I was testing some new brushes that I had downloaded (made by Daarken) and a rough composition appeared. I smudged the trees a little before deciding to record my progress.


Colour was added on an overlay layer


A little detail was painted on the rock and sunlight was added on a new layer.


The layers were merged and a new layer created for the figure silhouette.


Very nice Eris. I love your smoky background.
I got rid of the foreground plant because it was badly composed. I turned that area to grass and used a texture brush to lighten the fire.


I defined the smoke and added shadow and glow from the fire then added some light values to the rock.


I refined the rock a little and added some light detail to the figure.


I added some simple colour to the figure but not too much because I want her to be almost a silhouette.


NOT FINISHED YET BUT NOT LONG TO GO!

Erisian - excellent; I am amazed at how quickly you produce these works.

Unfortunately, as an Aussie, I have to say that the subject matter (forest fire = bush fire) is something extremely frightening that confronts many locals every summer and tends to feature prominently in our news bulletins.

Thank you. I'm sorry if this work seems to be making light of a frightening and very serious problem. It is intended as a fantasy work in which a witch is deliberately starting a fire for some reason and isn't intended to relate to anything real. If it is in any way offensive to anybody, I will ask for the thread to be removed.

As Anmal would say ... NO NO NO ... it is NOT offensive.

I was not complaining at all, just making a comment on the subject matter; it just happens to be a topic that does, for obvious reasons, make headlines here and in the USA too, where they imported gum trees (eucalyptus) which grow with little water. Trouble is they catch fire and explode because of the oil in them.

Erisian - Please do not even consider removing the thread ... the topic is perfectly valid.

Sorry OMG. I think too much sometimes. Having said that though I would hate to produce something that causes concern to anybody who has been in a bad situation. Coming from England, I'm used to lots of rain and if there are forest fires, they are due to carelessness and not on a comparable scale to bush fires. I will continue with this and hopefully finish it. Thank you for your comments.

Fascination to see the progression and improvement. I would like to see the fire with a bit more reds and oranges, and the alien witch with clothes that are less conventional, lol, but other than that as my personal preferences, it's really well done.

nice outcome, Erisian!
may I suggest to use more red? it's a fire, isnt'it?

Thanks for your comments but I will need to find photos of outside fires because I can't remember seeing any outside fires with red in them. It will need some light yellow but before suggesting changes, can you please wait until I have finished the painting because each painting involves continuous changes of mind about things so none of us know what the finished image will look like.

here some photos for you





...and, about suggestions, I was thinking they were important during WIP time, not at the end, but if I did bother you, sorry, it was not my intention...

The problem here is that these are extremely serious fires giving off a lot of smoke which darkens the scene. In this situation, oranges will look a lot redder than in sunlight. Look at how wimpy my witch's fire is by comparison and see the sunlight falling through the trees.
You haven't bothered me but my artwork is first and foremost what I want to do for myself. I do like to share it and criticism is welcome at the end but at this stage, I would rather just take it my own way. Thank you for commenting though - that is important to me.

I love how good the fire looks! I think of Sleeping Beauty (Disney) with Malefecent. The Character have a nice pose too! The fingers need to be a little fixed I think, unless it's not a human then it probably doesn't matter.

Nice so far!