i would prioritize composition and priority the character as main subject need to be in the front , than the mountain than the geant oil rig , dont fear exageration if you want , really depend on how far you want it be but making it that small does not make it pop up from the screen

@fosco

Paintover

Hey! Well done so far here! :D I took the liberty of playing a bit with the composition, focusing on how to make it more visually appealing. Mainly by improving the separation between your planes: BG, MG, and FG. As a general rule, the farther an object is from the camera, the lighter its values should be due to atmospheric perspective; the closer it is, the darker those values become. In terms of composition, I mainly used the rule of thirds, placing the oil platform on one of the thirds (close to it, not exactly on it). For the rest of the elements, I relied on gestures and guiding lines to help lead the viewer’s eye toward the focal point. For example: the lit areas on the dunes, the “V” shape in the clouds pointing toward the platform, etc. There are many ways to approach composition—not just the well-known rule of thirds (which would be boring if used all the time). There’s a book I really like called “Composition of Outdoor Painting” by Edgar Payne, where he explains these kinds of compositional approaches. You can probably find plenty of related material on Pinterest :p Here are a few examples: https://mx.pinterest.com/pin/7740630606568682/ I made the character larger and placed it in the foreground, since in your original composition, the character was barely visible. Lastly, how can you make the scene feel more alive? Think about what’s happening in that place. Since you mention it’s a dried ocean, you could add textures suggesting cracked, dry ground, animal bones, etc. These small elements help add storytelling to the scene and prevent it from feeling like just mountains, a character, and a structure. Think about questions like: What used to be here? What happened after the ocean dried up? Always answer: What? Where? How? Who? Why? Asking yourself these kinds of questions will help you solve these problems. https://mx.pinterest.com/pin/121526889936618491/ https://mx.pinterest.com/pin/351912466563341/