Desert Ruins

Matte painting based on a concept art by Jonathan Dufresne, check him out:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Dx5JnA

I gotta be frank, I had difficulties nailing the lighting and feel from the sketch while keeping it photorealistic. I was working on this considerably longer than expected.

At one point I had to scratch almost everything I've done because I couldn't find the middle ground. Then I had to decide if I want to go 1:1 but make the end result more cartoony, or change the mood and the look to make it realistic but deviate from the sketch considerably.

I've chosen the latter because realism was the goal I've set up for myself from the beginning, and I had more confidence in my skills to pull that off successfully.