New Illustration: Lost in Leaves

Ive been working hard on some new illustrations, a few are still in process and half painted. This is my most recently finished painting, a cover illustration based on the myth of Daphne & Apollo. Apollo was struck by Cupids arrow and falls madly in love with the nymph Daphne. She runs away from him and calls on her father the river god who, protecting her, turns her into a laurel tree.  Here are some photos of the painting process along the way. I started with a clean line drawing that I transferred onto my watercolor board with my homemade graphite transfer paper. Then I painted in washes of watercolor and used salt to create the mossy texture. The final touches were digital in photoshop to clean up some edges and emphasize some lights and darks in the atmosphere.