"And the sun became an abyss"

I work with lines pretty organically for environments, I usually have a pretty good idea what I want to make. and the overall sillhouette thanks to 3 years of doing over 30 location concepts a month for Daily Magic

I start with a skybox I hand paint and figure out the lighting situation, then move to shapes for the main elements

further refining

I paint in "layers" from back to front.