Donkey Kong Country 2 - Ghostly Grove

This was painting # 55 and one that I've been mentally planning for a year. This is also the second painting I've made that fits into my video game series. This painting is based off of a level in Donkey Kong Country 2 called "Ghostly Grove." It's essentially a haunted forest and is my favorite level of any video game and has one of my favorite pieces of video game music attached to it. It's been this way since I was a kid and is probably due to my love of Halloween. Overall, I had a really good time making this one. I created it over the span of 2 days. The first day, I created the under painting using colored gessos (white, black, grey). I tried as much as I could do add a lot of details while looking at photos of the actual level in the game. This included the large ominous tree! The day after, once the gesso dried, I covered the canvas in a thin coat of liquid clear, then added a thin layer of color which was a mix of sap green, prussian blue, and van dyke brown. I wanted sunlight to filter through the trees, but particularly the large tree, so I applied some titanium white and created sun rays. After this was done, I painted the foreground, trying to add variety to my bushes and foliage. I was also referring to the video game level, attempting to paint some different bushes than I usually do, including ferns. Overall, I'd say this was my favorite painting experience to date. Not following along to a video and just using a photo and my own imagination as a reference/guide was extremely liberating. I also tried different brushes, different methods of creating bushes, and different color combinations. This experience also reinforced my desire to continue with my video game painting theme. 18x24