STYLE STUDY - Kevin Dart (Patreon)

So here's another post type that I want to do for this Patreon and that would be a style study where I basically draw something with an artist in mind and then I analyze my process afterwards. This dedication drawing is based on a piece by Kevin Dart, more specifically his style of color choices.

For someone who is color blind (Yes the guy is and I still can't believe it), he knows a lot about color choice and mood. I noticed in his style that he uses very muted neutral colors accented with saturated colors. He doesn't shy away from using saturated colors as the dominant color though. What I noticed as well is that he uses white a lot in his pieces. The guy knows how to create mood through colors and lighting.

For this drawing, I based the colors on this piece of his depicting a sunrise/sunset (I believe it is sunrise basing on a cool to warm feeling). Initially, I thought this was a dual-complementary palette, but it is actually a triadic color scheme. The piece uses very desaturated and dark purples and blues with desaturated orange/reds as the dominant colors and then uses greens as the accent color.

There is a great balance between the warm and cool colors--the oranges/reds for the sea, sky, clouds, and that second building from the left; and for the blues/purples, the mountains and the closest building. I like his use of the accent color, only applying it to the balcony plants, flag, and in the mountains with a REALLY desaturated and dark green.

By studying Kevin's work, I realized you can do A LOT with desaturated colors in depicting mood. I hope to apply this more in my future work. I do need to study some more!

As a bonus, here's a layer breakdown of how I did my illustration!