Geronimo Rough Sketch

This is the approved concept sketch for a project I am doing for Boys' Life Magazine. The story follows a boy in New Mexico whose best friend belongs to Geronimo's Apache tribe at the time when they were being forced onto the reservation. This scene depicts that final fireside chat before Geronimo surrenders and a separate small band of Indians escapes into the Mexico territory.

I want to create a dramatic lighting scenario as well as an interesting color palette. Frederic Remington did a whole series of these type of night paintings that I love and I hope to capture some of that same drama in this one. I am especially interested in the capturing the balance of the interesting cool greenish grays from the moonlight against the warm oranges that the firelight throws off. We'll see what happens, but I like where it's going so far. Just took photo reference, so now on to final drawings.

Get - Frederic Remington: The Color of Night