This personal piece was inspired by a sheet of thumbnail sketches (below) which I made while illustrating the druids in The Bewitching of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes. Just for fun I also turned it into a cover for an imagined Young Adult fantasy series.
Below are some process images. I often work digitally but this piece was made entirely with good old fashioned gouache paint. I masked off the stones to leave them white, while painting the sky and foreground in bold brush strokes. Then, I used masking film to isolate the stones and masking fluid to protect the figure of the druid.
With everything masked off, I painted a dark base layer for the stones and created textures in lighter hues using a paint roller. I always love the magic moment of removing a mask to see what you're left with!
Finally, I painted in the details of the druid. At this point it felt as though the image needed a splash of red to create a focal point and well, things took a darker turn...
