WALKTHROUGH: Through a Window of Stars

EDITING ARIA FROM 2025: I apologize for how small the images in this walkthrough are. When it was first created on my old Patreon, you could right-click to view them larger but that was no longer the case when I retrieved them for this re-upload. I hope it’s still helpful for some despite the issue! <3

Hello Moonbeams,

Here is a mini walkthrough for one of the pieces I made for my series Love Across the Astral Plane for Gallery Nucleus' group show SALUT! 6 

I began by transferring my drawing to my surface using graphite paper.  

Once I had the rough transfer, I put down some layers of phthalo green and Prussian blue along with some salt to form the base of the starry sky. 

The water consisted of abstract, streaky patterns made up of phthalo green, Prussian blue, and my shadow shade (which is made of violet, ochre yellow, and Prussian blue)  

I use a lot of horizontal scribble shapes when painting water and I blend them together by using some clean water on a flat brush and gently scrubbing at the paint so that it blurs. This technique works best when the paint is still wet, or when I am working on a watercolor ground prepared surface (which I was) 

For the boat, I worked with a size 1 Hwahong brush and a 20/0 Princeton Velvetouch brush to get the smaller details. 

I used a bit of white watercolour/gouache and some watercolor ground for a few of the bright reflections and splashes in the water.  I also painted the mountains and rocks.  

The mountains and rocks consisted mainly of my shadow shade with some bright yellow and a bit of phthalo green accents.  I used a lot of salt on the mountains to get their texture and then used a size 1 detail brush to paint in additional details.  The little pine trees were painted mainly with my size 1 brush and the same colors of paint as everything else.

To paint the transparent bat wings, I first painted the parts of the mountains that would be showing through them, using less saturated paint. 

After that, I put down a very light wash of my shadow shade, allowing it to be blotchy and uneven for more texture.

I then took my shadow shade and mixtures of phthalo green and painted in patches of colour, leaving a light layer between the patches to create the web.  

Some of the edges on the web patterns within the wing looked a bit harsh at first so I used some clean water on a size 1 Hwahong brush to soften them.  When softening edges like that it is important to use very little water.  The brush should be just barely damp otherwise you risk destroying the details with too much water. 

And here is the finished 4x4 inch coaster!  Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of this piece as well as all of the others in this series was the little foil stars.  In person, they glitter and shine beautifully, but they do not translate well in scans, or in photos unless the photo is taken at an extreme angle.  This led to me needing to recreate them digitally which was such a learning experience and one I am very glad I had the opportunity to play with!

I hope you enjoyed this mini walkthrough!

Be well,
~Aria ☾