floating castle WIP

k, here's the full size:


i need to enlarge the castle. anyone know how i could enlarge both the lineart and the color layers at the same time?

some detail shots at full resolution.




i like my clouds.

That's WACK!
Crazy... wunder what finished will look like.

wowie man. Your ass is on a role huh. I like how its coming along.

The sky need something, but I don't know what. It needs more interest.

Maybe a faint city below, or some weak misty clouds to add variety.

Beam... instead of enlarging the castle...

just shrink the bg...

"Oh tell me why, do we build castles in the sky"

icbm1987

it's a nasty situation here: you shaded the clouds as the light is coming from up high, but you made the sky gradient like the light source is situated down somewhere. And nice clouds, but they still need work.

The sky is generally a bit withe above the horizon line, or in the lower part of the sky, no matter from where the light source come from.
Nice castle, and nice clouds, but you should shade them more

I agree with you, stormragejr, but the sky is also lighter in the region where the sun is. Like in this image, where the sun is in the right side of the picture:
[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=clear+sky/v=2/SID=w/l=IVS/SIG=127jecj73/EXP=1115922009/*-http%3A//cache.corbis.com/agent/14/09/93/14099351.jpg[/img]

yea i think theres a way to resize something exactly to the pixel. so if you would resize the first layer to lets say 217% the you can resize the second layer to 217% as well...

should work

yeah horizon is usally less saturated and lighter. It's something with particles(atmoshpere) and light.

I heard somewhere that sun light is actually white ,and color white is made up of all the colors in the rainbow.

When the sun light travels to the earth ground... For some reason blue and violet light rays hits particles in the air while orange and yellow goes through. This makes the sky blue and light yello/orange.

Anyways the blue rays bounces from particle to particle, and every time it bounces it gets weaker (less saturated). Hence making the blue sky lighter and weak near the horizon.

So i guess it makes perfect sense that the sky would also be lighter near the light source. The particles are the closest to the light.

I guess this also explains areial perspective. The farther the object the more particles between you and the object. making the object harder to see and less distinct.

Imagine if there was no particles/ atmosphere in the air. The sky would be pure black space. I think that would be kinda freaky.

I don't know why i just typed all this 0_0.

beam lissening to ian van dahl?

A. I agree, light is white
B. If the blue and violet particles are hit by the atmosphere, allowing yellow, orange, green etc to hit our eyes, the sky wouldnt be blue/violet, its the other way around.

I.E. A green belt absorbs all the colors except green, which it reflects into our eyes

yeah... the sky is usually darker the farther away from the horizon you look...

That's fallacious reasoning there, Shadow_Strike. When light travels through the atmosphere, some of it collides with the the various gases (ie: nitrogen, oxygen, ozone, et cetera). Blue light is comprised of photons with a shorter wavelength than most else, and as these shorter wavelengths have more nodes, they are more likely to collide with the gaseous atoms. This scattering causes the sky to be blue, and all other wavelengths travel through unabated. Think of it; you're not looking at the light from the sun when you're looking at the blue sky, you're looking at the blue photons which have been reflected. The sky is not absorbing the blue photons; it is reflecting them and letting all else pass through.

The sky is lighter and less saturated at the horizon because of large particles in the sky (smoke, dust, water, etc). The air at the horizon is deeper, so more of these particles (and more importantly, the light that hits them) are evident.

If the sky appears lighter around the sun, it is because of these large particles in the sky being hit by the light. The sky itself is not lit in the same way; subatomic scattering accounts for this. Notice in that picture, TDR, that it is a misty day and not a clear sky we are seeing.

If you want it explained in a more articulate manner go here. Excellent tutorial.

About the picture now, how is it coming along? The castle looks a little small, so I think cropping the picture could help. Also, I think those clouds could use some soft edges here and there; after all, it all about juxtaposing the hard with the soft. As far as the composition goes, I think it would be more effective if we had a more dynamic view; think of an exaggerated perspective seen from a lower or higher vantage. Or a more intimate view for a more fantastical presentation.

If you want some reference or inpiration for floating isles and the like, I highly recommend Roger Dean. I have an awesome artbook, but it's hard to find a good collection on the internet. This one is somewhat lacking, but can give you an idea.