2D Fantasy Concept Art: Feedback and advice is needed.

amitawaghade

I am doing a concept art, "Arrival". It is about arrival of a warrior to the last step of his quest to a gate of an abandoned kingdom. Some advice will be useful on anything

amitawaghade

Update: Trying to fix the values, I think I have messed up!

krraej

Hey there. I think you could benefit from doing a couple of small thumbnails of how you want this painting to look like before you jump into the nitty-gritty of detailing. Make a couple of thumbs with only 3 or 4 colors to keep it really simply and to determine the composition—what is the most important element in your painting? The gate? The path leading up to it? Lights draw the eyes, shadows tell the story. The brightest element of your painting will be looked at first and therefore should be the most important one (at least in this kind of painting). Try to simplify all the shapes you work with here and look at some environmental concept art by artists you like.

Composition-wise, your first image looks better because the eye immediately knows what to look at. But the two darker rocks stick out a bit too much because they have a lot of contrast, which you seemed to have noticed as you tried to lessen the contrast in your second image. But it's very unclear what the most important element in your second image is. So yeah, try drawing thumbs first so you know what you want to accomplish with this painting.

amitawaghade

Thank you very much!