far over the misty massif high (Patreon)

february has been a big art month.
like i think i've literally just been drawing all month.
and i still have like two more big projects to go plus maps plus character art
whee.
audiobooks have been getting me through it. they're good for the writing voice. and the sanity.

the good news is that the results are great for showing off. one might think i'd have posted them sooner, then, if i've been doing this all month. but one would underestimate my perpetual complex of waiting to finish the just like last 4% of polish before wanting to post.
also there's something to be said for focusing less on pressuring myself to post at arbitrary intervals and more on just getting this thing to a playable point for you all again.

so there'll be more soon but in the mean time, have a background.

i've never painted one like this before. i always used to hate painting style-- i didn't understand how to go about it and i found mixing physical paints unruly. so i shied away from it even in digital art. the backgrounds we made for the demo in starlight even were rendered in a style more befitting of character art-- sketch, line, color, shade, ship. 

taking a painted approach and just feeling out where it's too dark and too light is easier though. and more fun. i'll probably keep trying to learn on that, and i'll hope that it doesn't look too distantly removed from the cell-rendered look of the existing backgrounds.

i'll probably have to darken this in game, so you might only see the full brightness version here. or, we'll see how it works out.

here was my original sketch, from a two hour ungabunga flurry of anxiety. you can see a couple parts where i then started trying to refine the rough shapes and feel out the style of how i would draw in greater detail.

after that it was just a matter of going through each section to feel detailed enough when zoomed in, workshopping the contrast, and desperately trying to not make this feel out of place in an otherwise cell-shaded game.

more whenever i feel like posting.
quiet love and gratitude to you all in the meanwhile <3