Chris Melfi's profile

Concept Art/Matte Painting

Two weeks ago I was inspired by something (Can't remember what it was), and sketched some sort of concept art. I then proceeded to try and paint it digitally, on Photoshop - something I haven't really done before.

The image shown below is the final render, and below that are screenshots of the process, showing the different layers in the order of making them.
 
Please click here to download a 3308x2380 jpeg of the completed artwork.
 
Thanks for checking out my project!
Chris
Process
Here's the initial rough sketch. The building is actually a take on the Brunel University Lecture Centre (http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/c/AClockworkOrange_BrunelUniversity.gif).
After quickly wireframing & planning from the sketch, I got busy gathering images of clouds. The sky is the only part of the image I did not fully paint myself.
Here's the finished sky.
I started with the landscape, the mountain range at the very back. I wanted to build up layers from back to front.
Here's the second layer I added.
Here's the foremost mountain.
I then added the range on the left.
I added greenery to both the left mountain, and the foot of the right foremost mountain.
I then played around with some adjustment layers, to get the seperate parts' colour & contrast right.
I introduced a bit of distance to the image, and added some smoke/mist.
Here's the overhang. I played around with proportions a bit before settling.
It looked pretty lonely as it was, so I put in a rock formation at the foot of the cliff.
I then added a waterfall - pretty pleased with how it turned out!
The building was more difficult; I had to seperately draw each part and shade accordingly.
It worked out fine though. After adding some texture (The weathered look, neon lights, '44' etc.) & adjusting it a little, it came out looking pretty dystopian.
I adjusted colour & contrast a little more.
I then drew the ship/flying thing, and added spotlights to the building.
Finally, after playing around a little more with adjustment layers, lighting & adding some sort of bubble shield to the building... I had completed the image to my satisfacion.
 
It's not perfect, and there are things I would have done differently were I to do it again, but all in all, it's only the first matte painting/concept art I've ever created, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Concept Art/Matte Painting
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Concept Art/Matte Painting

My first Matte Painting/Concept Art design. Fun personal project, please check it out. Free download.

Published: