Nature Fantasy Paintings? Click through to see the start of my new series.

Ordinarily I paint real things that have a photograph backing them up to give me some guidance. But in between those paintings, I like to deviate a bit and paint nature fantasy. I get to indulge in my love of fairies, wizards, elves, unicorns, and Water Priestesses.

Here’s the series so far. I’ll add to this page as I get them done. Scroll down the page to see the process for painting the first one. Links to the process pages for the later ones are included below this gallery.

• 

• 

Here is the link for the process page for Eye of the Storm.

Water Priestess, a Nature Fantasy

This one is a re-do of a scene I did with Prismacolor pencils a while back. The idea was to do all the elemental priestesses, but so far all I’ve done are water and tree (wood). Eventually I’ll get around to earth, fire, wind, and metal, too. No idea how to portray the metal with my earth pigments, but surely there will be a way.

Here’s the one in pencil:

Nature Fantasy Painting in Progress

So here’s the process of the one in Ozark pigments. Except for the form of the priestess herself, it isn’t going to look much like the original. I’ve only used the original one as a model. Since I don’t have blues or greens (yet), it’s all going to be earth tones.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Adding details

I’m adding a lot more details into this painting than I did to the original drawing. Perhaps I’m overdoing it a bit. But it’s also a learning endeavor for me. I’m figuring out what works and what doesn’t work- with my concepts, the paints themselves, and techniques I just want to experiment on. With the birds of prey, I don’t want to experiment so much. With nature fantasy, who’s going to know the difference? I get to create the whole thing, whether or not there’s anything to compare with in reality.

Here’s some leaf and vine detail:

The Horror of Painting Faces

I have never successfully even drawn a face of a human that I thought looked remotely human. So there’s nothing to explain the fiasco that resulted when I decided to put a face on this water priestess. I don’t know what got into me! After a full day of hearty laughter, to the point where my stomach was sore, I put it to bed. The next morning, I finally made the little change that helped a lot. Here’s the progression so you can share in the laughter. I’m happy with it now.

Lots More Work to Do

I’m going to keep working on faces, and it’s a different experience to paint from imagination rather than a photograph. Follow me on Instagram if you want to get the very latest. The links are below. I post not only my nature fantasy art, but whatever art I’m working on it to Instagram and then come here to fill in the gaps when I get the time. I also post photos from around the house. Once a painting is finished, I upload it to my Paleo Paints gallery.

https://www.wildozark.com/nature-art/process/