Hey there! I just wanted to tell you I think you're environment illustrations are spot on. I'm a Junior majoring in Illustration and environments are probably my biggest weakness. Do you have any tips and tricks? Favourite brushes?
Hi, I don’t know about tricks, but I do have some tips.  Always draw a sketch underneath that has all the necessary elements in the piece.  This means foreground, mid-ground, background, characters if any, and specific shapes that help define the composition.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, just a rough, but clear guideline of what the whole scene will look like.  Always keep value in mind, do a value mockup if you have to.  This helps with creating a good composition with definitive shapes rather than lines. Work from the background to the foreground, meaning paint the elements furthest in the picture plane first, then the stuff closest to you last.In general, things in the background have less contrast than things in the foreground.I dunno about anyone else, but I usually paint from darkest to lightest.  Many traditional old oil painters painted this way and it makes  chronological and spatial sense.Also, please please please, use large brushes. I’ve said this on my twitter, but too often I’ve seen people get defeated early because they get exhausted by the details in the beginning and it ends up taking too long to finish. Remember, big picture first, details later.This is general advice, and it goes without saying, but use reference.  If you don’t know what something looks like, don’t guess, look it up.Another general tip, if a practice painting takes more than 3 hours, stop, assess what you need to improve on and then move on to the next painting.  This is strictly speaking for practice to have a time limit, it helps to not get bogged down on the details and focus on technique and speed.Not sure how much this helps, but I have process painting posts here and here that are pretty honest representations of my process since they are not edited and are taken regularly as I was working on the piece. I do have favorite brushes, but they are all custom ones I made myself.  I would strongly recommend either making your own, or if you don’t have the time, buying Kyle Webster’s brush sets, or Alexandre Diboine’s brush set, I hear great things about them and many artists use them regularly in their works.Good Luck!
