landscapes

Something a bit different. I've been doing these watercolor landscapes for an animation project- a film- and these will be used for some of the backgrounds (there will be animated figures in the foreground). So far I've also painted some textures to use for a map's water and land masses; a stretch of blue sky with clouds; and a smattering of shrubs and trees.
These aren't based on real landscapes I've observed; they're a blend of reference material and imagining. It took me a while to understand the scale- but I'm starting to get what they want. They said, We want to see your own style-- what would you paint? I had to remember how to tap into my illustration mentality, which was never that highly trained to begin with. I don't think I was ever a natural at following directions (one might say). Even though some have said that my paintings, with their precision, decidedly reflect an illustrator's hand.
These scans don't represent very well the shading and color in the originals. I will say, however, that doing these watercolors gave me the notion of going outside and painting landscapes I'm actually looking at, which I rarely do. I think it's because as much as I love nature and being outside, I usually leave that depiction to the landscape painters and photographers. I painted these scenes with the idea that they would be used as background to telling a story.