Harmony in Blue and Grey - Soft Tides

For "Harmony in Blue and Grey - Soft Tides" I wanted to achieve a very dreamy and soft atmospheric piece of art contrasting the last digital painting, "Up the Ragged Rocks", which consisted of many rough textures and angular shapes. To achieve this soft feel I primarily used grey tones, to which I added blue colour for the water, as well as soft lighting techniques with only a few highlights on the town to make it stand out from the otherwise flat image. The scene is inspired by Mont Saint-Michel, a rocky tidal island, located in Normandy, France.

Reflection & Analysis

• "Beautiful grey"
• Harmonious scene
• Overall low colour contrast and value contrast
• Visual style follows subject matter
• soft brush strokes of the tide slowly going out
• The shadow helps give the town volume and let's it stand out from the otherwise flat environment/background

Cons

• The perspective of the town is incorrect. There should be more of a top view on the town as the horizon is very high in the image (somewhere above the picture).
• The town might stand out too much from the rest of the image and destroy the unity/rhythm/balance of this particular painting as I was aiming for a very flowing and united dreamy look. 
• In previous development and refinement stages I did already reduce the highlights on the town by lowering the value and colour contrast though.

Painting Process

Started off by blocking in colours and creating the overall mood and atmosphere of the piece as this will be the top priority of the image. I had my colour scheme pretty much set from the beginning as I was also using some reference images and simplifying their colours to these core colours to maintain a more monochrome and harmonious feel. 

Next I started to clean up the piece and soften transitions as well as add some detail to the town area. 

The main work on this step was creating detail on the town itself and improving its perspective (which is still a bit off in the end). Afterwards I darkened the foreground which resulted in more depth in the painting. 

As I was going for a very soft feel I decided to lighten up the foreground again and lower the value and colour contrast of the town and in general of the painting as well as soften up areas by making the the colour/value transitions softer.

Some Colour and Lighting Variations

For this version I merely changed the hue to a more purple/blue colour theme which is still very harmonious as I only increased the value contrast slightly.

In this nocturne version however I increased the value contrast as well as the saturation which is creating a more dynamic image. By darkening the foreground and adding this contrast more depth is created and the town itself really reads strongly compared to the original version. The top part of the painting now also has a very shiny blue glow which adds a nice effect. It is hard to choose between the different versions as they all create a different vibe and expression. 

The calm and misty versus the slightly surreal versus the clear and contrasty.