HOME | DD
ErikShoemaker — Ashen Gold II
by-nc-nd
#dark #erik #erikshoemaker #fantasy #kire #landscape #lava #mattepainting #scenery #volcano #desktopography
Published: 2018-03-27 08:00:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 18811; Favourites: 818; Downloads: 400
Redirect to original
Description
In the spirit of Perfect Fairytale II , I decided to give some of my older works a makeover every once in a while. This one is a remake of a matte painting I created in 2011 for Desktopography, which never received much love over the years. I completely reworked the sky, lighting and volcanos to improve the overall realism of the scene.I actually liked the old version a lot before, but while working on the edits I realized how many flaws it had.
But form your own opinion about the changes. You can compare the old and the new version in the image below.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Related content
Comments: 108
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
An astonishing piece of art. Superb light effects all over the image and the details on the mountain and the ground are incredible. It could almost fool people into believing this is a picture of some volcanic part of the world. The lava rivers are incredible and I believe I can see the small bits of molten rock in air as the volcanic explosion happens.
The light is so well worked that even the details of the little animal are accurate and work in the picture-like detail this work has. The work you must have put in this really paid off! Congratulations!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you so much for the kind words! Another critique pointed out that the volcanos aren't 100% realistic so I plan to improve on that in my future works. I'm really glad you like them though!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
To begin, I’d like to mention that I am now a new member of ProjectComment and am happy to write a critique of your work!
I am going to write this as a comparison from your original image, as well as a critique for your updated version.
In the first image, I immediately notice the darker theme; that the worst possible outcome has come to pass. Not one, but two great volcanos have erupted at once and the repercussions’ of those eruptions have sent debris flying with all of the destructive power nature can pitch.
As others have noted, the updated image has a lighter tone. One almost of rectification or, perhaps the beginnings of the disturbance ending?
I personally like them both, but the contrasts are amazingly vast! You have improved greatly since the release of the original image.
From dark to light, from blurry to clear you have opened the scene drastically. Your detail on the root systems and foliage has improved greatly as well!
Your clouds are pretty flawless in my opinion. The color, shading, and texture thereof are very pleasing to the eye.
Vision: You have a great eye for detail for lighting, texture, and realism.
Technique: This is a painting correct? You have a professional hand.
Originality: I have played countless video games with lava/volcanoes and I would have to say I haven’t seen a scene quite like it.
Impact: It has an epic impact IMHO the world is ever-changing and this gives a visual to how delicate the balance of nature can be at times.
Thank you for the wonderful works of art!
Lastly, are those Prairie Dogs I see in both of these images? They are interesting creatures. Ahem… lol
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
I am glad you liked it. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
wow, thank you so much for the kind words and the nice critique! Regarding the technique, it is actually a combination of photos and painting. I use painting to bring the elements together, the photos serve as textures to increase the details and give it a more realistic look.
The "Prairie Dogs" are Meerkats - really adorable little creatures. I think they are cool and cute, I even gave away birthday cards with pictures of them in the past lol.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is going to be sort of like a science lesson, so bear with me...
If you look at the gelogy, you would notice that your volcanoes are not of the same type (which is actually how they are formed in real life sometimes). The one in the background appears to be a cinder cone, and relatively young, whereas the closer one looks halfway between a shield volcano(like Hawaiian volcanoes) and a composite cone. The smoke billowing from the cones, is a little dark, since it is actually not smoke but immense clouds of steam, generated by the boiling lava releasing water from he rocks into the air.
Also I'm going to mention that the lava flows do appear to be thin, but then again this is not a depictionof actual volcanoes, so in a possible alternate universe the viscosity and spread tendency of volcanic magma might be different, so not much to say about that. The scorched vegitation in the far left foreground and far right midground adds an insidious feeling to the artwork, and creates a vibe similar to that of the carbonite chamber on Bespin (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), with the multitude of dark colors. This also reminds me slightly of Pandora's Box. According to the story there was many malevolent spirits (including death, disease, and old age) in the box, which was actually a cermaic storage jar, which are represented by the dark, forboding theme of the piece. However there was one benevolent spirit, named Elpis, the Spirit of Hope, which is represented by the light emenating from the left side of the work.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks a lot for the informative reviews! As you noticed I don't know much the science of volcanos, which, after reading your critique, I plan to change before working on my next volcano artwork. :-D Thanks again for taking the time to write this up.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I never wrote one of these so why not right?
I want to start by saying that the sky is beautiful and the lightning goes through the clouds perfectly with a lot of detail, the best thing in this art by far.
Like the other critique mentioned the lava is kind of underwhelming in terms of amount and lightning in my opinion.
Next(Im not an artist)so I don't know the purpose of the roots and the animal but it can have better details and some sort of a clearer purpose that make more sense to someone like me bacuase it looks distracting and kind of wasted.
But the last and most important thing that made me write this critique insted of a comment is the background at the middle/bottom right of the art(beyond that "lava road"). I know it's just background but compared to the rest of the mountain and the sky it's seems empty and the lines to "stiff" and not very "nature like". It seems that everything next to that "lava road" on the right it lacks some burning trees or something i dont know it feels like somehiting is missing.
PS.: English it's not my native language and i'm not an artist(like i mentioned) so read carefully and take this critique lighly ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for the critique, it's much appreciated! And don't worry about it, it's great and very useful - you should be more confident.
It's true that I could have added more atmospheric details in the landscape. I didn't really consider it for some reason. There's a tiny castle and two dragons in that area, but those elements are barely visible. Everything I put there would have to be extremely small considering the overall scales and distances, but I guess I could figure something out. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Always making a great work. I was wondering why it mean ´II´ and i went through gallery and saw the first part of it. Its also amazing. Both artworks are amazing but this one shows the best of both.
This one was more light making it easier to see the details like the roots, the lighting, and the tinny animal. But I think it will be better if the glowing of the lava comes out more.
The other one brings out more the brightness of the lava and the direction of the sunlight. But the roots seem to be a lot more messy than necessary and the tiny animal doesnt sees to much.
Yep this is my critique thank for staying till the end. Awesome work keep it up and keep improving your skills.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thank you for the critique and your thoughts about both versions! True, I could make the lava it bit more prominent in the new version
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
haven't read any of them but indeed this scene looks like it's been taken from some fantasy world. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Your most welcome, Erik
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
also vorweg, ich wäre sehr stolz auf mich, wenn ich die erste version gebastelt hätte
ABER im vergleich mit der zweiten version wirkt sie langweilig
hier bin ich viel mehr eingeladen zu erkunden - den blick schweifen zu lassen
ich beneide dich um dein können details einzuarbeiten, die interessant zu entdecken sind, aber nicht vom gesamtkonzept ablenken
und da ich das schweifen so schön bei dir finde, würde ich das lava nicht stärker machen
ich finde es gut, dass der fokus jetzt mehr bei dem erdmännchen liegt, das geht bei der ersten version unter, was schade ist,
weil es dem bild etwas besonderes gibt
anscheinend sind längere kommentare hier unüblich - deswegen kurz:
i love it
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Schön dich hier zu sehen und vielen Dank für den Kommentar.
Ich persönlich bin auch schuldig, wenn's um schnell hingeschluderte Kommentare geht. Es gibt hier so viel zu sehen und man möchte gerne alles, was man in den Favoriten ablegt auch mal schnell loben. Dazu kommt, dass manche nicht so gut mit Kritik umgehen und dann geht man irgendwann dazu über, nur noch zu kommentieren, wenn man etwas total toll findet.
Für mich jedenfalls liegt auch ein Tag/Nacht-Unterschied zwischen den beiden Versionen dieses Bildes. Da kann man ruhig direkt aussprechen, dass die alte Version nicht so toll war. Wichtiger ist mir, dass ich mich noch verbessern kann.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
ja das mit den kurzkommentaren ist wohl so - ich bin nicht anders - aber das mit der kritikfähigkeit ist eine entwicklung, die, so empfinde ich es, gesamtgesellschaftlich bedenklich ist - eine vernümpftige diskussionskultur sucht man oft vergebens - das finde ich gefährlich
ich weiß, dass du auch direktere kritik verträgst, ich komme mir nur komisch vor, wenn ich schreibe, dass die alte version nicht dolle ist, wenn mein eigens handwekliches und theoretisches niveau sehr nahe an der qualität dieser version liegt
aber bitte, wenn ich mich selbst ausklammere, dann kann man sagen, dass die alte version im vergleich zu der neuen murks ist
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Great improvement mate. Completely deserves a thumbs up!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Makes me want to revisit some of my old work! I wonder if I can dig the PSD's up somehow... great stuff regardless!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Change it back!!
Both look great - not seen the old one before.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well it's still there for those who dare to prefer the original. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Really epic! I can't stop looking at that meerkat xD
I love the whole scene and atmosphere, the way how you did the lava from the volcanoes is pretty good!
... still can't stop looking at the meerkat
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
haha thanks man, yes they are really cool, I should include them more often in my artworks.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Both versions are great. New one is more smooth, but I kind of like the darker sky in the first version.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! The old one had a somewhat darker atmosphere indeed, I just disliked how unrealistic the sky looked.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I aim to write a proper Critique later when I have the time, but this is truly pleasing to the eye.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks a lot and I'm looking forward to it!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You are welcome.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
| Next =>