Woodland Magic

New Version ready to paint

I'm going to share some of the progress of the painting I'm working on. I mentioned it briefly in my last post.  This is a re-imagining of an older sketch.  I liked the old concept, which had her as a goblin queen with a goblin king in a forest with goblins lurking about.

Old / Original Version

I don't know what happened exactly, but I just lost enthusiasm for this original concept and couldn't seem to finish the painting.  But I always loved the sketches, particularly of the the queen.

So I decided to do something with her, but a bit different and in a smaller scale.  Still with a lot of detail though.  She had to be in a forest scene again.  That is just the setting that I imagined for her all along and I couldn't imagine her any other way.

I have a lot of work still to go in this medium-sized painting (8.5 x 11"), but I'm really enjoying the process so far.  I'm starting to see it's potential now, so I hope it turns out as well as I'd like!  :)  I'm thinking it might be called, Woodland Magic, but I'm still tossing around ideas in my head.  That's what I like best so far though.  Sometimes, I have a title in mind right from the beginning.  Others, I try to think of it as I work.  Here are some progress shots:

I put some masking fluid over the main figure and the moths and twisty stick.  Then I just started filling in the background colors.

I have the basic foundation down here, so now is time to start adding the details...

Started working on the foliage, and darkening things up...

Foliage is one of those things that makes me a bit nervous to work on. I'm a little intimidated by it.  I try to go by my instincts when working on it, but I'm unsure how well it will go.

I painted in the lantern and stick/pole thing...

I think it's starting to look pretty neat at this point.  Now on to more foliage work...

This is my last and most up-to-date progress shot for the moment. I'll edit this post with more.
The glowy, magic moths are pretty much done, I think.  Now I'm working on adding detail to the foliage... my favorite part.  lol

*July 19th* The background is almost done now.  The photo washed out a lot of the details and the ground isn't quite that dark.  A little more work and I'll be able to start on the girl.  I'm still debating on whether I should make the far background darker or leave it like it is.  hmmm...

*July 20th* I'm pretty much done with the background now.  I'm going to move on the painting the girl.  Once she's done I can take another look at the background and see if anything needs adjusting.