The Lonely Heron At Dusk

[DeeVee]

I saw something like this earlier this evening. I thought it would make an interesting image so here it is. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1027748540kum.jpg

[DLee]

Love that sky Dee Vee. The rest is great as always ~s~

[DMerchen]

That is a very nice painting. It has a very calm feel to it. Very nice work. :tu: :tu:

[Stonecutter]

Since I have one called Harry, who greets me every night when I get back to the boat, I know these birds, and you captured the pose perfectly!

:tu: :tu: :tu: :cool: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[WushuGuy]

Oh, very nice.
You "captured a moment" perfectly.
I love it. The sky is amazing.

Jim
The Wushu Guy :D

[DeeVee]

Thanks for the comments.
As far as the sky is concerned I think one of the reasons others do not do interesting skies(not that mine are in any way great)is that they think of sky as blue and clouds as white, once you can get over that idea, and start adding colours you will see a big difference in your skies.
The QuickLinks has a vast number of scripts on skies using different techniques.
Lately I have found that if I start with a base color as close to the colour I wish the sky to be things are quite a lot easier. I use the simplebrish with zadd off intensity of about 25 or 3o and a brush size of about 30 for most of the painting. Then I use the smudge tool a lot at about 30 to 35 If I wish to move little color and up to 70 if I wish to move a lot of color. I then use the blurbrush, and the intensity brush at low settings to tweek the image.
I hope this helps.
DeeVee,
Joe.

[Flycatcher]

Simple composition, muted palette, beautifully executed. This ranks up there amongst my favourites of your paintings... sorry, doodles as you usually modestly call them. :tu: ;) :tu:

And I agree 100% with what you said about the sky. Seeing the colours you were using and the impact it had on the composition changed my ideas completely on that score some little while ago. Getting the clouds to look reasonable by any one of a host of methods is not especially difficult. It was the realisation that it ain't all blue white and flat grey up there that made the difference. Thanks for opening my jaded eyes to this, DeeVee. :tu:

[Wayne Hoyt]

Another real beauty! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[DeeVee]

Thanks to all who replied to this post. So many folks have commented on the sky that I decided to do a script for members who wish can follow. You will need to slow it down a bit as it moves along at a good pace. Also click on show actions and turn off the floating tool bar.
I hope this helps.
DeeVee,
Joe.ZSky Creation.txt (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1027781786pex.txt) http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1027782105mjf.jpg

[wenna]

Thanks DeeVee! And a beautiful creation!

[Ron Harris]

well this is another right clicker for my hard drive....I love the feel, the color, the composition and the realistic/believeable scene you have portrayed....this is my new wall paper for the week...great job my friend :ex: :ex: :ex: :ex: :ex: :ex: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :D

[MrBraun]

I like more your style DeeVee!! Tnx for sharing your script!! :D :tu:

[Codexus]

Thanks for that script that's very interesting. :tu: :tu: One technique I have tried is the one on Socar Miles' tutorial (http://www.epilogue.net/art/tech/socar_clouds/) (not made for ZBrush, but nothing there that ZB can't do)

But yours seems easier.

[Northstarr]

Oh, I like that! It's just plain eye pleasing!
:) :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Frenchy Pilou]

Bravo DeeVee for the instruction clouds and
Thx Codexus
Socar's rats are very expressiv and his tuts very detailed and practicle for Zbrush too :)

http://www.gorblimey.com/tutorials/
Pilou

[DeeVee]

Something I forgot to mention in the information on creating skies is that I do a lot of skies and seas and save them. When I am about to do an image I go through those I have saved and pick one that is appropriate for the image. This saves a lot of time. Instead of just doodling aimlessly I doodle up skies, seas, foliage, rocks and so on that I can import as a texture. That speeds things up considerably. Now you know some of my techniques. :D :D :D :D :D
DeeVee,
Joe.

[DM]

Beautiful scene. :tu: :tu: :tu:
Dave

[Vikki]

Beautiful DeeVee!

The water color is looking like our Pacific Coast water. :D I used to live on a house boat and would watch the Herons and Cranes out my window early in the morning and late afternoon/evening just before dark.

A perfect depiction! :D

[DeeVee]

Vikki, We have very clear water generally but in some of the coastal areas close to the mangrove swamps the water has the look. It is more accentuated in color at dust and dawn. I am pleased that it brough back memories of your boathouse days. I hope they were happy ones!