Dear Friends:

How can I improve my aesthetics composition skills to create breathtaking landscape matte paintings? How can I learn to create breathtaking cityscape matte paintings?  I would like to create images as beautiful as Dylan Coyle does. I would like to create CGI images as beautiful as those created for Avatar and Star Wars II.

I have been doing art for about twenty years. So I have a bit of experience. I have bough many tutorilas from The Gnomon Workshop. And many others too. I have a B.F.A. I still have learned nothing.

I was also facinated by the image titled "Another Hidden Civilazation". I saw it at E-onsoftware under Cornucopia3D under Gallery under Cream of the Crop. What are the usefull themes that make such image unique?

The bottom line is that my birthday and Chritsmass are right around the corner. My Mother is getting me CGI tutorials as gifts. The questions is wich ones/from where. What do you guys suggest my Mother is to buy for me to improve my CGI artwork. I have a gallery here at Renderosity under the handle named Fidelity2. You can take it look to get an idea of what I need to improve upon. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Fidelity2.

Take a look at Mattingly's book, "The Digital Matte Painting Handbook".

I you are going for tutorials as gifts, I could not recommend more 'Becoming a better artist' - a CG Talk Workshop with Robert Chang.

His critiques are very frank and they can sting (a lot) but they are always followed by explanations about what you are doing wrong and how you can improve. 

He covers the fundamentals - composition, light, colors, representation, textures... 

http://beta.workshops.cgsociety.org/courseinfo.php?id=177 

What other options do I have? Thanks.

Sincerely,

Fidelity2.

Look through coffee table books with matte painting images in them for inspiration.  But they don't teach though.

I really believe that there is little substitute for the feedback of a teacher if you want to get to the next level.

Whether it is from an online workshop or a real life class, try lookig for something that includes that part of feedback. 

It will save you hours of wandering around aimlessly and help you focus on the areas you need to really work on.

 Aside from the solid advice already given i`ll pass on what I do. Study the work that have the characteristics you desire and work on emulating them element by element. Remember to think outside the box, thats how we learn new techniques. 

Dylan Cole has made a few tutorial DVDs for landscape matte mainting.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dylan+cole&x=0&y=0

But these are probably mostly dedicated to Photoshop work.