Drawing the celestial canopy: Skyrme

skyrme /ˈskyr.me/ n.

​Etymology: Borrowed from the forest folks to describe the wooded borderlands.

​Definition: The celestial canopy; the vault of the night sky as glimpsed through a thick overhead forest.
​Skyrme replaces the native word for sky (khorum) when scouts enter dense, green environments where the true open sky is obscured.
​Example: Looking up at the stars through the dense green canopy.

Here is how I made it
I had to make sure that I got the correct angle using the point of view of the characters looking up the firmament. Here I roughly sketched some branches with different size and thickness. I also marked the borders where I would put the foliage

Then I started adding the base colors, this is a night sky scene so at this early stage I am already imagining what colors would work for a night sky without looking all too dark. I think sticking with this shade of green is a good choice.

The Nivukti world has binary moon it is necessary that I show that here. The glowing stars and ambient light helped define a good scene. This would look like an ordinary forest scene so I decided to add two of my most recent designed characters like Guvru and the baby Myrrku.

I really wanted to stop when all the detailed branches and foliage are already looking good and call it a day. But it took me a couple more minutes to adjust the colors of the canopy to give it more depth. I adjusted the opacity of some areas to achieve that. I thought I would be happy but the night scene is looking s little cluttered with no focus so I adjusted the light , the shadows and finally added the two characters. I took a little pause and when I got back I realized every detail is blending with the dark background the immediate resolution I thought of is to add highlights like some silver linings on the tree branches and the feline characters and I am glad I did. Had I stopped I would not be able to achieve this beautiful celestial canopy scene I call Skyrme.

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed your time here until next update on my personal project