I've visited the "scenery" tag on this site almost daily for years, and have saved hundreds of amazing scenery pictures from it. Once in a while, there's a picture that's definitely "Scenery Porn." Rarer in a while, there's a picture for which "Scenery Porn" just isn't enough; I call those "Scenery Pinups." This is one of those times.
While this is definitely well-detailed, this city is too well-organized for me. How many cities have row houses that are exactly the same house with exactly the same roof color and zero signs of paint flaking, damage, or individual choices in decoration?
With the exception of the mountains in the background, this city looks clinically sterile. Just look at the difference in the size of the doors and windows on the buildings and the specks that are "people", and you'll see that while the artist gives a nod to the notion that this is supposed to be a place where people live, they feel alien to this world of geometric perfection. Look at that building on the left with the fish symbol, and how the "people blobs" are going up what appears to be a staircase that, by scale to their size, must be 5 stories tall to reach a giant doorway 20 feet/6 meters tall. On what appears to be a knee-busting 60-degree slope, no less.
The "close up" to human scale on the right were clearly drawn in to give a sense that, yes, there are people here, but just look at the difference in how the birds or cat are illustrated compared to the details on the shingles, and you see the clear focus upon the artificial over the organic. Along the bottom of the picture, you see the same tree seemingly copy-pasted all throughout the lower parts of the city, and only the potted trees near the shop with actual people are unique. The weeds around the shop are also the only place where breaks in flagstones have non-perfectly-manicured grass, (almost as if we were zoomed into the one part of the city with actual humans in it,) and looking at those oil-painting like area-color-fill leaves next to the sharply outlined and detailed fence shows it's a totally different art style.
I'm most reminded of Mahou Sensei Negima (manga, of course,) where Akamatsu Ken similarly used CAD programs to create these impossibly detailed and perfect backgrounds in front of which his characters would stand. With Negima, however, a more cell-shaded art style to start with, more thorough use of large crowds, litter, and hand-added chips in the walls made for a more cohesive overall aesthetic. This artist understands that concept, but the "organic" touches added in are too sparse and generally small to truly distract from the overwhelming predominance of the CAD drawing.
While this is definitely well-detailed, this city is too well-organized for me. How many cities have row houses that are exactly the same house with exactly the same roof color and zero signs of paint flaking, damage, or individual choices in decoration?
With the exception of the mountains in the background, this city looks clinically sterile. Just look at the difference in the size of the doors and windows on the buildings and the specks that are "people", and you'll see that while the artist gives a nod to the notion that this is supposed to be a place where people live, they feel alien to this world of geometric perfection. Look at that building on the left with the fish symbol, and how the "people blobs" are going up what appears to be a staircase that, by scale to their size, must be 5 stories tall to reach a giant doorway 20 feet/6 meters tall. On what appears to be a knee-busting 60-degree slope, no less.
The "close up" to human scale on the right were clearly drawn in to give a sense that, yes, there are people here, but just look at the difference in how the birds or cat are illustrated compared to the details on the shingles, and you see the clear focus upon the artificial over the organic. Along the bottom of the picture, you see the same tree seemingly copy-pasted all throughout the lower parts of the city, and only the potted trees near the shop with actual people are unique. The weeds around the shop are also the only place where breaks in flagstones have non-perfectly-manicured grass, (almost as if we were zoomed into the one part of the city with actual humans in it,) and looking at those oil-painting like area-color-fill leaves next to the sharply outlined and detailed fence shows it's a totally different art style.
I'm most reminded of Mahou Sensei Negima (manga, of course,) where Akamatsu Ken similarly used CAD programs to create these impossibly detailed and perfect backgrounds in front of which his characters would stand. With Negima, however, a more cell-shaded art style to start with, more thorough use of large crowds, litter, and hand-added chips in the walls made for a more cohesive overall aesthetic. This artist understands that concept, but the "organic" touches added in are too sparse and generally small to truly distract from the overwhelming predominance of the CAD drawing.
Hmm, I believe the word you are looking for is "Fantasy", or better perhaps "Fantastical". By "artificial" over "organic" I believe you mean architecturally focused. As a predominantly architectural example of concept art this should be more than acceptable to the discerning eye especially given it did in fact give a nod to the human element that should be existent in a city.
Hmm, I believe the word you are looking for is "Fantasy", or better perhaps "Fantastical". By "artificial" over "organic" I believe you mean architecturally focused. As a predominantly architectural example of concept art this should be more than acceptable to the discerning eye especially given it did in fact give a nod to the human element that should be existent in a city.
"Fantasy" isn't the word I'm looking for at all. "Stepford village" would be a better fit.
By "artificial", I mean that this image has too many straight lines, too many perfectly geometric forms, and all around too pristine and perfect to actually exist. The only wear and tear is what exists "close to the camera".
Just look, for example, at the fence and wall in the foreground in the middle of the picture, and how ludicrously perfectly repeated the fence's decorative features are. The same for the alcoves in the wall left of the foreground stairs.
The problem is that human element looks like a painted-on afterthought that are intruders in an alien world that has no use for humans.
"Fantasy" isn't the word I'm looking for at all. "Stepford village" would be a better fit.
By "artificial", I mean that this image has too many straight lines, too many perfectly geometric forms, and all around too pristine and perfect to actually exist. The only wear and tear is what exists "close to the camera".
Just look, for example, at the fence and wall in the foreground in the middle of the picture, and how ludicrously perfectly repeated the fence's decorative features are. The same for the alcoves in the wall left of the foreground stairs.
The problem is that human element looks like a painted-on afterthought that are intruders in an alien world that has no use for humans.
A great response! This is why I love danbooru. My layman turn.
A perfectionist is never satisfied; That which does and can never exist. Yet, that is what is in some context present here. Thus the realist is not satisfied. In a sense, a circumstantial loop.
Your artistic insights and knowledge are sure. You have a technical knowledge to critique that I don't. There is no doubt about that. Yet in that experience and knowledge you (in my uneducated view) seem to have forgotten how to appreciate a general concept that doesn't need be realistic or even artistic. Of course I truly appreciate the detail of imperfectness. I have a huge soft spot for sketches for this very reason.
But if the focus is on architecture, I'm not willing to discredit the ideal in fantasy (isn't that what architectural schematics are anyway? Everyone hates engineers for a reason right?). Because fantasy can never be real. I make it a point to not confuse these methods of presentation.
Of course all I've ever done is colored pencil sketches (my few pixiv posts are pathetic). Well, that and try to build stuff engineers concocted on blueprints. Guess my gig is there's more than one way to appreciate something. Beer?
Well said. The greatest handicap of a critic is that no one can formulate perfection in their mind, and tastes change with mood and age. Consequentially we are unlikely to recognize it even if shown it. I think that perfection is adaptable and varied. For example, in the bible God made man, which is supposedly perfect. However, no one man is individually perfect, otherwise God's judgement would not be needed. Collectively though, it could be said that humanity and other creatures are perfect as we evolve over time changing and varying to best fit whatever period of time and evironment we occupy.
It's not necessarily that I'm approaching it as 'a critic'. (At least, not in the sense that I'm somehow 'more professional' when I throw around criticisms than any other random jackass with a modem.) It's simply something I notice.
Perhaps a metaphor would be better: In Fruits Basket, the character Machi hates 'perfection' to the point of becoming violent, trying to break things she feel is too orderly. (An anti-Kitsu Chiri, if you will.)
When things are impossibly orderly/geometric/perfectly repeated, it's something I notice immediately on a subconscious level as being off, and it sends my consciousness off to explain to myself why I feel that way. It's then that I look at it closely, to find reasons why my subconsciousness is reacting that way. If you think I'm overthinking things, then that's why.
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And now for all the other nitpicks I notice, and drive me crazy, but I've been holding back on because they're beside the main point I'm trying to make, and "it's just fantasy"...
First, there's all kinds of perspective bizarreness. Look at that clock tower on the left, and tell me the vanishing point on that isn't far too close unless we're looking at it through a concave lens.
Then there's the world-building logic. For example, there are smokestacks in this image. Like I said, the basically exist to create something that isn't drawn by a CAD program, to make it look less like one. However, notice that every single one is sending up a plume of smoke? There are zero chimneys not in use. Also, notice that nowhere near every large, freestanding building has a chimney? In a "fantasy setting", these would logically be wood-burning chimneys for warmth, but... do only 50 people in this city get cold? They could be factories, but why are they in all other ways identical to the nearby buildings, many of which look residential? In the foreground on the right, the lamp appears to be a gas one, making it a sort of industrial revolution London-like city, and might explain some of those pipes... but then, again, why aren't there more smokestacks, because that's some crazy amount of natural gas to burn without dedicated means of ventilation, and people are far more vertically stacked than in London. (Which notably had the worst air pollution in the world for centuries until they no longer relied upon coal and gas lighting and heating all over the city.)
Or, let's talk impossible architecture, like the covered bridge from the tower left of the large blue dome. See how it looks like stone, but has a span FAR too long for stone without some form of archways or support beams? Granted, that's nothing compared to the might-as-well-be-a-floating-island cliff that is impossibly cantilevered left of that. Sure, it could be made of unobtanium, but why are all the other 'stone' bridges supported by arches, even if in a structurally unsound manner? (And if you need a refresher on the tensile strength of stone structures, take a look at the Romans' handywork. There are no "flat" undersides to stone, because stone cracks without direct support.)
I should also point out that the tower with the bridge with no support is also directly copy-pasted to make a second, identical tower that is simply a bit more green placed just to its right in the background.
See also the top-left castle with the magic hovering tower to the right, and a spiraling (but supported) ramp to nowhere, and a pair of similar bridges to nowhere to its right.
Also nice is how water is treated in this image. Look at the waterfall near the center of the image, cascading down from the multi-story 'aquarium tower' with the three giant orange streamers. (Apparently, this town was visited by Scotty.) Notice the windows along that wall where the water cascades down, which make it look like a fancy hotel, albiet at a truly massive scale? Notice how that massive waterfall, well, has a massive quantity of water spraying wildly into the area where some of those lower windows would be in the splash zone? Hope that transparent aluminum is up to snuff, and never, ever, needs maintenance, ever. (Or they have a way to shut the river off any time they need to squeegie the windows.)
Also on the topic of water, see how, in the grey stone pit area on the left, there is a place where water is apparently left to flow down a 30 to 45 degree angle, and it just seems to lay there like a carpet, even neatly changing angles back to flat with no splashing except a tiny line of white in the central ones? Unless that's actually just painted blue with maybe a trickle of water over it, water does not behave that neatly.
Also, to go to the subject of people, notice how the "blurry speck" people are all the same size? Compare the people on the bridge over the water at the far bottom left of the image, where the "camera is closest" to the top right stairwell right of the blue glass dome area, and notice that the speck-people are the same size, 3 or 4 pixels.
Honestly, though, this whole scene reminds me a lot of Dwarf Fortress monument building. Of course, that's also a game where you can support a mountain on a bar of soap, hold back magma with a wooden door that will never burn so long as it remains closed, and build perpetual motion devices using water wheels and hyper-efficient pumps.