Progress

New lion sconces and some minor details. Still not happy with the gawd awful terracotta walkway but I'll get to it eventually... also water isn't flaming aqua but it works :p

System Crash

What a downer... I started today's painting off really well. I decided to go at it with a relaxed attitude. I identified why I didn't like the latest version of my greek town. It's too clean and sterile and dead... and digital. The previous one although it's a really bad quick sketch had so much more feeling to it regardless of how much a lack of skill I had when I made it. It seemed funny because I didn't change the colors of the buildings at all, just the sky.

So I settled to make it more artistic and less computer-like. I had an idea for some lion head sconces as spitting fountains at the base of the pillars. I got to painting, started off with wacky colors I didn't care about, put some roman pillars on my archway. The lions turned out so great! They were beautiful and really looked like they were carved from stone! I was so pleased!

And then... it happened. Horror of horrors PS crashed on me. It's never happened before and I was previously working with a much larger file. Blue dragon got up to half a gig and I was saving every time I paused to think for fear that the program would eat my work. I don't fully understand why PS crashed but of course I hadn't saved my lions and they got eaten. I briefly hoped I could recover them from the scratch disk but alas... the internet consensus is no, you can't. It freely eats your stuff when it crashes. Nom.

I think the most infuriating part is knowing the image is cached in your RAM and you can't get it. Then as you keep using your computer it gets gobbled up into nothing.

What an inspiration killer to a good start on today's progress.

I have a feeling the laptop's outdated 4 GB of memory isn't enough. I really wish I could use my imac with 8GB. But even then that might not be enough for a powerhouse program like CS4.

I guess I'll just have to muster up some courage to go back and redo my work while it's still fresh in my mind. The worst part is knowing that no matter how hard I try, it won't be exactly the same. Poor pretty lion sconces... RIP.

Rawr.

: /

Greek Town: Day 2

Alrighty... it's day two now and today I learned how to apply textures. That and amazing people make photoshop brushes that are essentially 'giant rubber stamps' that you can use as textures themselves and it makes doing trees a super breeze.

I still can't believe how fast Feng can make cities or towns. I think I've poured about 6 or 7 hours into this thing and I still have just a shell of a scene. Time and patience... but yikes is it ever frustrating getting there!



I look like a horrible CG rendered model but I promise I'll look pretty eventually!

Perspective

Perspective... being that it should be drawn on paper first with a ruler then painted later. I've never done cities or buildings before. I had an idea and it isn't working out. The sky kinda ruined it... I don't think an early morning thing is going to work out the way I wanted it to so it might have to be a mid afternoon scene with more light to get that dusty hot summer feel.

I'll play with this another day it seems.

Character Sketch

Just something that was in my head that I attempted to get out... nothing like I want it just yet but it's a work in progress.

Background of Fail

And I present to you more blobs of color! Two adventurers at the bottom right in the cave on a daring raid on the empress's nest because lo and behold there's treasure in there! Because dragons use treasure as nesting material..... yes... the shinies keep the eggs warm... oh just go with it :p



... I figure if I keep doing them eventually the backgrounds will get better... right?.... right?!

(I've just been informed that this would be a 'proof of concept'... so it isn't fail it's on purpose! mwahahaha!!)

Amg am I finished yet?

Ok... rip them apart... just be honest but not too mean :p

This would be the finished one.

Crackly scales are neat!