Ha, yeah, I ‘borrow’ stylistically 
I figure that if I try to paint like them, Ill find out which styles I have more fun with(try it out sometime).
I like the update! its really starting to gain shape and focus, and I still love how you used all these colors.
Thoughts:
I think you could really push it and make it look ‘deeper’ and bigger. A few more sections of cliff beyond the water fall would helps there. Have you heard about atmospherics? Basically its like using the ‘fog’ setting in blender. The farther things are from the camera(or in painting, from the focus point), the more they fade into the background color(your sky).
As you apply ideas like that, your also gonna wanna do a bit of reading on perspective. This should help you out there, its easy to understand, and tells you about everything you need to know. Read the whole thread, its got plenty of interesting stuff throughout.
And now my best link of all:
TADA!
That’ll teach you pretty much all the basics of digital painting. The writer has a sense of humour, he’s frank and honest, and the whole thing keeps you interested.
Anywa, now I gotta get some breakfast and start painting! I didnt get anything done yesterday…
Peace man
Colors are good, the lighting could be picked up. I don’t like to do it either though.
f_a (easy to type!): Yeah, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for copying the greats. I will try it
True about depth. Yes I’ve heard of atmospheric perspective; my art teacher is a genius and I think it was grade 9 curriculum anyway;).
Thanks for the links, which I will have to read in detail.
Update – lighting enhancements and modified waterfall/background transition.
This was a nice study, but I don’t think I’m going to keep working on it… I have to get busy copying some people!
On an off topic note, Death Cab for Cutie’s new album is very good painting music:)
Jeremy Ray: Thanks for the comment, I tried to work on lighting.
And it’s better for the effort.
I like your style. Hard to tell it is digital work. If you ever have the time I’d love a tutorial to see how you work.
Jeremy Ray: Thank you. I think so too.
linuxpimp21: Thanks… I think a time lapse would probably be more effective in this case than a tutorial, but I need to figure out how to do that…
Save-a-copy as you go along.
Or grab a screen recorder. Only problem is youll need a lot of ram, or a very smooth system(I mean flawless) to handle… oh, wait. Well, it can be tough with photoshop, sometimes you get lag bad enough that I just gave up(still searching for a viable solution).
However, you are on a mac, not vista, and use painter, not photoshop. So I guess you’ll just have to try it out yourself
Nice job on the enviro, it came out looking great. 
Has a really beautiful vaguness to it. Cant wait for more!
Jeremy Ray: True, and I already do that to a point. But of course recording would be better…
Free_ality: Yes, I’m on a mac, but I only have 2 gb of ram… (I can’t believe I’m saying “only”) but I was thinking of upgrading to 4 anyway ($100). I dunno, I guess I’d have to try recording and see how it goes.
And technically I use photoshop… I only have Painter Essentials 3, but for some reason my creativity flows much more with painter, even if it is the basic version. I have yet to paint anything good in PS, though of course I use it for all my textures, graphic design, compositing, and editing. It just feels more natural for this purpose…
Glad you like the painting… especially since I’m doing something else now! 
EDIT:
A quick (as in very quick – probably half an hour) paint. Nothing serious.
Painter again… sigh… painter X is looking appealing…
Painter seems to have a very… well, it looks a lot more like paint then photoshop does Whats it feel like painting with it?
If youve had better luck painting with Painter, I dont see why you couldnt buy it… its industry standard stuff after all. PS is more common because more folks know about it, but(from what Ive heard) its really a personl preference.
Hmm… well, I like this thing, but Its kinda tough to tell what it is(Im assuming clouds), or whats going on lol
The top half is better than the bottom half, because the whites in the bottom half are a little too white. Most artists will tell you not to use straight white and black, and I’ve seen them get good results with that philosophy. But I’ve also seen artists say to use straight white and black and also get good results, so I won’t tell you not to. In this case though the white is your problem.
free_ality: I’ve gotta say, you feel like you’re painting. The paint blends nicely with the colour beneath, and you can even get an impasto effect. Painter X is only about $100 at studica.ca, so maybe I should save up and get it…
Thanks for admitting you have no idea what that last one is, haha. I don’t either. It’s me trying to squeeze that last bit of creative energy out at the end of the day. Not a great result
Jeremy Ray: Interesting stuff about black/white usage… I’ll think about that while I’m painting…
And now an update. I found this program called copernicus, and it worked fine for a 2 minute screen record, but about 10 minutes in it crashed. So I’ll just post what I have so far in intervals until I find something that works.
What I have so far (not much to critique, but purely for observatory purposes)
EDIT: That’s some intense compression… oh well, just ignore that for now, next one’ll be better.
Whoa, that’s some intense com- oh, never mind
Haha, I like the look of it! Kinda parisian. Eagerly awaiting updates.
Oh, heres something you can try out, its a new process Ive been using(and it works pretty decently) for shaidn/color mapping. Start with your darkest hues, the layer your strongest on top where needed. Then fill in the midtones and highlights. It gives me a nice amount of control, and makes it easy to get good contrast. Then If I need any further darks, I just add em in.
Also, always start out with the biggest brushstrokes possible. I have my pen pressure hooked up to my brush size, so starting with big brush strokes makes it easy to get consitant color, but I also can go a bit smaller if I need more control in a certain area.
Anyway, I still envy your colors 
Great work man
Yeah, beat you to the compression remark;)
And points to you! It is Paris.
That’s an interesting process… what I’m doing right now is starting with midtones and then adding shadows and highlights. I’ll see which way works best.
Colours?? This is monochromatic… sort of… well, it was.… I wanted it to be, but apparently not:)
Edit: update. This is coming along more quickly than I thought, but I do need to tweak some perspective problems.
The stuff happening on either side of the tower is a long story, by the way
Haha, whoops, the compression and 4 hours of sleep last night made the first shot very colorful(dang hallucinogens). Definitely monochrome.
Its taking shape nicely! Fantastic enviros.
Free_ality: Looking back, I’d say it’s more the compression than the 4 hours of sleep… but wow, may I ask why 4 hours? If it was art, you get the “Blenditall and I are similar” award
–
Any suggestions for the sky? Should I keep it boring and cloudy?
Pretty much. Painting, reading, guitar, they all keep me up pretty late… then I just sleep in a few hours. I dont have anything going on in the morning anyway…
Hmm… maybe blue if you felt so inclined, a nice desaturated blue to go with the greenish palette. But honestly, I think it looks fine boring an cloudy.
Oh man, you do get the award… (too bad guitars make so much noise though, not so nice at 2 am :p)
Thanks for your opinion on the sky by the way.
Small update, just because I can:)
Its looking great but(critiquing just because I can):
If you’re painting this straight in one layer or not, start working out the background, fading it out in layers. Itll work better if you do that now and just start painting those parts with teh lighter colors as compared to simply painting over it.
I’m actually not entirely clear on what you’re saying in that last post.