After wanting to work more in photoshop I went through a few of my older peices of work. In the past I have focussed on online one point within an image and paid more attention to the lines of the work than the colour. To challenge myself I have decided to paint a scene, using photo references:
reference 1

reference 2



I also found some tutorials for painting in order to get a better idea of painting styles:

tutorial 1
tutorial 2

tutorial 3

I did stay in the habit of starting with lines, but tried to break out of it as I progressed. There's is still more I could do with the image and the lighting but I have learnt a lot to do with the different methods of digital painting and was able to break out of my shell with it and gain some confidence in my work.

Psychology of colours and how they make the viewer feel:


I used darker and pale colours to give the image more of a mystical atmosphere, whilst using the contrasting colours of red/orange and green/blue for a greater impact.

Composition:
a basic western reflex that is taught to us is to read, not only words, but images from the left to the right. I took this into consideration with the layout of this image, having the story present itself as the viewer scrolls it from left to right. However, I also tried to include more subtle elements that the viewer would only find after spending time examining the image.

The lighting is the focal point of image, drawing the viewers eye to the center of image and then out around the rest of the image.