The next area I decided to tackle was the cliffs and waterfall to the left. After laying in a few base colors in a random scribble to suggest texture, I began to highlight the cliffs using more of the sky colors.
Working with a small brush size, I worked up the textures in stages as I thought the light would hit them. Scribbling in a deliberate but loose manner, I tried to create rocky outcroppings leaving darker areas to suggest shadows.
When satisfied I had created enough textures in the rocks, I created another layer on top. On the Palette layer I made an exact compliment of the cliff colors to use for the waterfall. With the Eyedropper I picked colors from the cliffs, then I hit Cmd+I (Ctrl+I on PC) to invert the colors and adjusted them for hue and saturation. This gave a surreal quality to the waterfall which contrasted nicely and made it pop a bit to provide an area of interest.
I carried those same colors all the way down to create the little pool at the bottom, adding a bit more sparkle to the center directly below the sun. Water spray was added with a soft airbrush along the length and in the splash zone to add a hazy effect.
This was the original area of color that was blocked in from the smaller sketch.
I took the darkest colors and scribbled the tree patterns to suggest texture and detail. This took around 30-45 minutes working back and forth with lighter and darker colors until it suggested the forms of treetops. I worked along the top edges with a very small brush to indicate individual leaves and branches.
Then continuing with a strong highlight color, I added more details to the treetops to separate clumps of individual trees and then worked in the water section to extend the pool area and water reflections. This all took about another hour until I was satisfied the trees had enough texture to simulate thick foliage.
