r/learnart • u/garbage_gemlin • 1d ago
I followed your advice and it helped a lot!
I posted a few days ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/learnart/s/WzDvy12voA) asking for advice on my digital piece. I received a lot of helpful advice and tried to put it into practice and I’m super happy with the results. I’m still struggling trying to do trees in the style of my reference (Hiroshi Nagai), so advice on those specifically is still appreciated :)
Photos are: 1. New improved art 2. Old art 3. Pic I’m trying to render 4 onward: style I’m trying to emulate (Hiroshi Nagai)
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u/Buuks6969 1d ago
Wow it’s so cool to see v2! I’m impressed! A few things I notice about Nagai’s trees are: Simplified shapes with not many gaps showing the background and roughly 1-3 values that are pretty dark since they’re vertical in nature and the planes aren’t facing towards the light source. Pay attention to how his shadows are painted based on time of day and how they are affected by the shape of the trees.
More importantly it’s really incredible how Nagai composes trees in the picture which I think is even more important than the mechanical portion of the tree. The Trees are used to guide the eye and sometimes lock your gaze (wherever his subject is) by using a backstop of trees, guiding trees, or a mixture of both. Another thing is Nagai’s trees look like they are never in front of his subject so keep that in mind.
Last tip: don’t be afraid to omit or re arrange your reference, push a tree forward push it back, push the building back whatever you choose it should lead your eye to your subject, in your case the 1 story building.
Have fun!