Background Feedback *updated*

[Auro-Cyanide]

Kind of changed what I was doing again, but I feel I am getting closer to finding my way of doing things and at a decent speed.

I welcome any critique. I know it isn't a usual VN style background, but I am more of a painterly type person when it comes to backgrounds ^^'

Sprite isn't mine by the way.

[broken_angel]

I love it. *o*

One thing that's a little weird is the perspective...because of it, everything looks crooked (tilted towards the right).
But the coloring style itself is very nice...it's a soft style, but you can still make out the lines and details that give the room personality. The lights and shadows are also very well-done (from my non-artist point of view).

(Are you currently working on a VN project?)

[Auro-Cyanide]

That is probably my crooked drawing >_> Plus I think a bit of the floor colour is covering the skirting in the left hand corner. I will get on fixing that right away! Thanks also ^^ I was having so much trouble deciding how to colour the backgrounds because I wanted to find something that looked good but also wasn't hugely time consuming. I think I am kinda getting there with this one, but there are a couple things I think I could do better. The person who does the sprites (yeah, I'm working on a vn for someone now as a bg artist, though kinda slowly while I'm at uni. I'm also kinda working on my own otome game in a planning phase, but I think I may pick up another project as an artist before I tackle that one on my own.) is amazing, so I want to do backgrounds that do them justice. And if I didn't think working out the perspective was enough *sigh*

[fortaat]

The coloring is quite good; the pastels create a pleasant morning atmosphere.
The drawing lacks a clear focal point - everything is blurred to the same degree (which might be ok for VN, now that I think about it).
broken_angel is right about the perspective, though I believe there's a problem with the horizon line, since the floor goes up too much. I suggest you try SketchUp, it could help you nail down the perspective without too much work.
As for the shadowing - the wall where the window is shouldn't be this dark on the corners, and the shadow should flow to the neighboring walls.
Nitpicking - the laptop's cord changes color once it's off the carpet. The books on the second shelf have a weird shadow on them.

Good work overall, I like it.

[delta-ion]

I agree with broken_angel and fortaat.
The colouring is really nice. I also like the composition of the room, for it's not to cramed nor empty. It also appears tidy.

For the perspective I think there are about three focal points (in my opinion there should be just one for this scene).
Also the floor-line and the ceiling-line of the wall with the window should be parallel to each other in my opinion.
These comments are based on the assumption that you aimed for a one-point perspective.

The shadow cast by the bed appeares not to be cast at the wall. Also I am not perfectly sure about the shadow at the food of the bed.
I am also missing the shadow of the shelf above the bed.
But in my opinion shadows are even more complicated than perspective so I wouldn't nearly be able to do as you did.
As for complex perspectives and shadows using a 3d-program might help to get the basic shapes. The other idea that comes to mind is using a photography to get the perspective, but I never actually tried that.

So overall I like it quite a lot.

[Nagu]

there is no much i could say...since bg are not good at all (perspective is so hard). i think the coloring looks really good, as for the light. i like the atmosphere also. but i think it would look a lot of better if you focused more the edges of things, all is kinda blury (or maybe you wanted it in that way?).

[Blue Sky]

Alright some quick tips from an idiot bastard:

The floor is slantttttiiiiiiiiinggggg. This mistake comes from the corner of the room next to the red trashcan; you can see that the floor is too high on this part of the wall, making the bed look like it is falling backwards.

The light on the ceiling looks awkward and not in quite the right position.

The bottom white shelf looks too slanted towards the viewer. Bring the front up a lliiiiittle bit and it should be okay.

The coloring's nice, but depending on how the sprites look it could be too much of a contrast. But you probably already know all of that.

There should be a shadow underneath the slanted wardrobe ceiling on the wall. The color should be darker than the ceiling I'd say, since no lights are on facing that direction and it is the only part of the room not bathed in sunlight.

Wow that was nitpicky, sorry. Just means it looks really amazing overall.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Does this one look better? I think I may be getting close to the final style. I hope anyway. I added a test sprite to see how the two go together.
Sprites are done by another artist working on the project, Robbuz : http://robbuz.deviantart.com/

I also have a series of different lighting tests, it is a little big though so I will put a link http://auro-cyanide.deviantart.com/#/d34gdn2

[emihaumut]

I did a quick red purple line over your bg (hope you don't mind) and circled some of the parts that didn't match up with the perspective.

I think the colours are pretty good. Standalone, I really like it, but with the sprite, I almost want to say the colours are too saturated? It's just the sprite is really unsaturated.

Hrmmm, I almost want to say that's a really tiny laptop, lol, but it could just be that, thought the cup? next to it feels really really small.

[Melkoshi]

This is just my opinion on the meshup of the sprite and the bg.

The background is lovely, i will say that. However I dont feel it and the sprite match enough. The bold outlines on the sprite ruin the painter style of the bg, or the other way around. I'd suggest adding a darker outline in the bg if possible to have a more conformed style that relates the two.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Update in first post due to change in direction >_>

[Alera]

I like the messy style in the backgrounds you have put in the first post. It looks really refreshing! :'D

[James]

Messy style is not bad at all, it has a free-spirit and fun feeling to it which can not be replicated with a camera. You mention that you prefer painting like this, then you should stick with it.

In my logical opinion a background art serves it's function to provide the mood of the scene to the story. Which the messy background did if you're going for a carefree daily life mood. In fact, if the background art is more appealing and too detailed then the character, then it kind of distracts the viewers and thus fails its function as a background art. BG art is the support the story, kind of like a bass to a violin. Also like how a support character is suppose to enhance the main character.

My only suggestion is that once you start with the messy style, you have to continue with the messy style through out the entire scene. Something about the right half of the classroom seems too even, and doesn't match the rest of the background (even though I understand that classroom is in the dark so the color is suppose to be stronger). Maybe it's the too straight white lines on chalkboard, or the lack of green shading in the shadows, or that the blackboard color look too different from the other one in the background (I keep thinking the background black-board is suppose to be darker in color then the board in front). Kind of frustrating cause I keep sensing something is off, but I'm having a hard time pinpointing it.

Anyways you have my vote for messy style! Remember the mood is more important then the details!

[Auro-Cyanide]

Thank you Alera and James

It is true I have more fun with this. When I was trying to get things so neat and perfect I was getting frustrated because it took so long and I thought it would be easier for me to take a photo and manipulate it. I feel better painting like things, looser and more expressive. It is good to hear that people get a good emotive response from it. I see what you mean about the blackboard. I will have to go in and blend it in a bit more. Easily fixed though. There is a couple of spots that need to be fixed too but at least it doesn't require redrawing. Thank you for your feedback.

[Greeny]

I think it's perfect.