dreadful etiquette, i know

I thought it would be fun to show the process for one of my favorite pieces.

Here we go:

First thing I do is to block in big basic shapes and colors. In the early stages I’m making sure the color pallet looks okay and that the composition makes sense. Usually I use a bunch of different references to put together what kind of environment I want.

Also important is to pick where the light is coming from. And to stick with it. So for this one I wanted my light source coming from the sun on the left side of the environment.

(For this one in particular since I did four kinds of lighting, I changed the direction of my light source for the different times of day. I also made sure the sun rising and setting would be accurate in the environment I set; note you do not have to be this extra 😅)

Okay next up I start breaking up the bigger shapes and adding more details (eraser tool my beloved). Since this was a mountain environment, I added snow to the peaks and added a tree line to set a distinctive alpine and subalpine zone.

At this point I start adding textures (and MORE details) to the environment so it looks more dynamic and less static. Which again is lots of making and breaking up shapes and being choosy with colors.

Adding a few bright slashes of a mid saturated yellow looks good against the green grass and makes the lighting more dynamic (at least to me)

I also added some large puffy clouds and mist coming up and over the furthest mountains to up the sense of depth.

Continue adding more details, like the plants closer up. And the flowers.

I do a final lighting pass once I’m satisfied with the overall piece, mostly cause I really like lighting and it’s fun

And last but not least I block in the characters. Which is another whole process but tumbles has a picture limit.