“Moonfall”

“The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.”

― Tahereh Mafi

The original sketch

The idea was to merge a moon and a waterfall. I drew a sketch from a picture I had in front of me. The most difficult part was the transition from the moon to the water.
I began to look for suitable pictures of waterfalls and found one taken by Katie Kalmykova (@katie.travelvibes).

Only the background needed to be changed to better fit the night scene/ atmosphere. I did that later when it came to colors and atmosphere.

Matching pictures

First, I created the moon using a white crescent shape. I placed it in the upper third of the image, where I wanted it - the moon should decay from the top down to water and splash as a waterfall into the valley. If you look very closely you can see people standing on the edge of the gorge, probably tourists.
I removed them from the scene because I wanted to have as few distractions as possible in the artwork. After that, I fused the moon with the water. I did this by superimposing a layer of white strokes on the water, which you can see clearly in the picture.

Colors and atmosphere

Then I adjusted the colours of the artwork.
I replaced the bright sky with a night sky of stars and gave the moon a coat of yellow paint to make it glow yellowish. Then, as I often do, I lifted the dark tones, softening the contrast a bit. Finally, I blended the moon with the waterfall even more, using yellow color that dissolves into the waterfall, and blurred the foreground so that the focus is even more clearly on the moon. Then I added a glow to the moon. After that I was already very satisfied with the result. Tell me what you think.