#shadowgorge

This is another personal favorite, Shadowgorge 5 from 2019.

The first four entries in this series used autumn-themed color schemes. I wanted to try out a "malachite/azurite" type color scheme to see if greens and blues would work. I was very pleased with the effect of the color palette, but the analogue version of this piece is almost hard to read because it ended up so dark. It has to hang at eye-level so that the detail can be seen. Oops. That goes into the notes for the next Shadowgorge design. I adjusted for the darkness in Photoshop, so the prints actually look clearer than the original. You are, of course, seeing the digital version with the adjustments here.

This is Shadowgorge 4 from 2017.

Back to basics: Crazy wings, crazy stripes, crazy curves, crazy moons. It was lots of fun to design and color.

This is Shadowgorge 3 from 2016.

I wanted to use bolder colors and a fairly simple composition compared to the first two in this series. In particular, I wanted to increase the "golden" look of the wings and the "flame" look of the dorsal ridge, shoulder ridge, and tail fluff. I think I succeeded there, and I really ended up liking the red-blue-gold contrast of this color palette.

The moons don't please me as much as in previous versions. I was too focused on the physical texture and not focused enough on the moon-like surface effect I wanted to achieve. Later images in the series have rectified this problem!