Raid at Dawn

Viking-style longships sailing in formation across a dark, choppy sea.
This piece took way more out of me than it might look at first glance. Getting the fleet to feel cohesive without looking copy-pasted was a real challenge—every ship needed subtle variation while still moving as one unit. The lighting was probably the hardest part: balancing that moody, stormy atmosphere with the warm glow of the sunrise without losing detail in the shadows took a lot of tweaking.
The water was another beast altogether—making it feel alive and dynamic, while still reflecting the ships and sky naturally, pushed my patience more than I expected. And then there’s the composition… placing everything so the viewer’s eye flows from the fleet toward that distant terror fortress