Inspired by a previous camping trip to Death Valley, I was in awe of the night sky untouched from polluting city lights. I remember lying on an outdoor table with my buddies several feet away from the crackling campfire, looking up—almost as if I can swim through the stars. However, there were no lush trees in the area, this was just a preferential addition to the piece. :) Also... I couldn't decide whether purple or a more earthy hue was best, so I stuck with both versions!
Drawn with charcoal, and later colored in Photoshop along with the addition of more clearer star clusters!
Supplies: Charcoal, pencil, kneadable eraser, Adobe Photoshop CS4.
Drawn with charcoal, and later colored in Photoshop along with the addition of more clearer star clusters!
Supplies: Charcoal, pencil, kneadable eraser, Adobe Photoshop CS4.
I've started by sketching in the shape of the Milkyway band behind a darker background, blending it with my fingers and using a chamois to get rid of any excess. Then, I shaded in more detail—small swirls and waves difussuing out the edges, notable of the Milkway band. Dotting smalls points to mark star clusters to later add in, I then proceeded to darken the sky surroudning it.
With the main shape of the Milkyway in place, I needed more contrast against the faded night sky, note the silohuette of the forest.
With a few more finishing touches and fixing the direction of light, it's scanning time! :)
After scanning, I proceeded to fix the levels of light within the piece via Adobe Photoshop, making sure the Milkway's ambience wasnt to overpowering, or the black charcoal of the trees were not "too" black. Next, coloring it!.. The red was an experiemnt but luckily it somewhat worked. Then in a separate document (above), I've painted some stars—honestly at this point, I thought it wasn't going to work, but I continued anyway, making sure I bunch the stars in clusters are they are known characteristic of band. After trial and error of erasing and concentrating on placing stars around as random as possible, I've added the stars into the main document and continued to fix the stars, positioning them onto the band and added a couple bright ones (the two bright red ones). Oh look! A hot air ballon! I had to add the adventure aspect of it~
The original version—favorite colors, dark blues with a hint of purple. The splash of red was an experiement that luckily worked out!
Was also fond of the earthy hues, more characteristic of the band.
