Fear is gone joy has come - Illustration "Welcome to the Forest"

When I was little, I was afraid of dense forests.

Crooked branches seemed like monsters, tall grass promised unexpected surprises in the form of giant packs, beetles of strange shapes, sizes and colors, which only thought of biting me.

As soon as I looked at the grass, I already felt its six-legged inhabitants crawling over me.

It's good when you can watch nature from TV in the Animal Planet program, and I thought that this was enough for me to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Unlike my sister, who was ready to stand knee-deep in a swamp for a basket full of mushrooms, I still preferred to stay in the car, admire nature from the window, I thought.

The saddest thing about this is that I actually lost the opportunity to enjoy the unique moments of life, moments of unity with nature.

With a still naive childish look at her.

Now, when I look at charming pictures of nature and videos taken either in the depths of the sea or in the forest, I want to be in the place of the person who holds the camera in his hands.

It seems to me that if I were in the place of the person who shoots these masterpieces, I simply would not have time for all these shootings, because my schedule will be tightly packed with the enjoyment of God's masterpieces with my own eyes without taking my eyes off for a single moment.

Oh yes, I know what will be my camera - my easel or a more modest version - a sketchbook.

I will draw everything that my eyes see and write everything that my heart hears on paper that does not threaten suddenly discharge or accidentally break.

My heartbeat has already increased from the fact that I have already found myself in the forest and no, this is not fear this time, this is passionate love!

Yes, everything has changed dramatically and now I fall in love with these thickets more and more, and I really hope that in the near future, instead of collecting a herbarium, the beauty of which I enjoy in the city darkness, I will pick fruits in my favorite garden, and mushrooms that the forest generously gives, just don't be afraid to go and take it.

Now I know that nature is my home, which God created for my residence and from which, for stupid reasons, I often fenced off and moved away.

Now I am looking forward to new trips to the forest!

I used my favorite application IbisPaintX to create this illustration.

I chose A4 for the template.

I also used no more than three types of brushes, two of which I imported from Pinterest.

I like the effect of oil pencils and paper on illustrations, so I try to choose a brush with the appropriate structure.

The third brush is an ordinary airbrush.

It can be found in the set of basic brushes from the app.

Before creating an illustration, I choose a color palette so that the picture is atmospheric and has a more ethical look.

I'm looking for palettes in the same Pinterest.

First, I drew the trees that will be in the foreground.

Then I painted in a lighter tone the tree trunks that are far away.

I painted the leaves with a stamped brush, then proceeded to depict the character - an owl.

Then, for the morning atmosphere, I depicted fog between the trees.

In the foreground, I added a lot of grass, thickets, to load the bottom of the picture.

Most of all I liked to draw cobwebs and dew. With the same oil pencil, I drew thin lines, and then decorated with dew with a soft felt-tip pen.

This is the drawing I came up with.

By @rikarivka.