First Time Doing Backgrounds, Requesting Critique, Resources

[noeinan]

So, this is my first time attempting background art because I need it for my NaNoRenO game. But... I'm not very good at coloring and shading. >< My sprites are usually filled in with one color etc. So, I've been doing research on background art, and am not really... Satisfied with what I'm doing so far. Plus, I don't have much time to learn! D:

So, I thought I'd ask you folks for any critique on what I have, or any tutorials, guides, etc. you can share! I'll list a few I'm already using:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeKaJI_2 ... e=youtu.be
http://antichange.deviantart.com/art/Tu ... s-82687849
http://stelara.deviantart.com/art/Stela ... -254015694
http://kalambo.deviantart.com/art/Backg ... -208346837
http://kalambo.deviantart.com/art/Backg ... -255819198
http://sakura984.deviantart.com/art/Bac ... -169720586

And I'll attach the BG I'm currently working on. The first picture is just flat colors showing where everything will be placed. The second has my attempt at painting and blending colors for the base. In the third, I have added some color splotches which I plan to turn into rocks and bushes. Any comments on what I could be doing better, or any resources that would help me are greatly appreciated!

[chocojax]

*EDIT: Just found this picture! It might help you out too. http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/ ... Valley.jpg

I'm not that good at backgrounds, but hopefully this helps you out, haha. :P

The very first version looks nice! I thought it was a filtered photo.

Between the second and third, it looks strange.

For the second, you could add a shade of blue to the mountain, since I'm assuming it's pretty far away and huge. Although, now that I look at it again, it looks like the sun is setting?
The colors should be pushed more. (I'm just assuming this is daytime, so.) The foreground should be the most bright, and as it's going away, more tones of blue due to the sky.

For the third, the small details look extremely different from the painting underneath. The soft colors of the underlying landscape contrasts a lot with the added details, so it's strange! After adjusting the colors from the second drawing, adjust these ones to make them fit more.

This was randomly chosen, but it might help you out with choosing colors. Just google interesting photos of landscapes, I suppose. :'D

[noeinan]

Thanks for replying!

I know the last picture looks odd, and I think I need to blend the rocks a little more, and add some darker tones to the bushes. I think that will help?

I also learned that as things go further in the distance, they become less saturated and more grey-- So I tried to do that with my grass and mountains. The foreground is brighter green, then a darker, less saturated green, and the last green is slightly more blue as well. (Then the mountain is pretty much completely grey.)

It is supposed to be a day photo-- the white near the mountains wasn't particularly intended to be the source of the sun though I could see it that way. A tutorial I was watching recommended having more blue at the top, and less at the bottom. But I feel there's too much light for it to be a sunrise or sunset... Hm.

I may need to reevaluate my colors, though. These landscapes are kind of what I'm going for:

[sendo]

I also learned that as things go further in the distance, they become less saturated and more grey-- So I tried to do that with my grass and mountains. The foreground is brighter green, then a darker, less saturated green, and the last green is slightly more blue as well. (Then the mountain is pretty much completely grey.)

The reason for that is atmosphere. The further the object away from the viewer, the more it will be affected/tinted by the atmosphere/sky, in this case the blue sky. The mountain shouldn't be completely gray, unless foggy or the air is full of soot, it should still have blue tint to it.

Other things to remember (just things I've learned from watching a ton of art videos and tutorials):

* Foreground elements should pop out, you can do this by increasing the value/darkness of the foreground elements.

* Most of the time, foreground elements are also the most detailed parts of the painting, so you can get away by using simple strokes to suggest detail for the far away objects.

* Nothing is ever in one color, objects (trees, grass, rocks, anything) are affected by their surroundings (ambient light, bounce lights).

Here's a quick-ish paintover of what I would do, NOT necessarily what you must do, take what you will from it.

[noeinan]

Thanks for the tips! I think I'll have to paint this one over again and see what I can do.

One thing I definitely struggled with was a painting program that blends properly. I first tried Photoshop 9, since it came with my tablet, but couldn't figure out how to blend right. At most, it would make sharp edges fuzzy, but wouldn't blend two colors over an area.

Then I tried the other program that came with my tablet, Corel painter. That blended a bit better, though you can just blend two colors you have to choose a color to paitnt with and it kinda blends stuff. Another problem is it makes big brush stroke indentations, which aren't a huge deal, but are kind of annoying.

So, any suggestions on art programs? Or am I just using them wrong? (Open question to anyone with suggestions.)

[Edit]

I'm including an attachment of my photoshop versions, created before the ones posted above. (The above ones were created in Corel Painter.) Also, just figured out a way to sort of blend in Photoshop, which includes blurring the sections and then creating a new layer above them, reducing the opacity, and air brushing over the merged areas. I think I did a better job at choosing colors for this version, so I figured I'd see if these were closer to the ballpark than the other batch.

I have not added details to the rocks and trees yet, just for placeholding purposes currently, because I want to get the grass background painting right first. I think these pictures still needed me to add some blue to the background, but I'd like to hear what you guys think of the blending. I'm more familiar in Photoshop in general, so if I can get away with using it... (But yeah, I first show the unblended picture with and without placeholder rocks/bushes, then the blended picture with/without placeholder bushes.)

I just worry it's blended... Too much? And perhaps loses definition.

[Edit 2]

Yeah, after looking at them side by side, I think the Corel version was better. Things stand out more, and especially the mountain looks more mountainy instead of blobby.

I think I want to end up with something more like this, so I'll keep trying and see what I can come up with.

[chocojax]

I personally like SAI, but that's because it's a lot more convenient and compact. I don't think you're using them wrong, but you should just mess around and experiment with them more.

There are probably landscapin' brushes for Corel/PS, so look for them! I would link you some, but I don't have any on hand at the moment, haha.

Yeah, you've lost a lot of detail when you blended it. Like in crestforge's paintover, some parts are blended, but not to the point of making everything have the same sort of texture. I don't think you've started to shade your sprites yet, but make sure the style of the sprites mix well with the background style. '3'

In the example you posted, there are some parts that have a gradient/blend of color (flat land) but the harsher elements like mountains and trees have harder brush-strokes. Something I like to do is to paint the shadows => go over it again with the "base" color to color in the parts that get hit by the light, even though its neighbors won't. It adds more depth and detail into the section without really trying much.

Also, something fun and quick you could do is making small thumbnails of landscapes, and just picking out the general colors from them to help out with color-picking?

[MaiMai]

What version of photoshop are you using exactly? Photoshop 9?? I've collected tons of brushes for PS, but they work better for the CS series.

[Rozume]

How are you blending your colors? The trick to good blending - at least from what I use and seen others do - is to abuse the eye dropper tool to oblivion. Instead of blurring areas in PS, you can modify your brush settings and adjust the flow and opacity until you're comfortable.

A program you can also consider is Manga Studio 5 / Clip Studio Paint. I'm still trying to figure out the brush engine, but I think it's pretty powerful. I personally like it better than SAI because you can make it look like Photoshop and it's easier for me to bounce between PS.

Edit:

I looked at your color palette and noticed that you're picking colors within the same hue. That's very limited and makes your colors look rather dull. Try making the shadows/highlights a different hue and saturation; that way you can vary your palette a bit.

1 is your palette while 2 is a sample palette that I made varying the hues and saturation.

[sendo]

Yeah the new version is blended too much aka muddy values. You can fix this by adding sharp edges like grass blades or even spots of earth to break up the smoothness of the ground. Also push your values more, basically adding more vibrant colors on top of the blended colors and darker colors for the shades.

Remember, unlike your reference (which I instantly know its from Zero no Tsukaima, what is wrong with me), your BG is near the viewer which means you need to paint more details so it's more convincing. Like chocojax said, use hard strokes for the trees and mountains, and even rocks and the vegetation. You might also want to try using the Color Balance tool in Photoshop to correct your colors (Ctrl + B in Windows or Image>Adjustments>Color Balance), just play with it, and see if you can find a better color palette to work from.

I'd advise against blurring for blending because you're actually just blurring two colors not blending. It's basically the same as taking your image and applying a gaussian blur on it.

I used photoshop cs6 for my paintover and just used a square brush with opacity controlled by pen pressure so that I control what to blend and what not to blend. Obviously I also used a cloud and a foliage brush hehe.

Blending in Paintool SAI is waaaaaaaaay easier, just use the Water Color tool and blend away.