My Subway Train Background Lighting Dilemma
The frantic deadline period is over and now I can have room to breathe again. I can now go outside, eat, sleep and draw again. Though most importantly, play video games once again. What the outcome of my work handed in will be like, who knows. I can’t say any of it lived up to my expectations. Though it was a good learning period.
In this post I wanted to bring up something that bothered me when I was completing my environment background layout assignment. The lighting. The lighting threw me a bit, partly because I couldn’t decide how far I could push ‘directional’ lighting and keep to the brief. I liked the subway train idea too much to change it and once I had sketched the idea a few times and got started, I realised I really had no idea what to do with the lighting.
Having the whole carriage lit seemed a bit much, so I decided to only use half the lighting in the carriage. Problem was, when I darkened the end of the carriage, I lost my focal point. It didn’t really work for me, it felt like I had lost something. I decided to go for something in the middle, but I think there is probably too much light at the end of the carriage considering the lights are off. In the end it was a last minute personal preference and I decided I wanted to keep my focal point in the light.
Specimen A
Specimen B
I do generally like my outcome, though it was a bit over ambitious of me and caused a lot of damage to the following piece. The composition, like with my first background layout, is what I am most pleased with. There is a few nasty proportional mess ups I missed until it was too late, though you can probably see them. If not, don’t worry about it.
Another problem I had was that the image above took considerably longer than I had expected. For my last environment I was left with very little time, and it shows. Really I needed something that was simple. Turns out making good looking grass and other plant life is not simple. The image recycles the same few brushes for almost everything. And I can’t believe I didn’t finish the flag either. Just looks lazy. Lazy. Lazy.
The idea of using a golf course was a back up one, because originally I was going to do some rock caverns with light coming through and sparkling across the water, but decided against it after how long the subway train took. Not to worry, I will keep the rock cavern idea for later. As with my life drawing unit, now that I have dabbled with environments and messed them up a bit, I am inspired to continue practicing them in my own time.
Roy
February 15th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I think these are excellent pieces, the subway train is very atmospheric (it looks like purse snatching and other violent crime could occur here) and the golf course is as boring as you would expect a golf course to be. Nice subtle lawn mower lines in the grass (I am sure there must be a technical term for them) the light is nice it shows undulations and tree line shadows. You even have a bunker, nothing horribly lazy here in my opinion, and no impending crimes about to take place. Will look forward to the caverns. Good work Roy.
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February 25th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Excellent work. Julie also very impressed with subway train interiors. Superb
April 14th, 2009 at 11:37 am
This is really excellent Roy. I am suitablly impressed. The fact I was eating some lovely lemony cake whilst feasting my eyes on your work possibly enhanced the experience. Tophole.