Hello everyone, please read my issues list (at least the first one, please)

I can't believe this is the best I came up with after halting this wall for so long:


Issues:
- I hate the brick wall! I shamelessly applied a filter to make it look not-so-real... but I don't want to repaint it because I tried and it sucked, I'd like to somehow keep the bricks texture. I'll try to drop a window and some sort of design to the "big brick" but I'm not sure yet. This is the biggest problem (I think)
- I actually like the vector+painty thing, but I'm not sure if it looks as good as I think. I'd like more opinions about it.
- Throne's perspective... no comment, it just feels odd. Also I already merged all throne layers so I can't take out the outline x_x - EDIT: I'm Remaking the throne and curtains.
- Some painted parts don't look well, particularly when I'm need of long lines. Tips, anyone? I can spot so many irregularities I want to cry.
- I'd like to make little dust particles. I just could come up with shiny thingies. I like them, but still... I want my dust in the sunlight!
- Anything else you think can be fixed quickly, I don't know how much time I'll be abe to spend in wallpapering this week!

Thanks for the feedback!

I really love the concept as well as the angle of everything. What I'd personally go with would be something more fitting of a throne room. Since what little I can see of Saber's outfit as well as the throne itself really gives that feel to it. Honestly, I'd keep with the perspective you have. It's always nice to see something different and you should go for what you want to.

As for painting, alas, I cannot provide any tips, since I only really know the basic of basic walling stuff =3. The dust in the sunlight is a great idea..but oh wow, I'd imagine that'd take sometime and be hell to do.

Overall, I see great potential in this wallpaper. I know that this is going to come out to be something really amazing, I just know it! I'm looking forward to seeing the updates and my apologies for not being able to provide further advice or tips.

Cy asked me to comment on this wall because he thinks it has great potential, and when Cy asks, I typically do it. Cause he's nice.
Okay, so for a critique...
First, if I see one more wallpaper with saber, I may puke. I like the fact I don't have to see her face in this though. I've seen more saber wallpapers than the series deserves. Thats just me though, so don't take offense to it. it's not your fault that there are a million wallpapers with freakin saber on them.

Now, for an actual constructive critique...

the bricks. They need some work. They aren't terrible, but they have some issues. the first being the fact that all the grout is black. It makes it seem like they are being held together by magic. But in all honesty, I think all this wall really needs is some serious lighting help. You have light sources coming from all over, even though I see you tried to define it from the left. The curtains behind her say the light is coming from the right, and the bricks say it's from the front.
You don't need to have a window, but if you do add one, it would have to be stained glass, which could look cool, but will add a shit ton of work. Why stained glass? It will just look better. trust me. Because then you would have colored light and that would change everything, which will also be the work part.
If you think you can pull it off, go for it. It would make the wall look spectacular, and bring something a lot nicer than "just another saber wall" to the gallery.
Here's what I mean. I hope you don't mind, but I'm a visual person, so typically, unless you're standing there with me as I critique, i's easier for me to show you what I mean.
I did this in about 5 minutes, so please excuse the shit quality lol:

http://usera.imagecave.com/Kalico/wallpapers/quick.jpg

I think this wall will be all about the lighting, and if you can get that down, you'll be set.

Also, dust particles are always nice to add. Just don't get carried away with them and overwhelm the wall.
The vector + painty is fine with me. Most anime looks that way anyways. Backgrounds are painted, but the animation itself is technically more of a vector look.

To be honest I'll probably forget t check this thread again (unless Cy reminds me) so if you want more feedback after you do more, just PM me. I spot those easier. Although, it can take me a bit to respond since I'm pretty busy.

Thanks! No problem about the Saber wall spam problem, I actually laughed because it's true.

I fixed the curtains so the light comes from the left, and remade all the bricks. Now they look all shiny and non-grainy and plastic.
I remade the throne too, hope this one's better... still not sure.

I'm working on the colored light suggestion, but I wanted to show these parts first before everything just turns into a huge mess. I'm not sure where to place the window yet, but I just loved the idea.
I can't figure the dust particles either, I guess I'll give a try after lighting is done. T_T

Kalico basically mentioned the whole thing that you need to make, however i leave here the tip for you. work at the double resolution of the final res. that will clear most inperfections, the painting will look more sharp instead of the blurriness that you have at the moment. Resuming, all imperfections will be gone

i read on a manga tut book that they resize the manga page 82% than the original. i dont have idea if that works in digital painting, never tried, i'll try it later, since its way better than working at the "raw" painting at huge dimentions.
you're free to try it, but at your own risk.
The 50% resizing method works perfectly as i've already tried it.

i kinda belive this is a bit confusing
so i just made this quick example

Read more... (click to view)

if you try to go by kal idea about the stained glass

Read more... (click to view)

in my oppinion, the 1st is the best one, however you can combine knowledge from all of them, and create something near what they say, but in your own way

http://centi.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Stained-Glass-Tutorial-75165429
http://doranobaka.deviantart.com/art/Stained-Glass-Tutorial-28953315
http://taiphen.deviantart.com/art/Stained-glass-tut-P-16504981

as for the bricks, dont forget to apply texture to remove the "plastic" effect that you mentioned and dont be afraid to use reference

...and dont worry about the throne, what is more visible and more repeated causing negative space on the wall, its the bricks. focus on them 1st

I understand the resizing thing, actually, that's what I do >_< (50% too)
I use than more for vectors than painting, I just feel more comfortable.
I made a window of stained glass and just deleted it (about two hours ago actually) because it felt it was just filling the space.
I'm doing the colored lights though. And I just found a texture I like for the bricks, so here goes the next update. ^^
I still need to refine about everything, but since I'm going to bed and tomorrow I'll be busy for a long part of the day I'm leaving my progress here.


Still trying to figure out dust particles. They keep looking like shiny pollen.
Thanks for the help ^^

Much better, just remove the texture on the junction of the bricks, you know the concrete part, so it looks less than a thin layer between saber and the wall. and more like the bricks texture

i would add something like, if you can separate the bricks from the concrete, apply one layer of texture between those to simulate texture on the concrete too, but different than the one on the bricks
try to blend the texture layer better with the bricks too, use something like soft light blending, less transparency, wtv

the change of color on the armor reflection is a nice touch, however you'll have to change the rest of the reflections too, mainly the ones that are turned to the window

Coming along.
get rid of that spiderweb. It's distracting in a bad way.
I would suggest not using such a wide variety of colors coming from the window. It will look muddy when I give the rest of my advice.
Since saber is blue, go with a red or orange. Contrast is good. It will bring it all out more.
I would also suggest doing a color layer.
Make a layer entirely red/orange or a combo of the 2 (maybe throw in some yellow) and set the blending mode to color. Make sure it's the top layer bring the opacity down to something like...15% maybe. I'm taking shots in the dark since I don't have PS in front of me. You want it to tint the entire wall. Thats what stained glass does. I used to work at a glass blowing studio, and I saw a lot of this stuff. if the light from the left is the only light, then the entire room needs to be saturated by the color of the glass. Thats why I am suggesting fewer colors. If you have multiple colors, and no window to reference how it will make sense with the light coming through, then you are better off.
Also, ALL the highlights of the fabric/armor/etc will be red/orange/whatever.

It's coming along, just needs more work.

Update, just to make sure I'm going on the right direction... I used more orange/yellow instead of red.
I'm not sure about the highlights on her clothes/cape...


@Danalm: I'm not sure about removing the texture between the bricks (I'm not sure if I got what you meant either)
@Kalico: Can I just place the spiderweb somewhere else? I kinda liked it.

Edit: Blue version: I just recolored the layers for light and highlights, so there's a lot of mistakes. I'd like to hear some opinions about the color scheme.


A bit redder:

@Danalm: I'm not sure about removing the texture between the bricks (I'm not sure if I got what you meant either)

when dan says concrete, he means the grout, as in the mortar that fills in the spaces between bricks and hold them in place. xD i kinda have to agree with him about doing something to the texture over those places, since as it is now, the texture applies flatly to the entire wall without regard for its contours. the cracks make this quite obvious.

in addition, you might want to touch up a couple of bricks because you can tell they are duplicates by this weird, almost arrowhead-shaped bright glowing spot near the bottom left corner of each brick. the texture helps hide that as it adds differing detail to each brick, but it's still noticeable.

and personally, i feel that the contrast between the textured, aged feel the bricks give off and the impossible smoothness of the vector-painted saber to be too much. i was surprised by the difference when i scrolled to the right after looking at your brick wall. :/

just a note about the light rays. speaking from some basic knowledge of physics, crepuscular rays form when objects between the light source and wherever you are seeing the rays block out some parts of the light. in other words, one of the main reasons (the other being the Tyndall effect) you see such defined rays is the fact that something is creating...erm, beams of shadows, for lack of a better phrase at the moment. so it's not quite realistic to have the crepuscular rays be of a different color(s) but not be lighter than the surrounding areas. in your wall, it works when the rays are on top of the curtain, throne etc., but over the brick wall, it's not quite convincing.

the throne probably appears awkward because the angle of the armrest makes it seem like it's being viewed somewhat from the side while saber appears to be viewed from the front. if the armrest is that tilted and is viewed from the front, then it is longer than it should be. i'm not a perspectives expert though, seeing as scenic isn't my thing and i have barely any education in art. ^^;

i don't know the exact location of the light source but assuming that you are going with the window thing, just with it being outside of the visible area, then i feel as if the wall and the curtain, which is really close to the wall, should not be as well lit as they are now. i'm not sure but wouldn't the wall block itself from the light source and be lit by light that is reflected off other surfaces within the room? probably isn't worth concern right now.

o__o and is it me or does the shading of saber's skin look really orange? xD anyway, just my two cents. =]

Those were a lot of cents, you know. Thank you =)

I think I fixed the bricks now. I cloned stamped the same texture to erase the cracks. I also added a bit more to make them look different (but it's hard since they end looking the same anyways >___<

I wrote a lot but it got deleted somehow T_T
Anyways:
- I don't know to make the rays work in the wall (You said they worked in the other parts). Can you tell how to do it?
- I softened the light in the curtain, but again, I don't know what to do about the wall.
- Even when I redid the throne, it ended with the same angle! I suck so much *sniff*
- I wonder if adding a texture fixed the issue with the bricks vs. vector >_> I prefer it without it though.

Oops, almost forgot to add the update:


EDIT:
Made this window a whiiiile ago (after Kalico's first post), but I decided to show it, maybe you don't feel it's just the to fill the space.

This time i had PS opened, so was just copy paste xD. the 3 things that are represented are the:

@Danalm: I'm not sure about removing the texture between the bricks (I'm not sure if I got what you meant either)

the lower part is a practical part of what i meant, sorry i didnt had a better texture, so i just used a combo of PS filters, they suck as hell =_=

basically, try to use a different texture, on that thing between the bricks

the light -> color <- arrows are the color reflection
as the light touch on a colored surface, that color is reflected to everything around it, so make the inner part of the throne bluish, for a better look. i kinda made that quickly, but i should've used a lighter blue than the one on the her cloak

if you're/ or anyone is interested on how to make that texture

Read more... (click to view)

1- create a layer and set your colors to black and white
2- Filter > render > clouds
3- Filter > render > difference clouds
4- Filter > sketch > bass relief
5- done, adjust the transparency and blending colors)

It's good to carry change, you know? xD; anyway, i've got some more pennies.

with stained glass windows, each of the black lines should be pretty much uniform in width. so individual lines might have different widths, but within a line itself, the width shouldn't vary as if it were vectored. (and lines certainly shouldn't end in a point.) you might want to take a look at other stained glass walls on AP, such as cheche's sailor moon series. here's one of them:


the problem with the textured brick vs. the smooth painted-vector is the amount of sharpness. the mottled wall doesn't have the same sense of crisp cleanness to it and its various lines/edges are not as distinct as they are with the rest of the wall. (this fact makes the sharp division between window frame and the glass really stand out too.) it is possible to add texture to the bricks to give them detail but also have them nice and in focus...it just really depends on the texture of choice. but you've fixed up the texture over the mortar quite well. it doesn't look awkward anymore.

as for the light rays, i have only tried it a few times, so i'm not sure of the best way to make them. i suppose you could choose to either use a light color to define the rays of light themselves or use a low opacity black layer (perhaps with the "multiply" blend mode) to define the shadows in between the light rays. i'm looking at the new version with the stained glass window and you've sort of got it right with the yellow beams. see how in between the yellow rays the bricks appear to be darker? but if look close the bottom of the wall, next to the throne, where there is that red beam. the area around the beam doesn't appear to be darker than the beam.

um if you still are not sure, i'll make something to show you later when i have time. =]

So the bricks are alright now? I really can't tell. I guess it does look better when I compare with the old one. I didn't get much what you said about the rays in that last part *feels dumb*
I'm using overay (multiply made the rays darker) as blending mode for all rays of light. Maybe spraying some lighter/darker colors around the red beams near the throne will be ok?

The window was made even before Danalm posted those tutorials. I'm not very motivated to make a better window because I feel it's just filling space. I'd like some opinions about that. It's not because I'm lazy, I just don't want to do all the work and then decide I don't want windows in my bricks X3
I'm thinking maybe if I make the window bigger, starting near the floor, and make it so high it reaches the roof. I'd like to have the the window but at the same time I think I'd lose the main focus.
Or making it not so wide and place it in the middle of the wall.

EDIT for UPDATE:

I'm sorry for double post, but it looks like I need to bump my thread. >_<
Please refer to the update in the post above...
I made a window and added the blue light Danalm suggested and fixed more things.