Water Lily Pond - Day and Nocturne

For these two digital paintings I started off with a hand-drawn traditional sketch and worked solely an "charcoal brush" in Photoshop. I also stuck to large brushes at first and even in the end stuck to fairly large brushes to avoid getting stuck in details. The goal of this artwork was the creation of atmospheric scenery. It's supposed to portray elements of romantic art, which is why I chose less saturated colours and despite the bigger defining brush strokes a soft feeling, especially in the day version.

The nocturne version focuses more on reflections in the pond. The small star reflections were also created with a round soft brush instead of a bigger charcoal brush which creates the illusion of more detail in this area and follows draws the viewers eye to it.

Reflection and Analysis

After the last artworks being quite dynamic I chose to paint a more static and controlled image this time. Beneath is the sketch I started off with. It is a bit more dynamic than the final painting due to more value contrast and more diagonal lines such as the water on the left side which I turned in to a horizontal line in the final painting.

Features of the Two Final Digital Paintings 

• Soft and romantic feel
• Rhythm, Balance and Unity
• Many straight, horizontal and vertical lines create a quite controlled and static pattern.
• Solely use of "charcoal brush" and larger brush strokes (except for stars in night version)
• Low colour contrast
• Though the house still sticks out nicely through the red/purple roof and green surroundings.
• Complementary colours 
• Value contrast 
• Dark fore- and background allows the eyes to focus on the mid-ground.
• The white house further stands out due to the high value contrast against the dark background.