I brought in some colors to get the mood and lighting, and I added a house in front of the middle boat to give a better idea of the scale and add some mystery to the story behind the image. The sky and the ground are a few photos combined together with some painting; I always bring my camera wherever I go as it's often useful (Fig.05).


In a late fix for the composition, I removed the beam from the right ship since I thought it was too much and we could also get a better view at the sunset. It also helped to add more peacefulness to the scene, which is what I wanted at the start (Fig.06).


My favorite part of this whole painting was the last step. I spent most of my time detailing the boats, adjusting the lighting, enhancing the colors and again flipping my image a lot through the process to make sure everything was right here and there (Fig.07).

About Composition

Try to nail a good composition as quickly as possible. Even if your drawing is a mess or some random lines, you want to give a message without losing the eyes too much in your image. It can be useful to follow the rule of thirds; I personally found photography really helpful to get down with it as you can frame your elements in multiple ways and choose which one you think fits best. I didn't do this for this particular image, but let's say I kind of like putting my hands in hot water! (Fig.08).