Step One: Concept Sketches First I came up with the idea for the painting. I had previously done some pencil drawings of trees and I knew I wanted my final to have trees in it somehow. When I came up with the idea for a tree city I made two concept sketches of what it might look like. (sketches made using F pencil and tracing paper).

Step Two: Runes & Color Concept I created detailed concepts of the "rune rocks" I was thinking of using in the painting. I also did a number of quick color/paint tests to see if I could get the look I wanted for the painting. These tests were done using Winsor & Newton Gouache (required by the class). In order to get the effect I was painting in darker colors and blending in lighter colors while they were still wet (wet in wet). Gouache dries pretty fast so this took some practice to figure out.

Step Three: Value Study I then sketched what I thought would be my final image onto the illustration board I planned to paint on. I made a photocopy of this and used it to create a value study. A value study is a black and white version of the image showing how light or dark areas will be regardless of color. I used Tria Marker,Copic Marker, and pencil to make the value study.

Step Four: Color Roughs At this point I made a ton of photocopies of my Value Study and used them to create color roughs. For inspiration I looked at art books (including the art of the Fellowship of the Ring which has some great color studies!), photos, how to books, and just about anything else I could get my hands on. The point of each rough was to show a mood through use of color, medium and other variations. Details of each rough can be seen on the close up images:

Step Five: The finished roughs were mounted on black to be presented to the class/my teacher for feedback. After painting all the roughs I was not happy with the roots at the bottom of the image so I created a complete alternate version of the tree city using ink and marker (I also mounted and presented this).

Step Six: Finished Painting The finished painting ended up being a mix of both of my designs. The colors used were a combination of the "Deep Forest Dwellers" and "Spooky With Fog" color roughs. People also really liked the "Winter Wonderland" color scheme so I may revisit it for a future painting project. The finished painting was done using Winsor and Newton Gouache on cold press illustration board and it took around 20-25 hours to paint.

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