Pulse's explorations

[Taron]

It's turning out GREAT!
You could experiment with putting a few gold-leaf embellishments on the artifact to increase the amount of detail on it to continue the detail amount on the Iguana? Maybe just something around the rim of the relic, not adding to the form, just as if gold was "painted" on it, so to say.
Just some ideas... that way those two subjects would have the same visual frequency, you know.

I will do it, off for a mountain bike ride to clear the brain and get some sun. Then on to "Visual Frequency", I love that pair of words and now they are part of my vocabulary. This "Gun be Gud".

[Taron]

...I won't forget that reference!

Taron,
Here is the beginning of gold leaf adding to relic, before lighting and beam.... I hope this is in the right direction, Doz.

[Taron]

Sweet, yeah! It immediately starts to grow together with the rest. Just consider brightness values so that it doesn't hide inside the leaf, you know.
I had a Japanese friend and co-worker back in my California days, who had this amazingly bold philosophy when it came to art. He had no shame in being totally explicit with colors and values, if it served the story or the message he wanted to bring across. It taught me to free myself, too, and be clearer with my visual communication. Clarity is key to comfort, really.
You have to make a decision there; will you make it brighter or darker. I would assume brighter is good, but keep the contrast of course. It's like boosting the bright parts of the artifact, making the gold shinier with stronger highlights and such, just bringing more light onto the thing so that it lifts off of the leaf more and jumps into the foreground properly.
Just some thoughts, I hope you don't mind!?

Is there a darken wand, and a lighten wand in this by some hot keys, just curious.... I did the tutoring I want to make it into this field, really. I am thinking I need a great $1,500 17" laptop and plug the Wacom into it. I am used to drawing that way now. Tablets are too tiny. So that way I would work it out like I am, I have used your sharpen and soften tools, then at the end I can overall lighten it, before lighting and beams. Lighting with your movable light is key to this I think.

[Taron]

Key to it is that you figure out how to take advantage of the Additive Mode (+) for another layer!
You can use that to lighten places, too. Keep a saved project version of what you have and then experiment with an additive layer.
What I do sometimes is to just temporarily make another layer on top that is turned to Additive Mode. I fill the layer with black and then paint with the lighten color I want over the region that should get brighter. I did that in my first video, too, by the way! After that I might merge the layer back down.

However, I will eventually add lighten and darken paint modes, too! I love having those!

I know I am posting too many steps but, it does show my way of learning and thinking, and most of all experimenting. Almost to step before lighting, I think. Taron the new look to your cyberspace/forum is fantastico!

[Taron]

Ah, sweet, I'm happy you like it! I'm still experimenting with this stuff... ...but I'm much happier already!
Uh, yeah, now the artifact pops out beautifully, this is definitely getting there and in a way it makes the Iguana look even more realistic already, which is kind of exciting on top!

Aghhhh sucked into this painting again, ha ha ha...... worked the foliage, tore up some jungle leaves, added gems to relic, working the atmosphere....