Mystic Mountain Lion

I just wanted to practise a bit when I was finished with my exams and used this fantastic photo by RobertoBertero as reference:



I need to practise more with balancing the colours, values and details of a drawing. Also composition is something I need further practising with. However; taking a reference is relatively easy compared to composing a picture myself I tend to fall back to the typical beginner-mistakes so I need to practise these things so that I learn to control myself a bit more.
 - I couldn't resist to add a cougar and some birds

I have used the three basic photoshop brushes - the soft and hard round one and a hard square one. I just played around with some settings to get the effect I wanted. I only used two special brushe; some kinda grunge brush go get some texture effects and one I made myself, that creates a few parallel lines with some texture dual brush stuff. I learned that you actually can draw everything with relatively simple brushes and without smudging, dodging or burning. It took me approx. 4 hours or more, I don't know. I was in a learning process anyway.

Btw, for those who read my comic, Theory of Mind; I'm sorry that I couldn't update the next page before I go on holiday - I was busy packing and had no time for the finishing touch and checking the language. I'll be back around the 10th of July.