Lovecraftian Adventure - Farrow Mansion

[Hermit]

For this purpose, dark and moody is definitely the way to go. If you were prepping materials for a Wodehousean romp, light and fluffy would be the way to go, but for Lovecraftian, totally dark and moody. It's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" not "The Bright Sunny Skies Over Innsmouth".

I definitely agree. Although, I now want to see a chibi or pastel version of Innsmouth called "Bright and Sunny Innsmouth"

Suggestion if you like the dark and moody. Copy everything merged at the end, and then, desaturate that and crank its contrast, and then set that on an overlay, or soft light. You could also delete the central part, feathering the edges out, so that you get this gloom outside and the brighter colors of the original assets inside.

So I spent some time messing with various levels of darkness and shadow/gloom on the outside of the house. I took a copy of the outside of the image and did as you suggested, completely desaturating it and really ramping the contrast, then setting it on overlay (I messed with "soft light," but there didn't seem to be much of a difference). I really like the effect and ended up adding a smattering of darker areas and a darker, smudged border around the building itself.

While I enjoy how it looks, I did end up realizing that I need to redo the shadowing inside if I add this effect because the inside is now MUCH brighter than the outside . I'm posting up the 4th image from the last update along with a few variations on the opacity of the overlay layer that creates the gloom. The new images are at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% opacity, respectively. I'm leaning towards 50% or 75% because 25% doesn't seem to be enough and 100% seems to be a bit too dark.

I know the decks and steps are still at full brightness. I'm intending to shadow them to match the outside with their own mask layer after I figure out how dark the actual outside will be.