This isn't done, but I'm looking for a fresh set of eyes to tell me what's not feeling right...something is off, but I don't know what it is!

City by the Falls, WIP

I've linked to the full-sized picture, so you can see it in detail.

Here's another simple matte painting...took a picture of Big Sur, and "adjusted" it to make it look more like the Scottish Highlands. Then I added a castle, and whoop, dere it is ;)

The original plate came from a Gnomon Workshop DVD on photoshop painting, so I can't claim 100% ownership of this, but it was designed to be an exercise, and well, I did the exercise, so there you go ;)

Scottish Tower (matte painting)

Just a very quick painting. I ripped out the valley floor and replaced it with a river, and then created the island and the foreground hills in Vue. Oh yeah, I increased the size of the mountains in the background too.

Japanese River
Comments welcome!

So, this one I created a full concept sketch before I started painting and tweaking it...I decided that since I can't really paint for shit, I would do my concept in Vue, and then use that.

I enjoyed it. It is still a LONG way from looking like the matte paintings of my heroes, but I think it's a step in the right direction, and I feel like I'm learning a bit how to make things 'sit' in the frame.

Here's the concept:

Winter Wizard Concept Sketch

Here's the matte painting:

Winter Wizard Matte

I am still not sure if I want trees on the right side or not...also not sure about the atmosphere...I think it's pretty realistic, but is it showing a blizzard in the best way?

Comments welcome!

You guys are awesome, thanks for the pick-me-up :)

Here's one where I wanted to work on my perspective drawing/painting. The entire foreground is created by me, and I didn't really change the background at all.

Japanese Garden

Again, this is a very simple novice-level exercise, and there are still problems with it. I have the damnedest time with edges and corners...I think the solution is in shadows, but I haven't found it yet.

"Civilizations rise and fall, with the ruins of the old paving way for the ruins of the new."

Layers of Decay

This was fun :) Played around a lot with reference materials, and getting them to sit into the painting.

[EDIT:] Replaced the picture with a new version, this one had extensive detail work changed on the mid-ground city area, plus some new hyper-structures in the far background.

Ok, I was still annoyed by "Indian Dirt" and the way the foreground mounds looked, so I went back and adjusted it...I also used a reference photo for the background mountain (hell, I took it, I can use it if I want to!)

Indian Dirt 2

Much happier with this version.

Ok, here's another very simple matte, mostly just so I can practice sitting things into the painting and have them look like they should be there.

Indian Dirt Mounds

I'm quite happy with the background mountain, the foreground dirt mounds are the right color balance (roughly), but I don't like their edges too much...not sure what to do to fix it tho.

Not sure what you'd call this one...I mostly did it because I felt like it :) It's not super realistic, but it is based on a photo "plate", so maybe it's a matte painting, maybe it's just a sketch.

Whatever.

I wanted to be sure to mention that I'm not posting these so people can tell me how much better I'm getting, or to otherwise get any ego gratification. I do love constructive comments (Thanks Mary!), but mostly I'm just chronicling my experience. Not too many people like to post examples of when they suck, and I'm sure mine will come back to bite me in the ass (I *still* have friends who pick on my about my earliest musical failures from '97), but I'm excited to be learning something new, and I like to share my excitement.

Fountains in the Rain

[EDIT]: Picture changed to correct a wind and rain problem. Thanks vox_angel for pointing that out!

In the interest of chronicling my progress, here's another matte sketch. I won't call it anything more than a sketch, as I'm not terribly happy with it, but I did learn some things working on it, and when I think back to the early days of doing music, I recognize there are things that you need to do and try to take pride in, even if you kinda feel like it doesn't meet your expectations for yourself.

So - I feel a bit like a 2nd grader with digital crayons, but here it is:

Orchha Matte Sketch

IMHO, trees are tough to pull off well.

Well, that's what happens at the start of a learning curve.

Last night and this morning I knuckled down, fought off the fear, and did my first real "landscape" matte painting. I would classify it as a "concept sketch"...somewhere above scribbles but below finished matte painting. As I understand how these things go, this would be something to show a client before spending the hours and hours it takes to make it photo-real.

Desert Matte

If you want to see the plate this was based on, lemme know and I'll post it.

Jakarta after the Fall

It's funny, to me, the building looks like I added it, and I really didn't, I just "distressed it" a tad...ok, a lot :)

This is my favorite stage of learning, when the curve is almost straight up, and today's masterpiece is tomorrow's piece of crap ;) Any and all helpful comments welcome.

Another matte painting - less adding and more subtracting in this one...took out the people and the stupid guard-rail posts, then adjusted the sky to make things a little more dynamic.

Taj Storm

Well, it's still India, but this is a matte painting I created in Photoshop using one of my (unposted) Varanasi picts as a plate. Quite pleased with the results, although there is obviously still lots of room for improvement. I think I may try a rural painting next...

Varanasi In My Mind

A Momentary Perch

My first attempt at really painting anything in photoshop. Sky was rendered in Vue, as was V4. City was painted based on a tutorial and brushes found at:

http://www.spyroteknik.com/resources.html

I hope to improve my painting in the future, but I was pleased with the results :)

And another one.
( Cut so I can put multiple pictures together. )

Here's my first attempt at integrating my 3D work with my photography.

Steampunk Nobeoka