Background Concept Art

I noticed I hadn't really had a good think about what her environment would look like, now that I'm fairly sure my story wont change much, and that the story will start the day after the storm I decided to do a little photoshop painting of what possibly might be what the final background may look like.  With the use of different photoshop brushes and textures along with expensive research in colour of forests I had a go at practically my first background fully coloured concept art.

Process:

First of all I roughly drew out the layout of the scene, such as the trees, background and foreground and where exactly the pond was going to be, it had to be in the middle as it the centre of the story.

I then decided where the light source was coming from,  I chose the left as that is the most comfortable for the eyes to read, and I was the light source to connotate a positive reaction despite it's heavenly appearance at the end result.  I also started setting up the background trees and the misty background, it had to seem never ending.

I then started to colour in the foreground trees an illusion of depth is starting to appear.  Along with some use of textures on the trees to make them seem less flat.

I then started to apply the ferns and undergrowth in between the trees.  I also started to add some darker shades onto the right side to add a real light vs dark sense of the film.

I then added the much darker fern foreground and added a lilly pad and made the light and dark much more contrasted.  I was unsure whether to make the pond a pure blue or a mucky green.  Green does seem more natural but blue does make the pond seem a lot more special.  I will get some feedback to see if this sort of style is suitable for my film.