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Author Topic: Help! Painting a Night Time scene?  (Read 4303 times)

Icebird

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Help! Painting a Night Time scene?
« on: February 16, 2011, 03:39:26 AM »

Hiya everyone!

I'm in a bit of a pinch. I'm currently working on a Fairy Tale themed digital painting (Snowqueen) which I need to finish for a dA contest in about two weeks' time. Now, the time isn't really the issue but my problem is that I don't really know how to go about painting a night scene.

Yeah, I know, great job realizing this after starting the picture ::)

I realize that the hues would be mostly blues, greys and black - it's a clear night sky with stars and a full moon. (the little girl--her name escapes me--will be seen faintly against the moon) So how do I go about blending the colours into a night time look? I realize the skin colour, for example, is way off.

Here's what I've got so far -- all help/critique/advice will be greatly appreciated!
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Eregyrn

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Re: Help! Painting a Night Time scene?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2011, 07:24:46 AM »

Well, maybe this will help and maybe not, but I can tell you what I ended up doing in order to produce a couple of the night scenes I've done recently (such as my calendar piece this year, where you can see both the "daytime" and night-time" versions).  I don't think it produces a "realistic" night scene, but I felt like it produced something that was okay as "stylized night".

As you can see from the calendar piece, I just did all of the colors as normal for day-time.  I didn't try to figure out how to shift them more towards bluer or grayer colors in that first pass... although I can see how that would be effective for something that is intended from the start to be "night".  Then, to produce the "night" version, I overlaid it with two layers of transparent dark blue (one much lighter than the other).  I then used the eraser tool, set on a very low opacity and flow, to slowly take away bits of each of the blue layers, at the points where I wanted cool-toned highlights, until I was satisfied with the contrast level.

As I say, I think the "night" version would be even more effective if the colors I'd originally chosen had been more geared towards the subdued, or to how they would interact with the blue filters.  (That was the result of originally not intending to *do* a night version of that scene, and then embarking on the experiment.  And that's what drove me to do it that way, with the blue filters, instead of trying to color it as "night" in the first go -- because I wanted that day-time version, in case the night version didn't work out well enough to submit.  I thus "had" to figure out a way to adapt the day-time version to look like night.) 

I don't know if that helps you, conceptually, or not. 
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Foxeye

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Re: Help! Painting a Night Time scene?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2011, 11:25:45 AM »

I haven't quite mastered night time colors yet, but one thing that is starting to sink in is that, regardless of how cool your colors are (because you can get away with fudging on that a little), light in the night does seem to be especially directional.  There isn't enough light to bounce around like you have during the day, so anything in the shadow shows even less detail than you are used to.  As a result, nights with bright moonlight have a very unreal feeling.  And, of course, any warm artificial light sources are even more directional, and fall off quickly.

I've often cheated and used Photoshop's Photo Filter (Cool) with good results, but seeing as you don't have that, the best advice is to start like you did, with the right background colors, and then apply the colors with a very low-opacity brush so it blends with the blue. Then color pick that blended color and increase the opacity back up. It's not a perfect approach, but it helps when you aren't sure what colors to use for skin/hair/etc.

Icebird

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Re: Help! Painting a Night Time scene?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2011, 01:11:08 AM »

Thank you so much, both of you! :D I'll see if I can figure out that blending method first and if that doesn't work I'll search Gimp for a filter or gradient. Thanks again! <3
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