Angkor - stage 1

At last! I am able to start painting again after a hiatus of three months......this is the piece that will go in Mike Pfifer's "Lands And Legends" book. This painting will to some extent be a hybrid between my Fantasy work of years ago but executed in my current relatively painterly style. This is a VERY rough preliminary drawing that has had a tonal Burnt Sienna/Indian Red underpainting over it to establish the approximate arrangement of where things are going. I am going to avoid using any cold colours and will probably employ a gamut map as explained by James Gurney to try and organise the colours to get across the atmosphere of hot jungle  and decaying ruins. Actually I have been there and the vegetation is not as lush as one would expect but here I am depicting how most people imagine it as I want a more fantastical feel to the picture. In line with my current plans for my work this year I am working bigger at 27" x 36" and is on MDF board as I could not find any pre-stretched canvas at this size or proportions.