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Painting Over A Blockout

Values first, then flats, shadows, light and the finish.

Brushes and a palette smeared with paint

Values First, Then Everything Else

Every world we paint starts in grey. Not because colour is hard, but because a picture that does not read in four greys will not read in forty colours.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The blockout is a handful of big shapes: the sky, the far range, the ground the traveller stands on, the traveller.

The grey blockout
The blockout: four greys
The flat colour pass
Flats: local colour, no light

Then The Light

Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Shadows go on as one multiply layer; the light as one more. Only then the texture, the weather and the red of the coat.

If it reads in grey, it will read on the store page at the size of a stamp.

Mara Lindqvist

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Mara Lindqvist
Written By

Mara Lindqvist

Environments, key art and the first paintings of a world. Lead concept artist at Illustra since 2012.

Two Comments

Noor HaddadOct 15, 2026

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. The four greys rule saved the menagerie more than once.

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Mara LindqvistOct 15, 2026

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem.

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