Heavy Seas

[Flycatcher]

Thought I'd go for a more sombre theme today. Still nautical but, DeeVee, you may want to look away now - you may find this distressing. ;)

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1027985128len.jpg

Going for the rough, deep water was a different, feel-your-way challenge, but I think it turned out reasonably well. Compositionally I thought of adding some rocks to frame it on maybe one side, but decided it would take away from the feeling of depth in the water, which is meant to be far out to sea. 40 minute painting all done in ZBrush, except for the rain which was added using a mask I knocked up in Paint Shop Pro some time ago for creating this effect, primarily with Terragen landscapes in mind. Convenience again.

[Stonecutter]

As the Skipper of a 40 foot cutter-rigged sloop, who has been out in 50 knot winds, and rising seas, trust me...

You got the feel !

This gave me the creeps seeing seas this disorganised and masts going over the side. Nice job creating a mariners' nightmare!!


:tu: :tu: :tu: :eek: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Ron Harris]

very gloomy and well done...I love your rain mask too....I have never been in a situation like that in that type of a boat...but I have been in a bass boat during tornado-ish weather and it's not the place to be I assure you.... :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[DeeVee]

FC you know I am not going to look away :D I enjoy our association too much.
A very well done image. I sailed as a boy, and as SC says, you certainly have got the feeling with this image.
You also know that I am going to add my two cents worth of constructive ideas. If I was to change anything at all, I would have put the boat just a tad more off center. That wasy the eyes are led into the picture and around, which would keep the viewer looking at the image. Now positioned as it is, your eyes focus on the boat right away and then back out. At least that is the way I was taught but of course that is just my opinion. I still like it very much as it is. Congratulations :ex: :tu: :tu: :tu:
DeeVee,
Joe.

[juandel]

great colours and water, Flycatcher! i really love the raineffect!!! :tu: :tu: :tu:

- juandel

[Vikki]

I was on a cruise ship once that was in a storm that looked like this. Boy was I sick! Never thought a ship that big would behave the way it did in that storm.

Very good painting Flycatcher!

Brought back the scary memory of the storm but more, the memory of the rest of the trip which was very good! :D

:tu: :tu: :tu:

[Flycatcher]

Thanks for your comments everyone.

DeeVee - I almost commented on breaking the rule with the central position of the boat in my own post. It just seemed tonally the "natural" place to put it after painting the sky and sea (of course, that's because that was where I'd envisaged it going, so it's just an excuse really). ;) I guess on reflection it maybe could have gone a tad to the right. Also the omission of the rocks changed the dynamics of the picture somewhat - by which stage, however, my boat had already decided where to founder. But I think dropping the rocks was right: they would have detracted from the swallow-you-whole deep water look I was after.

Ron and Juandel have both commented on the rain effect, so I thought a quick how-to might be useful, even if it's all Paint Shop Pro, not ZBrush.

The mask was created by simply applying the Noise effect to a white canvas. This is then turned into grey-scale and back to 16M colours before applying Motion Blur at a suitable angle and stroke length. This image is then saved as a mask. To create the rain, simply load the rain mask into a separate layer above the main image and Floodfill with an appropriate shade of grey. Adjust the layer transparency if necessary. Multiple layers with rain masks having different stroke lengths in the motion blur and perhaps different transparencies can be used to give a greater sense of depth of field.

I'm not familiar with PhotoShop, but I expect that similar tools are available there to do the same job.

[DeeVee]

FC I realized that after I re-read your initial comments about the rocks. As I said I like the image and I am certain that few would have noticed it. However, we try to help each other and so it was mentioned .I hope you do not mind. I have to be careful these days as nerves are frayed waiting on 1.5 and other things.
DeeVee,
Joe.

[Tag]

Very moody and well done Flycatcher :tu:

[Flycatcher]

Of course I do not mind, DeeVee, quite the contrary - indeed as I said, I felt the same myself regarding the placement. I welcome constructive comments - and yours have always been helpful and on the button. God knows, as a complete beginner to freehand painting and drawing, I have plenty to learn - and getting friendly advice and criticism on this Forum seems a pretty good way to me. So keep it coming - I am sure you will not tread on my metaphorical toes and I am sorry if something in my reply made you think you had; if so it was quite unintentional. :) :)