IF-Summer surrender

Summer surrender:

How often is the summer days encroached upon by sweltering storms?

I admit I love the rain, but this can also be represented

by anything that ruins a good summer day!

(how ironic that I am talking about summer when I am snowed in)

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So I just found out classes got canceled for tomorrow...I hate missing class especially when they are art. Counting Thursday I will have been out of school for 4 days in a row due to this crazy snow storm. So this particular picture is a result of the sudden influx of time that is normally not available for exploration and technique improvement.

Technique:

The purpose of the illustration was to gain more control over semi-realistic color in a made-up large environment. Basically set the mood, and then build on top of it while still keeping the colors in sync. To get that I began by lifting a flat-even palette of LOCAL COLORS off of a photo:

As you might tell the colors are quite subdued, but utilizing colors from nature and from only one instant keeps the colors working with each other and not being over saturated or dark. I made sure to select colors from the same value range within the photo...which makes them all good LOCAL COLORs.

Next I painted the colors on my drawing and then utilizing the color picker toolbox I picked the color I wanted to make a darker version of it and then adjusted it in the toolbox and then painted it on. This is the result:

(As you might tell I also introduced some new LOCAL COLORS not on my pallette (such as the eye-whites)

Then I continued to push the range of colors both lights and darks up and down from the local color in a method I have learned over time. I also adjusted Color balance adding more reds in the shadows and yellows in the highlights.

and then after several adjustments from color balance, redoing the line-work, adjusting the content more and doing a final check with levels...this was the result:

Hope you enjoy. ^_^