Invisible Cities: Final Crit Presentation 23/10/2015

Invisible Cities Final Crit Presentation by Deanna

'Art Of' Argia

The Making of Argia by Deanna

Invisible Cities: Exterior Low Angle Shot Final

Invisible Cities: Low Angle Shot Progress

I think this is getting close to being finished, I still need to sort out the glowworms, add some more detail to the stalagmites on the ceiling,  blur the foreground, add more highlights, and just do general refinements and touch ups. I like how this is turning out so far, I'll look at adding some oranges like I did for my interior, however that didn't work out well for my exterior establishing shot so it may or may not look right for this but I'll see. Feedback welcome.

Invisible Cities - Low Angle Shot Progress (Feedback Please)

This is the shot I've been struggling with the most, but I think my problem was my horizon line was too high. I've lowered it and made the main building further away so the whole structure fits in the shot, I think this is working better than my previous ideas. It has a while to go yet since I need to add more light, add more details to the main building, adding in details for the other structures, finish the glowworms, add lighting to the stalagmites/stalactites and a few other things like blurring the foreground but I figured I'd post a progress image to see if anything major needs changing or if others think it's working well too. I posted two images because I tried moving some of the buildings around to try to make the tower look taller, the second one looks like it has more empty space but I'll fill that in.

Invisible Cities: Exterior Establishing Shot Final

Invisible Cities: Argia Interior Establishing Shot Final

Invisible Cities: Exterior Establishing Shot

I think this digital painting is nearing completion, I think I managed to fill in the left a bit more so it didn't feel so empty. I still want to blur the foreground a bit more and neaten up some things, any feedback would be very appreciated.

@Phil Candles or no Candles

After I posted my interior shot last night I couldn't help but feel like I was unsatisfied with the colour scheme, maybe it was just because I spent all day staring at it but this morning I tried out some candles and I think it works but I'm unsure because I like both.

Invisible Cities: Research for Argia

Argia Research

Invisible Cities: Argia Interior Establishing Shot

Invisible Cities: Argia Building Development

Since I was still not satisfied with my buildings, I decided to research how some other artists drew rocks. I came to the conclusion that I didn't want them to look too boring/blob like, I really think that having them more spiney would look better. However, to distinguish between the generic buildings and the hero building, I made these ones look less uniform/organised (an idea that popped into my head while refining some column ideas for my interior. I'm pretty happy with how these look, it sort of reminds me of an insect nest (like Shelob's Lair from Lord of the Rings) but I think it still looks rock-like and menacing.

Invisible Cities: Column Thumbnails

I feel like most of these look nice, I might use this sort of shape/design to further refine some of my structures. These are columns for my interior space which will be in the hallway leading up to the statue of the goddess. I think my favourite is #2 but I don't mind #1, #3, and #5 too although I think 5 is too disorderly to be in my interior considering it's where the citizens would go to worship their god. I don't really think #4 matches with the architecture but I could be wrong, I wanted to test out a shape that wasn't spikey.  Feedback much appreciated.

Invisible Cities: Argia Exterior Development

Invisible Cities: Argia Exterior comparison

I tried to remake one of my previous colour compositions using the more blocky looking building silhouettes, but I'm unsure how I like it in comparison to the more spikey looking buildings. In the background I added a spiny building just for some variation, but again I'm unsure which one is more successful. Neither have a massive amount of detail since I'm still trying to sort out the exterior, but my original one has less texture simply because I was working on the new one.  I also find it pretty difficult to distinguish the different buildings, maybe it's just because I've been staring at it for too long (maybe that'll even help the city feel claustrophobic?). Feedback/suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Original

New

Invisible Cities: Argia Interior Development Close-ups

After finishing the whole image I decided to zoom in on certain parts of my digital painting and cut chunks of the image and paste it into a new document just to see how they look as separate components. I definitely think it looks more painterly than my previous thumbnails, but I like the texture of the brush I used for it. I think it helps make the city feel like it's part of the earth because it looks grainy.

Invisible Cities: Argia Interior Development

I really loved making this piece and in my opinion it's working well and has potential. I know I need to add more detail, but I didn't want to spend too long on this despite having a lot of fun with it. I struggled at first to stay interested but after I got past blocking in some tones (I put a gradient map over it afterwards to add colour). I also like the colours in this but will obviously add more when I make my final pieces.  I really feel as though this matches with the mood of my exterior shots (I know the colours don't all match, I'm still experimenting with it). I used my building silhouettes to help come up with the shapes for the columns.

Invisible Cities: Argia Interior Idea

This sketch is a work in progress, my idea behind this interior sketch is that the citizens of Argia worship a goddess (sort of like a goddess of death/mourning). The people of Argia believe she will make the glowworms produce a brighter light if they please her. I was thinking that they surround her statue/shrine with bones and candles (maybe some gems/jewels found in the caves?) and possibly even sacrifice people to her. I also thought putting a few gargoyles might work, but this is a very rough sketch just to get an idea of what I might want it to look like and to get feedback since I didn't have many interesting interior shots.

Invisible Cities: Argia Silhouettes #2

These silhouettes are meant to be more blocky and simple compared to my last set, I'm not sure if I like these so I'll probably make more.

Invisible Cities: Argia Colour Compositions #2