obvious, that would probably help.

The "gutter" is not supposed to look just like a gutter, but I haven't figured out how I wanted to do what I wanted. I wanted things on the side to be elevated. It may not have seemed like the best composition, but it is something I wanted to try to make work. The space between the gutter and the doors in the distance were supposed to be much larger. In other words, they were supposed to be a great distance away, and the pillars would be plucked in while being further apart. That didn't happen the way I wanted... In fact, I think I forgot about it once I started really getting into the figure... hmm. The gutter was supposed to be receding or stretching into the back and you're right, I do need to downplay it. But I like the gutter actually. It may not compositionally be easy to deal with, but I want to make something out of the idea at least. It's just hard

I guess it's back to the drawing board (har har)

I wanted more of an ethereal landscape, but less a lighter mood, and more of a darker tone. Maybe I mean surrealistic. Ugh, one of those.



Anyway, this is more of another dimension sorta piece. It's not necessarily supposed to reflect reality, so it's hard to find references for it.

[Cookiedough]

I think you're prolly making things overcomplicated for yourself by looking for 'things that don't exist' as ref. You're the artist, you make up stuff. That doesn't mean you have to reinvent the wheel though. I still don't know where she is, you haven't described that. You've only mentioned you had ideas and what didn't work out. That's not productive with this. So, i still don't know what she's doing in what location and why. No goals or hints on making it better then specifically.

If you say: she's in a hallway, you can pick elements from our known hallways to decorate this with. You mention doors, but the white highlights read to me as pillars. How is she supposed to crawl out of that gutter? Perhaps you need stairs or steps. Get different references and put those in a collage or new folder. It will help you remember what you want to put in the bg. (That one designer couch, the prop you saw on that one sci fi show, parts of Homer Simpsons household, your favourite mug.) It's a collage you can keep adding to and you can reuse for other paintings. This will keep you on track and help you with getting your background together. Note, do not copy 1:1, but use it as inspiration.

Make another collage of paintings you like and want yours to look like. That will also help you prevent getting lost in details, seeing how problems are solved by others and apply certain techniques. Again, don't copy 1:1, inspiration.

If your rendering is the problem, invest in life drawings and studies. Stuff on your desk, humans, parts of your house, old dead painters you like.... anything goes. Do lots of them.

The way you're stuck at the moment just reads to me in your description as insecurity over abilities, rather than a specific problem with your painting. It clouds your vision and stifles your productivity. Oddly enough, your confidence will grow when you do more art and lots of it. Perhaps keep this painting around for experimenting, while doing other art in between.