a school in a fantasy setting

1 Composition sketch

Sketching a composition, whether with line or value, is the basis to every piece I make. For this architecture-heavy design piece, I do a line work sketch with general value. In some images, I use a value sketch because the lighting and read is crucial. Here, I have a simple idea for lighting so I focus on the building sketch.

2 Blocking-in stage

I want to keep this piece simple, with a shadowed foreground and brightly lit background castle, silhouetted by the dark sky. I plan out the values and do a quick block-in. My colours develop throughout the painting as I start to find more colours I like. Don’t be afraid to change colours, repaint areas with poor values, and use colour edits like Multiply, Color Dodge, or Levels.

3 Detailing and atmosphere

I speed up my process by making photos more painterly, copy-pasting parts of my own art to fill blank space, and creating assets that I may later warp in perspective. I constantly toggle to greyscale to make sure the image still reads in black and white. I may use a layer of atmosphere on Linear Dodge or Screen to achieve more foreground/background separation.