Would you believe me if I told you it took me 40 minutes to paint that rock? Honestly, on one hand it kinda sucks to slip right back into my old ways of taking forever to render, but on the other hand, it's almost therapeutic to layer on the paints and blend them out into nice gradients (I tried shorthands on the hill I wasn't happy with, but on the rock I'm happier. May still be a little too dark, but the high and low values are matching the ref. Another issue of proportions of light and shadow. Always had a bad habit of over-shading.

Anyways, I spent a while rendering the rock. It was relaxing, and I'm actually happy with the results when I take the time to do it instead of just doing rushed shortcuts. I'm just going to assume I'll get quicker as I get comfortable with the rendering process, but man, the rock turend out great. Looking forward to taking the time to render the rest. I know there's no cute naked cat/fox girls in this piece, so I understand if y'all get bored. Maybe I'll switch and start rendering another piece in tandem -- maybe rotate every week starting next week if they're not done. Either way, it's pretty sweet being able to dust off the rendering/grayscale cobwebs. Sure I'm finding old habits (over-shading and an aversion to lightening things too much), but I also have so many new techniques I've learned since January (especially since the Stormy render) that are turning out so well. Tomorrow I'll finish the other rock, then the bush next to it (and on the hill horizon), then the foreground hill, then the cliff-face for the rocky hill. Gonna keep trusting the process

And as a note in case anyone does read these, using a midtone tane canvas makes it so much easier to determine your light and shadow values. When it's on a white background, you end up framing every brightness value relative to white instead of relative to the full range of shades.

Maybe it would be fun to try pencil/charcoal/etc brushes, but I'm finally starting to get comfortable with the use of round mixing brush + painterly blender -- I just need to work on how to add a more interesting texture now. Tried some decoration brushes that I think work for the rock. Added a bunch of "ground" texture (it looks camo) to the surface and I think that helps

Maybe there's some correction layers I should add to the end too. I've seen a few techniques people do to make renders look like its on a textured canvas (like how the "paper" texture I use for my sketches is, but on top of the renders).

Reminder, this is a study. I didn't draw the original composition, I'm heavily-referencing another artist's work in order to learn how to get better at landscapes. I referenced the composition and the lighting choices while I try and recreate it in a similar piece of my own (using the same composition, but not traced)