Blacksmith's shop

[Chris]

Hey everyone,
Larb's buildings really inspired me to try something similar. This is my first attempt for a 3D building – a blacksmith’s shop.
I would really appreciate suggestions for improvement – for example concerning the general drawing technique, perspective or shadowing.
Many thanks to Larb – not only for the inspiration but also for his pictures which I used as an ideal I’d like to reach one day.

Created in GIMP

[madcowchef]

Good source of inspiration. I would like to see the roof extend further over the edge, it ends right at the wall which makes it feel a bit off like just textures placed on perfect boxes. The shadow from the closest roof onto the one behind it only makes sense if the sun is at an angle below the roof, otherwise its above the house and a lower object could never cast a shadow up a higher object. Great start!

[Chris]

Hey madcowchef,

you are totally right. That is a shadow mistake. ;-) I'll correct that and extend the shadow to the ground behind the building, too.

[Chris]

I didn't put enough thoughts about the light source in the first version. So I decided to change all shadows according to a sunlight from the left side.
As the cast shadow is now looking quite good, I'm still not happy with the structure of the wall, e.g. the cornerstones look quite flat and the bench or window shutters do not look like wood.

Has anybody any suggenstions or positive examples for that?

Thank you so much.

Chris

Created in GIMP

[Green-Pilgrim]

Awesome work. Love the style.
-GP

[Chris]

Thank you. I'm still trying to improve.

[xpian]

I really like the style, the cleanliness of the line, the "sketched, yet realistic" feel...

Two things:
1) The corner stones do have a bit of a flattening effect, especially on the nearest corner to the POV. I think this is related to the implied angles of their sides. Too oblique. That is, the little "V"s that you see when looking straight on are too shallow and need to be sharper. Yes, the bricks are meant to be rough and wandering, but the wander of the line needs to follow the implied horizontal line established by the roof and the ground in the perspective. This problem seems most noticeable at the top.
2) There is a slight "bulging" look to the door, especially at the top, with the way that the bricks intersect with the top of the door. By looking at the bottom of the door, one can see that it's meant to be flush with the wall (more or less), but the top seems to "come forward" a little. Not the top of the door itself, the wall around the top of the door. I think it again has to do with the angles of the lines of the bricks. The keystone of the arch in particular needs to be straightened up a bit, with both edge lines shifted slightly toward vertical, and the other bricks following along the arch in the pattern.

Hope that helps. Again, I like it a lot and think it's cool. Especially the windows.

Also: you think he might have an extra fireplace, perhaps at the end of the "L" alcove, so that he can keep warm if he doesn't want to fire up the forge? One more chimney?