Digital Painting... Lesson 2...

I'm actually starting to get the hang of using these graphic tablets, although it is only my second time using them. I decided that i would develop one of my thumbnail sketches in class today, so i bought the sketch into Photoshop to use as a template. At first, i thought to myself, where do i start? but after just scribbling some grey and brown shades over the rocks and adding a rcoky foreground, i well away. i was fairly happy with what i was doing, but going over the same bits with different shades felt like i was going round in circles. This wasn't the case though, as i was soon developing some texture with the layers building up. But, when I added the blue light and reflected it onto the rocks, i was amazed with the effect. this is defntely something that would take ages for me to create with pen and paper, but in one lesson i felt i was real bringing my sketch to life. As i continued to develop the foreground, rocks and the blue light, i started to wonder when i should stop. So i asked Phil how i should create the path, insted of answering this question, he gave my some much better advice. He showed me how to create a better composition as he explained this would make our work look much more professional. he then went on to show me by creating another layer and working over the top of what i had produced. i wished he would have kept the layer there when he was done because it made my work look truely amazing, in about 5 extra minutes :P but unfortunately he deleted. I'm definitely going to go back and work on the composition of this image as i really felt like it was going somewhere. This advice and practice should help me develop some great prepapatory concepts to chose from. cheers Phil...