Step Five
In this stage, I’m adding detail to the background and middleground, and strengthening the lighting and composition. The leaves of the trees follow the curves of the branches. I keep harping on the composition thing because it’s very important to making your picture work as a harmonious whole.
Step Six
At this stage, I’ve spent a couple of hours on the tree, adding detail, texture, and colour. I’ve really intensfied the colours near the rats, where the bright light catches some moss. I added tighter detail towards the center of the composition, but left things looser and more ambiguous around the edges. The rats, when complete, will have the tightest details of all, and the brightest colours. For now, though, I’ve just sketched in the most important shadows on their bodies, using some browns sampled out of the tree.
Step Seven
This is the home-stretch, now: I’m almost done! Here, I have blocked in the main areas of light and shadow which define the rats’ bodies. I’ve used a yellow that’s slightly cooler and brighter than those in the background for the highlights, and an orange-red that’s slightly pinker than the background shades to make the rats stand out without clashing. The idea is to have the figures suffused by the background light without being overpowered by it.
Step Eight
I’ve almost finished up with the rats now–just a few little details left. First, however, to make sure the rats fit the background as well as possible, I’m going to take a few of the colours I used on them and put them in the background.
Step Nine
Here you see the finished work. This last step was very quick–I just added a few spots of ratty colour to the background, and made sure the moss on the tree came up over the rats in a couple of places, so they don’t look stuck on.
Article by Socar Myles.
