Learn how Nat Monney created this incredible image with brushes and colour control
Focus on shapes to begin with. Doing this in monochrome allows for some good general values while drawing, which is harder to achieve with colours.
This can be a very complicated step, but it’s a good idea to decide on colours pretty early on as it will help to direct the tone of your image. Add colour and experiment, but don’t be afraid to do so quickly.
This can be a very complicated step, but it’s a good idea to decide on colours pretty early on as it will help to direct the tone of your image. Add colour and experiment, but don’t be afraid to do so quickly.
This step took some time, as I tend to lose myself in detailing and refining everything in the picture. The key is to keep a constant level of detail throughout the whole image.
I painted more saturated colours and increased the contrast in the background. Creating cold colours on the shadows breaks the monochromatic feel and adds variation.
In this step, the background was too bright and had too much contrast, so I reworked the horizon and refined everything. The fog was added into the composition to help add mood.
This step is about adding effective lighting effects, such as sun rays and light blurs. I darkened the left side because I wanted to force the attention onto the flag, where the biggest contrast stands.
For the final step, I wanted to create a good ambient atmosphere, harmonised colours and a nice polished draw. I added some purples to get great variation and something more dramatic.