Dave's Digitals

Well, following suit I'll bat third tonight. ... This was the last pic I was working on from the old forum, so thought to add it here to start things off. Haven't had much free time, but would like to get back to it soon.

Looking good, but (at the moment) I'm not really getting the sense that the background is that far in the distance. The scale of the trees tells me it is, but the level of detail and tonal range matches the foreground, which is flattening the planes.

Thanks kindly em... & Charlotte. Last time I worked on it, I was trying to sharpen up the characters to help with this very issue. But it does need more work. I'm not a fan of the blur & sharpen tools, preferring to work everything by brush, so it's taking me some time to do this. But will see if I can do just that the next time I can sit down with it. Thanks again.

I think perhaps working on your value composition might help separate the background and give everything a better feel in general. The top image on this post about value composition is a nice quick summary of good ways to separate your values. If your using Photoshop then adding a Posterize adjustment layer set to 3 levels is a good way to see how your image reads. It's something I've only come across recently but I think it's well worth trying.

Thanks, Claude. Will check that out.
As for the Posterize adjustment, yep, I always use it. Actually it was em... that introduced me to that a while back, and I have been trying to utilize it with each image I have worked on since. ... It also might not be helping, that originally the BG and main characters in this image weren't really started together. The BG started when I was just trying out some brush settings, and at the same time, was working on the character on the left. (Old man) so I put them together and built it up from there. Thanks again.

The trees do look great, but knocking them back a little - so that the darkest tones are reserved to the foreground - helps the characters pop.

It does indeed, thank you. ... Another thing that was bothering me the last time I worked on this, was what I wanted to do with their feet? I just roughed in the legs for position after deciding to do a full body pose. (was originally just waist up) and was thinking of having them standing in snow. Though I kind-of feel their present stance is quite stale, but not sure what can be done, since they are just standing their ground. May have to try moving their legs a bit to see if it helps.

Thanks again

I know this is off subject, but thought since I introduced these little guys on the old forum, that I would bring them in on this new one. Though they might be just a tad bigger then the last time you guys saw them.

Here all three enjoying the backyard, and also watching for any critters dumb enough to come into their domain.



And here's Kito, pretending to rip his sister Khaleesi's head off. Shelby, who's in front, doesn't seem to be concerned.