3d art

Environment
Fine detail and finishing off
How the finishing process developed the piece towards a better painting
o
15 Continue the sky composition
As the sky’s composition is almost finished in this step,
the whole image looks a lot less cartoonish and has
a more realistic feel.
The lighting and colouring is still too dreamy in this version,
but the direction starts to work. Details like the harbour piers
and additional kicked highlights support this 0.
16 Finalise the sky composition
In this step, the sky is completely filled up with a new
composition of clouds that work a lot better. The contrast in
this version creates a more balanced image, but also a darker
mood that kills some ambient sky lighting details on the city
and the effect of depth. The sun seems distractingly bright
right now, but the overall composition is working p.
Compositing
the layers
Layers were used extensively
to be as flexible as possible in
the process. I mostly used
adjustment layers that I later
grouped with the changed
pixels and duplicate. Then the
duplicated group is merged
and the old group is turned off
visually to have a Photoshop
file that’s easier to handle.
p
0 Here, we are starting to get
somewhere with this painting
p A high-contrast version of
the cityscape with a bright sun
q It’s getting too saturated and
monochromatic in this rather
flat version of the painting
r The final cityscape painting
with the final touch of colour
variation and details
17 Later that day
When working for too long on a painting without a pause,
you get that tunnel vision that pushes you further into a
saturated colour scheme. This red sunset version with too
few highlights almost looks monochromatic compared to the
previous version and the final image. The ambient skylight
painted onto the big clouds gives more depth nonetheless.
Some little perspective corrections and the mid-ground city
extension make the panoramic view complete q.
q
r
18 Final cityscape painting
And here is the finished painting. Opening some parts of
the sky again gives more colour variation and a more friendly
mood. One of the most important final tweaks is the
desaturation of the reds in combination with a bigger variety
of colours and more ambient skylight details on the buildings’
roofs and clouds r.
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