Yusuke Kozaki Cloudy Day

The biggest problem with any scenic piece is whenever you involve lighting, you have to think about how that light hits an object. In the way back machine of about six to eight years ago, It wasn't so much considered, but in these days lighting is taken far more seriously. There are more people involved who have a greater understanding of art and as such, the bar itself has been raised. I don't mean to say anything frightening, but just simply how things have gone over the past few years.

With that in mind, comes the biggest problem to the piece and that is the lighting itself. If you look at the lighting done in the original scan, you tried to mimic that and I definitely give you points, but the problem I have is the lighting itself isn't so much coming from one side, as I feel it's coming from both the right and the center. She should be casting a shadow onto the ground too if light is hitting her, and that just isn't happening. There are also other lighting issues that I'll cover in my next posts, but this is the one that stands out the most to me.

Another thing with scenic pieces is blending. I've attempted a few scenic pieces way back, and I will tell you that while being rather fun and enjoying, depending on what you do they can be the biggest pain in the ass to get right. While brushes can be a fantastic idea to help out, in a case like this the grass is just completely off from the sky and the girl. The grass has this sort of sketchy look to it, and given the fact that it's got autumn colors, that should be reflected in how the girl is colored too. Since we all know grass to be green and the way something like that would happen would be based upon the lighting itself. The girl also does not blend well with the background, sadly. It's quite apparent that she was extracted and placed onto the background. A good way to change this would be to try creating grass around her that shows there is something or someone actually on it. The problem with using brushes for everything is brushes are static. Where as when you put someone onto something like grass, there should be a change to it. Also, hitting back to the previous part, shadowing would help give her the effect that she's actually in the scene too instead of just simply placed.

Finally, the scenery. While I really like the concept of having a cloudy background, with how much light in the scene it shouldn't be that cloudy in the background. The scene paints a picture of a sun rising/setting, and the sky has these clouds that just don't reflect that appearance at all. It sort of throws off the whole tone of the wallpaper.

So, this comment probably sounds pretty negative, but it shouldn't. Walling is a journey that one must take, and I'm sure as you've learned it's quite different from making signatures and avatars. You've got a good eye for composing a scene, but it's simply about refining something to the fullest. You may end up investing quite a deal of time into pieces, and if that is the case don't let it scare you. It's a nice choice of a scene based off of a cute scan and I think you did a great job coming up with the concept! I personally think you'll become quite the waller once you pick up more skills as you progress, so keep at it!