In my job I am often asked if I can draw this or draw that. I can but not as well as those who are specialised in that field. I am a background artist so generally I do better with background art.

First Step

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The first step I will choose a few pictures as reference which is suitable. Then I will make a composition from the picture to obtain an interesting shot.

From the composition of the picutre I will try to do a process call tracing by using simple line brush to make it look cartoony.

Now we can start with the colouring process on the painting by using the photoshop software. The early process I will use the gradient tool to create the horizon. This is to help me get the mood for the entire painting.

I will use gray blue to form the clouds. For the highlight I will use orange and bright yellow to give more prominence to the brighter ares.

The process of forming the hills and mountains, I will use flat colour by using brown and orange. For the shadow on the area I will use dark blue with opacity fixed at 40% on the normal layer.

The part on the foreground colour on the earth I will use dark brown with a mixture of dark blue on the shadows. After that I will use lighter brown to do some detailing at the area.

Now this is the completed work. My advice to those who are trying out background drawing, it helps to have more reference material because it will give you more ideas on the colour concept and you can experiment with a few colours apart from the ones that I have shared. Keep trying and keep experimenting. Each artist will have their own distinct style.

For me, my style is the front few steps is just for me to get the basic idea and mood. I will usually use finer detailing to achieve what I want to achieve in terms of the quality of work.

credit to @zomagic