This year I had the incredible fortune of working with the fine folks at Fiftynine Parks to create a piece for Shenandoah National Park. I’m so thankful the timing worked out on this one because it afforded me the opportunity to work with the 59 Parks team to create a really fun piece that was incredibly relaxing to work on (you know I swoon for painting the outdoor scenes!).

Let’s dive into the process for this one!

The brief for the Shenandoah National Park poster was perfect: just enough direction to provide a jumping off point but not so restrictive it removes my ability to explore. Originally we looked at having a single hiker peering into the rolling hills from a rock ledge but as I began sketching, I remembered hikes I’d been on with my daughter and thought this could be an interesting angle to the piece… rather than an individual alone in the wilderness, what if an older generation was introducing the next generation to the beautiful wilderness? What would that moment of discovery look like?

With that in mind, I took to sketching.

I decided to alter my approach to the sketches on this piece and rather than working in pencil, I opted to work with black and white values to quickly rough in composition ideas. I knew the lighting for the piece would be instrumental in achieving the look I wanted so this gave me an opportunity to introduce that early in the creative process.

Once we had the composition locked in, I wanted to spend time workout out a more refined sketch which I could use as a roadmap for the final illustration (it’s much easier for me to paint behind light linework than it is a full black and white rough).

This was also the place we decided to start looking at different color options. My initial color roughs skewed more toward the burnt orange sunset-colors. After a few conversations with the 59 Parks crew, we opted to introduce more greens into the rolling hills while introducing golden hour lighting to everything. The result gave it a nostalgic and dramatic effect we were all pleased with.

Once we had the final color direction set, it was time to dive into the details and really bring everything together. Here are a handful of detail shots of some of my favorite parts of the illustration:

One aspect I love about illustration is treating each aspect of the piece with care and attention. I make sure I’m able to touch every aspect of the scene - though that doesn’t mean adding tons of detail to everything. Often I reserve areas of intense detailing for the foreground or elements of importance in the composition. Once I’ve had a chance to work every aspect of the piece to my satisfaction, I’ll look up and realize the illustration is done.

I want to send a massive THANK YOU! to the 59 Parks team for giving me the opportunity to work with them on this one. We’ve been trying to work together for years and the timing never quite worked out - but I’m incredibly thankful it worked this time.