August 2018 Challenge: From Fishing Hole to Village

[Tenia]

Aprt from bkh1914 comments (What an observing eye bkh!), this is a very lovely composition !

[aeshnidae]

Thanks, bkh1914! I'm not sure how to get the wagon tracks exactly consistently spaced since I'm doing it freehand on a Wacom. I guess I could draw one on a different layer, copy and paste it, then trace them? For the footprints and wagon tracks, I'm using a layer mask to remove some of the snow texture (I have multiple layers of snow texture, since snow falls in layers). I'm not bothering to change the footprints yet again in frame 1; three times is sufficient for me, and it's not intended to be used for forensics anyway, it's just to give an impression of "winter camp."

For the rowboats in frame 2, one is tied from its front and back end to the dock, one is beached on the shore. I think I need to bring the beached one farther up on the shore. I haven't made any changes to frames 3 or 4 yet, but I'll keep the river direction and your other comments in mind when I do!

I haven't actually tackled any shading yet, other than to turn on Photoshop's drop shadow to get a little preview of how it will look. If it's close to noon, with the sun almost directly overhead, is there a noticeable difference in shadow length proportional to height?

[bkh1914]

I haven't actually tackled any shading yet, other than to turn on Photoshop's drop shadow to get a little preview of how it will look. If it's close to noon, with the sun almost directly overhead, is there a noticeable difference in shadow length proportional to height?

At certain times of the year in the tropics, the sun will be directly overhead. I live 40° North, so even on the summer solstice, the sun is only 73° above the horizon at high noon. And of course the shadows are very long in the winter when the sun is low on the horizon.

One way around the shadows issue is a cloudy day - uniform lighting that gives objects diffuse, non-directional shadows. The drop shadow works well for that scenario, but you want to have zero offset for the drop shadow (non-directional shadow).

The mostly submerged boat in frame 3 is a nice touch. (I assume gets washed away in the spring with the rising water level from all the melting snow.)

[aeshnidae]

Ah yes, a cloudy day! Thanks, bkh1914, that is super helpful. I'm not sure I'll have time to hand shade (work has reared its ugly head while I'm on vacation), so the zero offset drop shadow might be the way to go.

I changed the mostly submerged boat but I like it better the old way, so I'll revert to that (yes, it gets washed away in the spring).

I tweaked some stuff in frames 1 and 2, and made several fixes in frame 3. Still have to work on frame 4 - it remains unchanged.

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[MistyBeee]

I'm not sure how to get the wagon tracks exactly consistently spaced since I'm doing it freehand on a Wacom. I guess I could draw one on a different layer, copy and paste it, then trace them?

Copy/paste the first track won't work because the curves needs to be different : inner curves are more curved, etc. I have a little trick for you : maybe not academic, but effective, which is the most important :
1/ Draw the first track on a separate layer (or in your case : erase one of the tracks),
2/ Apply an outer hard stroke to this layer : something very bold corresponding in px to the gap between the two tracks (50px ?),
3/ On a separate layer, follow the edge of the stroke to draw the second track : the spacing and cuve will be perfectly consistent.
4/ Of course, remove the stroke and merge the two layers

This method does not work in every case, but can be useful here

[Tenia]

This, or draw the path on a separate layer with a simple brush of the same size of the distance between the tracks, then draw your tracks following the edges of the former line.

[elboe]

I think you could create a brush with 2 parallel strokes for the wagon tracks, but that may be more than you need for this composition. I like the style of the map very much and I think the inconsistencies of the wagon tracks, and the footprints, fit the playful style. Great work so far.

[Mouse]

Looking good

Is there an 'offset' drawing tool you can use in PS?

Just asking...

[aeshnidae]

Thank you all for the input, and once again I'm sorry for my general lack of interaction lately. Work is killing me - had to leave my "vacation" early for it (it was never actually a vacation, since I worked during every part of it). I'm hoping to work on shading and minor adjustments before the challenge ends; we'll see.

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[aeshnidae]

I wasn't digging my presentation, so I changed it up.

Oops, I'll have to fix the copyright typo. I meant copyriiightallriiiightallriiight.

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