Dreamscape WIP by Tomas

[TomasBj]

Hey all,

I mistakenly started this WIP in my gallery thread untill I noticed there's a separate section for WIP's.

So I'm going to post steps that I've done so far.

I began with a thumbnail I did earlier in Painter.


After this I discovered ArtRage and after playing with it I decided to continue this painting with ArtRage. The idea is to finish with ArtRage also.
I reworked the thumbnail in ArtRage and tried to improve the color palette, perspective, hive structure etc...

[TomasBj]

These are the next three steps. This is by no means completed after the last one

I started working in more detail (and higher res). First I developed the background further. Mainly the clouds.


After this the hive structure...



After this the creatures etc..



Sorry the WIP numbers in the pics do not change. I noticed it just now and not going to edit, export and scale all the pics just because of that

This is by no means finished. I'm going add something to the foreground to improve composition and narrative. Of course all other parts need refining too.

[TomasBj]

Here's an update. This is fairly far along I think. What I've done is added the blue lights to improve narrative and also the foreground elements including the spaceship. I also added different color layers to unify the colors etc.

What I now I have to do:

• Polish everything
• Adjust edges (soften some etc.)
• Possibly adjust color a bit more
• Maybe add elements like stones and plant to the foreground an make foreground more crisp
• Add atmospheric perspective...

What I'm wondering:

• I'm not sure if the spaceship works
• The bridge between the two hives is not straight but twisted. This is a conscious decision and I think it makes the structure more interesting. I'm not sure though
• Pretty much everything else too.. I don't know how blind I am to the flaws in the piece

[stevemawmv]

Hey Tomas....Looking good, and coming togather nicely! You flipped it...any reason? Personally I like the spaceship and explorers, it changes an alien landscape painting to an event on a surface of an alien world....Cool! Also like the creatures flying back to the hive with the collected blue orbs..your building interest in your painting with these additions....
Steve

[TomasBj]

Hey Tomas....Looking good, and coming togather nicely! You flipped it...any reason? Personally I like the spaceship and explorers, it changes an alien landscape painting to an event on a surface of an alien world....Cool! Also like the creatures flying back to the hive with the collected blue orbs..your building interest in your painting with these additions....
Steve

Thanks for the comments! The blue orbs carried by the creatures was the plan all along, but the idea for the spaceship and the explorers came later.
I flipped it in the course of painting to see errors and for some reason I prefer it flipped like this. I can't say why specifically.

[TomasBj]

Next update. Mainly tried to improve the composition and the different planes of depth in the painting. Also took Ashess suggestion and moved the people… and shortened the arms and slightly changed the gesture and rhythm of the creatures. And changed lighting a bit based on a reference I built out of legos… pheww!

Still have to render everything more, maybe add more texture… I’m panting this in ArtRage and really love the oil paint feel. I tried overlaying some photo textures but it just didn’t feel right. I’m probably going to render more texture and details in focus areas by hand or make a custom brush with some brush stroke patterns.

Still a WIP!

[TomasBj]

Next dreamscape update. This might actually be finished or might not... I don't know. I'm not entirely happy with it, but don't know what to fix right now at least

[TomasBj]

I think this is finally the finished peace. I think I'll call it "Bringers of Light". I'm not sure I'm still entirely happy with it so I might try some tweakes if you guys have feedback.
In a few days I'll call it done and post it in my gallery.

In the end I did some color adjustment and polishing in Photoshop. Otherwise it's fully done in ArtRage.

[stevemawmv]

Hello Tomas, Turned out great, I like it.....Nicely done!

[TomasBj]

Thank you Steve!

I did still one slight adjustment with the lighting.