Environment Matte Painting - Critique Please

ArtofColinRudd

Here's a matte painting that was created for my Digital Design Aesthetics class. We were tasked with designing and illustrating an environment using Photoshop CC. I focused my efforts on composition, narrative elements, and accurate lighting. Critiques are welcomed and definitely encouraged! Thanks for checking it out.

Avanthera

Hey Colin,

I think the scene is well laid out, and it feels like an actual 3d space that exists, but the lighting is a bit off to me.

So I did a paintover below. The teal arrows are the seeming light source directions from your piece. It's as if there is a sun to the mid left, another sun top right, and some kind of fill light coming from behind the camera. So I'd really nail down where my main light source is and stick with it.

On the center statue there is hardly any bounce light coming from the floor. If the rock walls around the place are being lit that brightly through sheer bounce light, I'd expect more on the statue and walls at their bottoms. Since most of the statues front side would be in shadow, I'd use ambient occlusion and bounce light to show forms.

Quick, but I hope it helps!

ArtofColinRudd

It's very helpful! Thanks for your feedback. I definitely understand what you mean about determining the light sources and taking into account all the bounced light. I'm currently finishing up finals for my classes, but once I'm settled for break I'll rework it and post the updated piece!

ArtofColinRudd

Avanthera said:

Hey Colin,

I think the scene is well laid out, and it feels like an actual 3d space that exists, but the lighting is a bit off to me.

So I did a paintover below. I'd really nail down where my main light source is and stick with it.
Since most of the statues front side would be in shadow, I'd use ambient occlusion and bounce light to show forms.

It took awhile, but here is my progress. I've used the paint over as a reference and focused on where my light was coming from and how that light would bounce around. I'm not sure if I would call it finished, but it's mostly likely around 80% done if I were to give an estimate. So, any more comments would be greatly appreciated as I move towards wrapping it up. Thanks!