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artbypaulfisher β Red Nine
Published: 2014-04-19 23:46:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 4527; Favourites: 68; Downloads: 0
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Description
This is my first finished piece this year, I'm trying to improve my time usage on projects and include more vibrant colours in my digital works. I love the Red Arrows and have wanted to theme a painting on them for a while.I used a really old untextured 3D model of the 'BAE Hawk T1' I made in Blender as perspective and placement reference for the planes to figure out how to best lay out my composition (the model can be seen in my work in progress image). The ground includes some texture taken from an image included in 'The Nature Academy' product by Andrew Price (purchased to be used commercially).
Digital Painting - 14th April to 20th April, 2014
Originally 9000x6000 pixels 300dpi, downsized to 1280x853 pixels 72dpi
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Wacom Intuos 4
Blender (Hawk Model and composition planning)
Total Time: 5 hours
Information on the Red Arrows:Β en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Arroβ¦
A 'work in progress' for this painting can be seen here:
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Comments: 23
Man, I really like the atmosphere in this. The blue in the upper portion of the piece is really nice. I think it'd be nice to see that carried over in some other areas, as right now it's very isolated right there and that's where my eye is drawn immediately, as opposed to the planes which I think are supposed to be the focus. The composition itself is interesting, I believe this would have more impact if the horizon wasn't split across the middle of the page, it makes it seem really divided as is.
If you made either the sky, or the foreground larger this could be avoided. The planes seem like they don't have any shadows, or are matte in finish since there aren't really any visible shines or shadows on them - you could pull blue in with reflections on the planes if you so desired. Anyway, hopefully this was somewhat helpful haha. I really dig the idea of this piece, it's a big feat to do and you've kept the perspective in check with the models very well.
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Thank you. My original goal with this was to just try and paint something more vibrant in a digital format. I felt like my previous attempts lack any sort of dynamic colour range and look rather bland, this has probably restricted my attention to detail a little on this one. I'm also trying to stray away from the rule of thirds composition and be a little more adventurous, so the choice to have the centre of the horizon right in the centre of the image and the planes directing the eye towards there had that in mind.
I knew someone with a keen eye would pick up on the colour/surface issues on the planes! To be honest, I had such a hard time getting the forms/perspective/angle from the camera to look right (not to mention making them all seem equal in size and part of the same formation), I didn't really want to tamper with the colouring any more than this. I was just so relieved that the shapes looked fairly believable to me that I left them how they were and tried to not over-complicate it.
Thanks for taking the time to write this. I was pretty happy with how this turned out, but it's really quite motivating to get helpful comments on how I can improve, what I'm doing right and what needs work, I really appreciate the feedback
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You succeeded in vibrancy! The color usage is really quite nice. 
I can understand where you're coming from about composition, I personally have an eye for split compositions, for whatever reason, I think they look really cool(if done well haha). So, no big deal, it's really just a game of pulling the eye where you want it.
Implying materials can be tricky, I think the only reason I really noticed the lack of shines is due to the fact I've been doing material studies recently(particularly glossy materials).
I'm glad it was helpful! 
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Yeah I gave up trying to combine 2D and 3D in this one as I'd already painted the background and just couldn't make it work, so I just set up a rough reference guide in the end and then painted the planes by eye (I only did one side, then flipped it to make sure it was equal). 3D is a really useful tool though for speed and perspective though, mainly because it lets you change your mind so easily. The amount of times I've painted something then wished I'd used a slightly different angle is unreal, preparing in 3D can avoid this issue (even if youre just using cubes and spheres to represent your content and rendering in grayscale for value). I haven't tried creating something coloured in 3D then painting over it, I always use default grayscale materials as I prefer to paint colour how I feel at the time, rather than with something pre-defined. If you know 3D though and can work efficiently with your program, you can really do some very good quality sketch work to block out your ideas extremely quickly. Really recommend watching these two videos if you were interested in trying out this process:Β www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spx93hβ¦ andΒ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoluioβ¦
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This is a really nice painting, I don't know much about using models myself but I can appreciate the atmosphere. It feels warm and smooth!
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Thank you
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the unifying nature of all the warm colours makes this piece fun to look at!
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Haha, nice reference! Thank you
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I love the perspective angle. It's an interesting angle, but it fits nicely to the atmosphere. Your sky blends well & transitions well, though I think the piece would benefit from sun rays coming off the plane bodies since their headed into the sunset. Overall, I love the vibrancy, the colors look fantastic!
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Interesting idea! I hadn't thought about sun rays off the planes themselves (I had them through the clouds in one version I tried). I'll try that out for sure if I come back to this at some point down the line. Thank you for the feedback
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You're welcome!Β
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This is incredible! I can't believe it's painted! I love the warm colours and how the red arrows are flying out into the sunset!
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The red clouds and stars are so beautiful!. It's like those red arrows are heading into space and beyond!!
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Thank you very much
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I love the strength and majesty of this picture, I find it exhilarating. 
It's a strong picture for sure. I wonder if it could be stronger if something in the back ground, maybe a sharper definition in the horizon, was added. Something feels missing, but I can't put my finger on it, something to ice this glorious, proverbial "cake" you've painted. Either way, it's a fantastic render of the Red Arrows and I think they'd be proud.
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I tried all sorts of things on the horizon - a thin bright line of light through it, a physical sun, lens flares etc and couldn't find one to settle on, so just went without and as if they were in a layer of cloud in the end. I agree though, there is more I could do with this, I just couldn't make any of my ideas at the time work better than what I already had. Thank you for the feedback
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I hear ya. 
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