Jacobs Ladder

Following my illustration series of the 3 peaks, I wanted to further explore landscape illustration and the depiction of popular trails and routes in the U.K., particularly in different seasons.
I chose a walking route in the peak district, which has a particularly famous stairway up the mountain called ‘Jacobs Ladder’.

In this landscape illustration I experimented with capturing the atmosphere of this trail in autumn time. An interesting challenge with this in the U.K. in particular is that on the moorlands, while the grass remains green through autumn the heather on the moorlands turns oranges and browns, making the ground an interesting tapestry of colour.

Below is my initial tonal rough for the illustration, though I started to bring in a bit of colour experimentation, my final palette for the piece is much more vibrant, but the browner/yellower greens can be seen to start emerging here first.