Pocahontas background practice

I thought it would be a good use of time to practice making backgrounds for animation. So I chose a piece of art by an artist I admire and did a sort of "master copy" type thing. So, no this is not mine. I mean, I did this, but the colors and layout and stuff were done first by another, much more practiced artist.

Though, this little experiment taught me tons about digitally painting. Firstly, that even though it is digital, by NO means is it faster. This took three whole days more than I thought it would. Also, I am pretty sure I soaked up a lot about color saturation, lighting, deep space, and textures. Especially when it comes to trees.... and foliage. Sometimes abstract is the way to go, and other times, you really gotta define stuff (like the up front leaves).

Towards the end, I noticed that I had come up with a system. I would take what I saw and count it as "middle tone". Then, on one layer push the lights (yellows) -because they were never bright enough.... and then on another layer push the darks (reds-blacks). I think I have the tendency to hate using pure black- and I don't know quite yet if that's a good thing or if it will cripple me in the long run, but I'm pretty sure I didn't use any 100% black in the whole drawing.

My favorite part of the drawing was adding the pinks in last. It was SO satisfying.

P.S. Thanks, David!