I have started this digital painting with a blue canvas. With a soft round brush I’ve painted the sky and added some color to the sea. The line of the horizon was too sharp so I have softened it with the same brush. I have added different colors – like green – to the water surface to make it look more realistic. I have used a smaller brush for creating the small waves on the water. The more far away the waves are the more smaller they look and the less detail will be visible on them. The contrast also changes: something that is far away can be pushed really back on the image if you use less contrast on them, while adding more contrast to the elements at the front.
Red bird by Adrienn Ecsedi
Once I was satisfied with the sea I’ve started painting the platforms. I didn’t have any special plan in mind, I just wanted to paint floating platforms with green grass on them. I paint more of them so you can imagine their sizes.
Sometimes you will see that the whole image turnes to greyscale. When this happenes I check the values of the painting: this way I can easily spot if anything is wrong or if the image is boring.
I wanted to add more stuff to the image so I’ve painted a tree on the left and some branches on the right. I have used a different brush for the leaves that was mimicking the leaves themselves and finally I have painted some leaves myself to make it look more real. I didn’t quite liked this technique so nowdays I first paint the place where there will be leaves with a soft round brush and then I hand paint the leaves.
When I have finished painting the plants and trees I thought the image is finished but something was still missing. I missed some color, some life from the painting, so I came up with a red bird that somehow changes the whole feel of the painting. At that time I didn’t know yet that the color green can turn a whole painting lifeless. To make the green work you should add some red to it.
I hope you like the painting and that the video was helpful to you.