Contrasted by a fairly simple background, this piece delivers detail in the foreground as well as the middleground. The end result is only a shadow of all the work that was put into creating this piece, and I am going to guide you through how I did so in this article.

Making the Outline

First, the outline is created using a simple graphite pencil and eraser. This is arguably the most crucial step. Fortunately, it is also the most forgiving part of the process.

I started by first creating the horizon, which gave me a sense of direction in creating my composition. I then created the outline of the giant mushrooms and added the outline of a few big mountains (which you see as the dark blue outlines in the mountains of the finished product). I then created a simple outline of the clouds.

I take a while to review the outline, making sure it’s clear to the viewer what’s going on. The outline is the foundation of the rest of the drawing. If my outline is crappy and I don’t fix it a myriad of problems can arise later in the process.
Pushing the Creative Boundary 

If the idea of mushrooms the size of Mt. Everest towering over the surrounding mountains isn’t creative enough for you, wait, because there’s more!

I decide to give the mushrooms the appearance of emanating energy, choosing the form of a blue electricity. I also decide I’m going to make the mountains look very colorful and try to create the illusion of iridescence as well as add a lot more detail. Lastly I decide to make the sky look like its attached to the clouds as if the sky and clouds were some kind of technological mechanism.  I erase some of the graphite surrounding my mushroom outline, this allows space for the electric looking effect. I add in the blue electricity, color in the sky, and do a little of the shading on the mushroom caps to keep color from the mountains I’m going to shade later from overlapping onto the caps. What I have at this point looks like this:

Coloring the Opal Mountains 

I decide the on my color scheme for the mountains and get to work. This part took the longest. All the outline had to be erased and replaced with a colored pencil outline. This new outline was also multicolored and I blended the colors red, yellow, green, and blue together to create it. I decide to fill the mountains with the blue color.

I work thoroughly, adding touches of red and yellow in the blue shading for an added effect.

Eventually, I finish coloring the mountains.

Now for the final bit, shading the mushrooms. I just darken spots up a bit, even adding a bit of graphite to the stem of the shrooms. Yum.

Here are some detail shots of the final product:

Thanks for reading!