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CarminaEnoctis — The Cooking Lesson
by-nc-sa
Published: 2012-09-11 17:45:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 3010; Favourites: 19; Downloads: 1043
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Description
This is easily the most complicated thing I've done in a long time, which was hardly my goal at the outset. It just sort of... evolved. It started out when I ran across the green dragon on the left, who to me seemed to be in the middle of explaining something, like on a cooking show. I could almost hear it saying, "The secret to cooking knights is..... " (almost titled it that). I'll let you fill in the blank... what is the secret to cooking knights?Originally I was just going to throw the image together quickly, mostly just for kicks, but then it sort of took on a life of its own... somehow, they always do!
Anyway, it was a learning experience. Mostly, I learned that I'm terrible at perspective and lighting! I learned that multiple shadows are a PAIN. And that I stink at keeping up with stuff. No, wait... I already knew that! Which is to say, if I somehow leave out a photo in the credits, I humbly apologize! I did try to keep up with them all!
Oh, I also learned that picking a light source behind the main subject when you have a bunch of little items is a terrible idea! I also learned that it is very difficult to make a small glass container look like a large glass container. Something about the reflections....
I will gladly take any suggestions on improving any of these aspects!
It all started with this dragon [link] by lorddarkwolf [link]
Smaller dragons: Dragon Stock T2P1 [link] and Dragon Stock 1 [link] by Shoofly-Stock [link]
I wanted to set it in a cave, and started with a smaller background, got frustrated with the resolution, went hunting for a bigger image, and had to redo the first 1/3 of the image at the new resolution.
Background:
Background006 [link] by ssdema [link]
Stone table & smaller stones:
Stone table [link] by Luna2-stock [link]
Carnac I [link] by somadjinn [link]
Flat Rock 10 [link] by Cheyenne75 [link]
Items on table:
Mortar Herbs 7050823 [link] from [link]
Alchemists Table 3- stock [link] by Rainny-Stock [link]
Blue Cheese [link] by Mind-Matter [link]
Maxx Food 532 [link] by MaxxITALY [link]
Object Stock -15 [link] by shelldevil [link]
Chilli Peppers stock [link] by DoloresDevelde [link]
Food Pack [link] by Jassy2012 [link]
Bezoars - Potions Ingredients [link] and Beetle Eyes [link] by TheCopperDragon2004 [link]
Baking Stock Rolling Pin [link] by Moon-WillowStock [link]
Various Pizza Stock4 [link] by musketeergurl [link]
Dead Knight [link] and Lady Knight 4 [link] by miladygrimm [link]
Cleaver: Old tools PNG [link] by YBSilon-Stock [link]
Stuff on walls:
Lobster cracker (stock photo) [link] by dogmadic [link]
Cage I [link] by dreamcatcherstock [link]
Armour Stock 1 Preview 4 [link] by Cobweb-stock [link]
One Knight stand 19 [link] by AilinStock [link]
Fairy S - 14 [link] by mjranum-stock [link]
PNG Fairy Wings 2 [link] by NaughtyGirlGraphics [link]
Glass Bottle 7 [link] by A-Passionate-Flame [link]
S.S. Jar [link] by shudder-stock [link]
Fairytale princess 2 [link] by faestock [link]
Aqua 02 [link] by cypherstock [link]
Ripley's Sharks [link] by Della-Stock [link]
Hangmans Noose png [link] by mysticmorning [link]
Palm Tree Tube Stock PNG [link] by digitaltwist [link]
Stock Glass Jar 0.1 [link] by E-dina [link]
Oceanic Life png set [link] by mossi889 [link]
480 underwater partition [link] by Tigers-stock [link]
Cauldron Stock 2 [link] by Shoofly-Stock [link]
Yellowstone 36 [link] by LiZnReSources [link]
Flame 01 [link] by Lucy-Eth-Stock [link]
M-Fox Fiery Inferno Stock 2 [link] by FantasyStock [link]
Bits of armor on the floor:
Armor Detail 9 [link] , armor detail 22 [link] , armor detail 14 [link] , armor detail 15 [link] , and armor detail 5 [link] by Wolkenfels-Stock [link]
Stock Singles 002: Rusty Armor [link] by isharestock [link]
13th Century armor [link] by HumaKaVoola [link]
'07 Shrewsbury - 074 [link] by ye-olde-stock [link]
Cloud brushes [link] by JavierZhX [link]
212 Layers, not counting "back-up" layers. I'm not sure if that's a personal record, but I'm betting it is!
Many thanks again to all who shared their stock!
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Comments: 9
I see you put in a lot of effort to create this colorful and realy catchy piece. Most of the pros have been said before me, so I won't go into those. I like the idea and the execution as well. Really original thought.
However where there are pros, there must be some mistakes as well
The most important thing I would point out, is the hand of one dragon between the two pieces of the table. Looks kinda weird, if you know what I mean. It has nothing to do there. (together with a piece of armor at the bottom)
The second and last thing that I noticed is the princess in the jar. That part is completely off perspective.
There are few very small other things as well, but those don't even worth mentioning.
Impressive work and imagination 
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Thanks for the comments! I'm not sure exactly which part of which dragon you mean? Is it the foot of the blue dragon? (He's sitting on a rock, otherwise he's not tall enough to be at the table)
The perspective of the cage and jar with the princess in it gave me fits. I think I redid the cage about 5 times. I had to disassemble it, since the photo I used was taken from a slightly different angle. As for the jar with the princess, I couldn't even figure out how to fix the perspective (this was the point at which I realized how little I have had to mess with perspective in the past!) Now that I look at it, you should be able to see more of the bottom of the lid of that jar (which means you should be able to see more of the holes I was careful to have the dragons punch in the lid! The princess is, of course, bait for catching knights, so can't have her suffocating!) Maybe the sides of the jar should slant in a bit more?
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Hmm...now that you told me, I did realise, that the blue dragon is sitting. The stone that he is sitting on, and the base of the table seemed to be one big stone, and that is why I mentioned the foot. My mistake, sorry for that
For the jar, I'm not the best with perspective either, but I think the left side of the jar, is way too big. I mean if you take a look at the top, it has an angle of about 30 degrees. Perhaps that is a bit too much. Might be funny, but I just aligned two object next to each other on a shelf, to see, how the perspective is. One glass and a box. The one that has straight borders, seems to need a more radical change, than the one with rounded borders. Don't ask me why, but try it your self.
I really hope I didn't offend you by being a bit too straight-forward with the critiques 
Cheers
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Actually I wasn't sure that foot was what you meant; my first thought was that you meant the blue dragon's right hand, which did for the longest time have nothing going on. I suddenly realized it was perfect for a rolling pin, though I'm not sure how well you can tell that's what that is.
I will have to try the experiment with a shelf... I always have to take a photo of it, though. It is interesting how much your brain automatically adjusts for things like perspective... you are not conscious of how things slant or get smaller, just of the fact one item is farther away than the other. When I look at it in real life, I have a harder time seeing the details that make the perspective.
And no offense taken at all! Feedback is what I wanted! As long as it is specific enough to be useful... that is, it tells me what to work on, I think you know what I mean! (And you have been helpful!)
This image was a major learning experience for me because there were so many things I had not worked on much, like all the different kinds of shadows, and reflections in glass jars, and perspective! Trying to keep the humans in scale with one another, and with the sharks, and the bits of armor on the floor. How much smaller to make the humans on the shelf than the one on the table? I had no idea! So... all feedback is appreciated!
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Wonderfully creative, thanks for using my stock and letting me know
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Wow, what a great cooking lesson. so much to discover. Thanks so much for using my stock in this fantastic work
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Hello ~CarminaEnoctis I see you requested some feedback in #TheArtOfManipulation so I'm going to do my best to give you some right now. Overall I think you've got a really imaginitve piece here. There's so much to look at, a real feast for the eyes. Princess and fish in jars, knights chopped up on the table and strewn all over the floor and the dragons all to happy in their morbid surroundings. A wonderfully imaginative scene. You've payed attention to a lot of great details like the glow of the bug in one jar reflecting off the jar right next to it, the light on the dragons coming from the door, and the shadows on the floor from the objects/body parts all over.
I would say to bring it all together a bit more you might need to work on your lighting and shadows. Also the princess in the jar looks a bit off, a perspective thing and also her arm looks like it might be coming out of the jar. Some of the knights body parts on the floor don't look right either, like they might be to big if the knights were resembled.
Other than those minor things you've really put great effort into this and it shows.
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