Hoping WIP - Changing Skies
- GenreChowderStudios
- Feb 28, 2019
- 3 min read
Now initially, I wanted a deep night sky with a huge bright star Jay is staring at. But then I thought, "Hey, why not a morning/sunset sky?" So I tried painting in red with gold for the sky and...
See, it's not the strokes that're bothering me. I wanted the background to look more handmade. But the balance of color was just off. Because it was so bright and saturated, the background sucked all the life out of Jay. Jay's color scheme is already desaturated enough. Plus, the particular red and gold I chose leaned towards cool somehow (in terms of temperature). It's just not a good look. NEXT!
Changed back to my original idea of the night sky. Didn't change Jay's color scheme at all, but look at how much better she stands out. Part of that is because she's still in the flats stage, but still. Added stars for the composition and more visual interest.
This certainly was an improvement, but the lighter bit of the sky was too green. Plus, it's just a wee bit off, somehow.
Took down the saturation down quite a bit. Also wanted that star to stand out, so I gave it a bit of a twinkle.
At this point, I figured I should stop fiddling with the sky and start working on Jay.
So with Jay's general shading and whatnot out of the way, I added a glow to the stars.
It was certainly coming together, but there was still something strange about the gradient in the sky.
Turns out someone needs to use photo reference more often because night skies don't have a glow up top!
This is good. Not only is it more true to life, it makes the light sit behind Jay, pushing her forwards. Not drowning her like original version threatened to do. Plus, it's good for composition. Her skin is lighter and then her hair gets darker up top. The sky is lighter on the bottom, darker on top. Before it was light on both ends with this bar of darkness in the center-ish. Like a stupid sandwich.
But at this point, I wasn't quite feeling the teal. I usually use blue and teal for space, anyway. And while I wasn't into the sunset look anymore, I wanted some warmth. Photo reference is a lot more useful than just showing you when you're doing something wrong.
The purple tied together her pink flush, the vaguely pink undertone of her skin, and added that warmth I was missing. Complements the yellow stars, as well.
There's something else, too. Purple fits the dreamy vibe better than teal. It's sort of more misty and ethereal. Its light feels different than blue light. Especially different than teal light.
Changed the shading to the same style I used for Noel di Vanucci. Been really into it for some reason. Something graphic about it.
The last thing I did for the sky was redoing the stars. They looked too blotchy. The sizes weren't different enough, too. Tried to add additional clusters to make it look more dreamlike. I'm looking at them and wondering if I ought to add a few more stars on her right (our left). But this is a far fling from what I started out with.
Also dumped the hand-drawn outline of the circle. I usually opt for as much hand-drawn work as possible, but the lines were distracting. The clean "circle" is much less distracting. And I say "circle" because I had to shave off just under her arms and hands to really maintain the illusion that she is leaning on a sort of circular window frame. Or something, I don't know.
I dunno. It's interesting to see the process behind things. Sometimes, I'll go through a fleet of steps that pull me this way and that, and in the end, I finally get my head above water and come out with something I'm happy with, but then I'll forget what happened. That's thoughts, ideas, and hours of experience lost. I've drawn hundreds of things. I couldn't tell you the stories behind a tenth of them. I just know I did them. Cataloguing them here is almost like writing in a diary but for my work. Maybe years from now, I can come back and see how I made this piece. Or maybe not. I don't really read these after I post them. But I could. That's pretty neat.
Thanks for reading.
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