Skyine color thumbnail 01

More commission development work. A very important element of commission is the setting which is the Fallout Equestria universe. The character is flying past the ruins of Canterlot not too long after its destruction. Even still the skies are starting to become covered with a constant haze/ cloud layer as the surviving pegasi cities attempt to cloak their location.

The pink mist has poured out of Canterlot and fills the valley below even as the spell continues to slowly generate more of the dangerous vapors. I had the client's character fairly worked out Skyline studies 01  Skyine bust studies 01 and I had already done several study sketches of Canterlot for other projects Canterlot Palace aerial view 01  Canterlot study Cruising to Canterlot what I needed to do now was combine all the elements into a composition that was visually interesting and still conveyed the necessary information to a viewer who had read the Fallout Equestria stories to identify the setting.

I did several very quick possible ideas for the piece and sent them to client for their feedback. They liked the top design so now I just needed the to settle on the color palette for the piece. One of my inspirations for this piece was Michael Whelan's cover art for "Moreta Dragonlady of Pern" I just needed to make the sky more jumbled and full of clouds.

Now different artist will use color thumbnails for different things. For myself I use it as was to verify whether certain elements in the piece are going to work the way I think they will in the final piece. Also which colors will I need to have present to render the picture. They are fast, sloppy and very rudimentary in execution but they can really save me a lot of heartache before start on a finished piece.