Second Image...

andyc

Hope this is OK Coen. Link to external file - http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x224/andyc990/tscopy.jpg

Was an interesting workflow to this one. Started with a collage of images and textures in Photoshop. Then drew some simple geometry in SU to match the more interesting parts of the collage and to act as a guide for painting. Overlayed the two, some Painter work, and a little more Photoshop.
Not 100% on the composition - may crop it down a little.
Comments welcomed as usual.

Alex Jenyon

Andy:

Even though it's hotlinked, you can get the image to show up as part of your post, instead of just a link. Like this:

(that's [img]...the%20URL...[/img], though you might know that already...)

Doesn't use up any more of Coen's bandwidth than the link, as far as I know - that's Photobucket's problem...

This is a really interesting technique, but the result is a little 'muddy' for my liking - have you been stacking up a bunch of layers on 'multiply'? It's made everything very black - like you've been adding shadow, without any light to go with it. You've been using soft brushes, too by the looks of things, which also kills the detail. Why not try going back over it with some nice hard-edged brushes, and bring out some of the detail again. Might solve both problems, and let you make the light direction more defined. I'd add a glint or two to the towers in the background, as well as bringing up the brightness of the sky - would make the sihlouette easier to read. You could then knock back the colour/contrast/intensity of the background elements - fade them down, so they look like they are receding into the distance.

I really like the idea of building a Sketchup model based on a sketch, rather than the other way round. Think I'll have to give it a go soon, when I get a minute.

Take care

AJ

andyc

Thanks for the feedback Alex.
Because of the nature of my day-job, I've always tended to over-emphasise the glints and highlights to produce a persuasive sales visual. I was trying to avoid that polished look here - but the result is (you are dead right) a little muddy and lacking definition. The chosen colour palette may not be helping too. I'll try re-working it a little when I can.

The sketch (or in this case collage) before SU was a really interesting exercise for me. The collaging threw up a couple of shapes that I probably wouldn't have thought to draw. I suppose it might be possible to use SU6's photo-match tool to use the collage to texture the model, but I like to get it out of SU as quick as possible, and do the fun stuff in PS and Painter.

Your comments were appreciated as usual