Dawn Castle (?)

I tried doing an oldschool piece just for the fuck of it, i.e. no fancy lighting tricks and w/e

Also I need ideas to connect background to foreground for more depth

It looks pretty connected to me.

looks pretty good!

the way you have everything positioned I'd call the castle the background and the river / shallows the foreground, and those create good depth and are very well connected.

if you wanted to connect to the far background, i'd recommend getting rid of some of what is already here, things are going to get very cluttered very quick.

my biggest recommendation is to either delete that pipe that's front and center or make it do something. as is its just distracting, doesnt make sense, and doesnt look good.
it'd be pretty cool though if you made it attached to a pipeline that was located at the bottom of the river and stretched from the castle to off scene
oldschool techniques meet industrial scene or something

Pretty sure that he's aware that it sticks out, I think it's more of a hint to take a closer look at the factory (?).

Sweet. I miss mapping.

hmm maybe! if that's the point then maybe something a bit more subtle and hint-like rather than LED-sign-like?

but i kinda like it better without a hint
my favorite part was
"thats a pretty fortress... wait why are there smoke stacks... ohhh"