Aurora Borealis

I’m working on adding more depth to my compositions through atmospheric perspective and composition. I first laid out a cove and imagined a father and son enjoying the view. I chose lots of purples and blues for the landscape and sky and immediately realized they’d have to be watching the aurora borealis.

I really like the way the colors and the composition came together. Figuring out the shading on the dragons was frustrating and took nearly as long as the rest of the drawing – in the end, I laid a transparent blue layer over the dragons and cut highlights out of it. Modeling and lighting are still my real weaknesses. I need to spend more time studying lizards and other animals in various poses and lighting.

In non-digital news, I picked up a small watercolor set this week. While I’m enjoying using Procreate more and more, I really miss the feel of brushes and pencils on paper. Also, the ability to look for long periods at something that isn’t beaming so much blue light directly back into my eyes. Michigan is home to a surprising variety of landscape terrain – forests, lakes, dunes, etc – with any luck, me and my little watercolor kit will visit them all.