Author Freya Pickard needs a picture to portray a character in her novel Hrukham. I’m excited for another collaboration with this creative writer. I checked her collection of inspiration over on her Pinterest board and decided on a sunset grassland image. Freya shared that the image depicts the grassland of the southern plains. They are verdant and filled with life, but, from beyond their borders, an evil threatens that kills and maims and poisons the land. I’m sharing my process of painting the sunset grassland.

I began by doing a wet on wet sunset sky. I use a range of warm colors and leave the sun unpainted so that it shines brightly.

While the sky is wet, I painted the clouds wet on wet using a mix of Permanent Rose and Ultramarine Blue. I like how the clouds got some of the light coming from the sunset.

I used a dry brush to paint the grass from the bottom up. I wanted to create a mysterious feel of what’s beyond the grassland by painting tall curvy grass on the left and right side.

I added more value contrast and details on the tall grass. I look forward to seeing the image alongside Freya’s Hrukham novel. You can read more details here.