The canvas for this one is 24 x 40. I've done a lot of smaller paintings recently and have been itching to do something this size. So I take the illustration and redraw it onto the canvas. This is a very time consuming process that takes me about 2 days to complete.
The first step in the actual painting will be to do the sky. I wanted the sky to look wild and unnatural so I went with purples and magenta. I find when doing the sky its best to use a damp sponge and just smear the colors together. It looks like a mess when your done, but as you start to add more elements it will clean up.
I added some stars to the sky, and then painted in a couple of bats fluttering around. I decided to make the moon a sort of gold color to make it work with the color of the sky. For the castle and the hill I decided to make it close to the sky color and a little blurry to make it look deep off in the distance.
Then I added a row of trees along to horizon and filled the rest of the background with a tangle of brambles.
I kept adding thistles and briars to the background trying to create a sense of depth in the area behind the characters. I made the ones closest to the foreground a pleasing shade of blueish green.
Now with the background done it will be time to start tackling the foreground elements.
