The Ramparts of Al Kazaar - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

Another of my fantasy landscapes/cityscapes with the emphasis on the sky, this one is set in the desert which is a nice change from the last one, "Agharta", which was set in the frigid mountains of Tibet. There are connections too to another earlier painting called "City of the Sky People" in that the lower landscape was centred around the flowing curves of river meanders, in this one it will be the curves of sand dunes. The lighting design for this one is everything in the bottom half will be in shadow with the late afternoon sun hitting the very tops of the ramparts and buildings and the distant thunderclouds only. I will base the colours around an orange/blue complementary axis with the colours kept subdued apart from the distant thunderclouds.
Al Kazaar does not exist of course and is a nod towards my love of Orientalist paintings including the slightly overblown title reminiscent of a title to an Edwin Weeks painting from the Victorian era.
Stage 1 was "drawn" with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin .
Stage 2 was painted mostly with a rag using the same paint mix but thinned with turpentine and an old synthetic 3/8" flat brush.

Stage 2