“On the rocks”

“Good balance requires finding a way to assert harmony between the stability of solid ground and the openness of space.”

- Anonymous

The original sketch

After a colourful start into the year 2022, I decided this time for a very minimalistic image, regarding the content, but also the colours / saturation. The inspiration comes from Pinterest, one of my favourite sources of inspiration. The concept consists of stones on top of each other, a tree on the top stone and a rowing boat tied to the stone. At the very beginning I wanted to bring more animals into the picture (fish) & put a house on the stone, but that became too cluttered. After the sketch, the image search began. I love that I am flexible and can incorporate new ideas while editing.

Matching pictures

I searched on Unsplash for suitable images for the picture. First for a matching balanced stones. Most of the pictures were too dark for me, but after some time I found a suitable one. All the images I used are linked below, as always. After I found the right tree, it was a matter of merging it with the top stone. I managed this by creating my own grass with a matching brush. After that, I went wild with the cloud brush. ^^ Then came the moment when I decided against an additional house. Instead, I went in search of a boat and quickly found one. After I had cut it out, I inserted it and painted another line between the boat and the stone.

Colors and atmosphere

Because I wanted to keep the image relatively simple, I also adjusted the saturation of all the images. Especially the saturated brown of the boat bothered me a bit. So I desaturated it and increased the depths a bit so that everything looked more coherent. Finally, I decided to add a moon in the background.

I hope you like it. Stay surreal!