The sunset - step by step

Here is the making-of of the next illustration for the Great Gardens of the God or Worlds !

This time, it's a landscape with a sunset. The drawing part is quite easy, because trees and clouds from far away are not really difficult to do - just some shapes not really demanding. But the coloring part is challenging, because a lots of different hues and shadows : the sky, the clouds, the river, the grass...

But let's begin, first let's set up the elements in a raw drawing :

Now we see where we go, I need to have some details even in the first raw drawing :

Now, it's time to ink ! No big challenge here, just some patience for the details of grass and foliages. I just need to have in mind the final result with colors I want, to know how much I need to put shadow with ink or not. Sometimes, it works very well with the color ; sometimes, it doesn't work at all and gives a result too "heavy". And frankly : I still don't really know why, so I still hesitate and make some mistakes !

And finally, after erasing the pencil :

So, now, here is the most challenging - but most fun - part ! The color !
I always begin to put some water with very light color on the drawing to prepare for watercolors :

I began by the first plan, but after some thoughts, I think now I schould have began by the sky, I think the tree on the left would have been better at the end.

For now, colors are pretty bright, like in broad daylight - so I need to darken a little bit with some light layer of purple, blue and black mixed. The sky will be difficult - I keep the sun with the white of the paper to get the greatest brightness of the whole picture.

And finally, with the shadowing of the clouds we got our sunset for the next chapter of the story !