Carrying on (almost three months) from my last canal inspired image, please find below my latest homage to the Cromford Canal in Derbyshire, England. During lockdown, and since, my partner and I have walked along the canal towpath many times. This cottage is in the process of being restored from its very recent derelict condition (see this website for information about its history):
www.aqueduct-cottage.com/
And what it looks like today:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lazlowoodbine/51908368705/in/dateposted-public/ (this is my Flickr stream, where as well as inflicting my blender renders on people, I also upload my increasingly occasional photography).
There is obviously massive amounts of artistic license taken here, born out of ineptitude, laziness, being unobservant, not having access to appropriate models or materials and insufficient skill to make them or chosen deliberately to make things look better. The obvious main difference is the wall to the right, which has no ivy (but this adds interest) and I’ve painted the lintels and sills white, which looks better than the yellow they were painted in the past and makes it ‘pop’ a bit. I’ve also no idea if they intend to rebuild the extension to the right of the building or not, but it currently looks a bit like the ruins are being turned into a raised patio/garden area and that’s how I’ve imagined it in the future 
I may decide to ‘rebuild it’ fully at some point. FWIW the white rectangles on the flower beds to the left of the cottage say ‘keep off the garden’ which are there now in reality but haven’t really sown up very well here.!
There are things I don’t like and things I could definitely improve on, but diminishing returns have kicked in so this is probably finished for now (famous last words… might need to think about a spring and summer shot or two).
As usual, there is a mixer of normal ‘photographic’ renders (not that I’m going for total photo realism) and those I’ve tried to make look a bit more painterly. As always, comments to improve my approach are always welcome (but as I do this for fun, please be kind 
)
Scene 1: Painterly
Scene 1: Photographic
Scene 2: Painterly
Scene 2: Photographic
Scene 2: Dawn
Scene 3: Painterly
Scene 3: Photographic
Scene 4: Painterly
Scene 4: Photographic
Scene 5: Painterly
Scene 5: Photographic
Thumbnail
Which is the best? What could I do to make them better?
Assets are a mixture of my ‘modelling’, max tree, botaniq, graswald, quixel, textures.com, polyhaven. Post processed in photoshop using a range of methods, but including g’mic.
