I'm pretty much a fuckin loser. My girlfriend says otherwise. I play Space Engineers, Fallout, and like to think of shit that makes me feel anything. Yeah, pretty depressing. But I dream of one day going to space, so that's my plan right now.
Age 25, Male
Midwest, USA
Joined on 8/19/20
Posted by Kiyan1159 - September 9th, 2020
I just can't get the night sky to look decent. It looks off no matter what I do. And when the story transitions to space, there's gonna be a lot of 'night sky' and I need it to look relatively nice.
So I'm going to be uploading pictures and sketches of practice while learning how to get this down. I've been watching videos and will be trying to see how others do this.
Let's see how it goes.
like, whats your method currently? any specific colorings and ideas of how to lay things out?
Currently trying to make the sky look like a sky. I've tried going from (bottom-top) dark to light, light to dark, creating it like a fog with varying levels of density. I just can't seem to find a way to balance the night sky with any form of detailing. I'm not really versed in 'art words' so googling around isn't very effective. I've found a few new ideas I might be able to recreate.
@nixnoux @Kiyan1159 Alright, lemme see if I can assist a little. The gradient you're going after, (top:dark, bottom:light) is a good start, adding clouds may help you add depth to your sky, (clouds are easy, you can draw any halfhazard shape, like a mound of mashed potatoes) from there you need to consider where your light is coming from, obviously, the moon or any cool planet. That object of light will effect the closest clouds, and objects like a mountain or spaceship, thus highlight bits closest to the moon, and objects on the ground. Then sporadically add in stars ;D
Regardless, as much as I can try to describe, I think a good reference for you would be to look at images of "night sky pixel art". This way you can view how colors can be blocked out, and its a little easier to see highlights of things.
Best of luck, I've done a very small scale painting of a mountain nightscape, it was odd (cause I suck at painting), but the highlights really make the image come together.
Side note: The viewers eye will always be drawn to either the darkest part of your drawing, or the lightest. These are used sparingly to help guide your eye around an image. "Line weight" and "highlights" in return give more depth to your work and tend to be final touches.
Best of luck, I'd like to see what you come up with~
MchectorII
Good luck!