Here is revised color key image. It's not perfect, but it's better than the previous version. This image can still look better, but I spent way WAY too much time on this. There were some significant time lags on this project, and right now, I think I can get more out of this if I stop it and end it here and start working on a new project. So here's the project of the underwater cave. More to come soon!

Color Key:

Black and White Thumbnails: 

Linedrawing with Callouts:

Linedrawing: 

Thumbnails: 

 

So as I spent some time working on the color image, I began to notice lots of little painting problems. One of them was that I was having some issues with painting values. So I went back, I took some time to look through some value paintings that were similar to what I was trying to achieve. I spent some time painting them, and kind of studying and learning from them. I set specific goals to try to learn from each one, and then I did a few iterations until I felt like I had learned what I needed from the given painting. Below are a few that I worked on, along with some of the goals that I had set for myself. After each iteration, I would analyze where I felt like I had made a mistake, and what I needed to do to do better the next time around. 

Now here are some very rough thumbnails.

These are some line drawings that show the concept fleshed out in more detail. People walk down the stairs and up onto the platform to be turned into a water elemental.

This was the first image that I decided to work with/flesh out.

This was my first rough attempt at working out this space. I picked one of the thumbnails with the small statue. This is my first attempt at fleshing it out in an isometric view.

Then I went through a few iterations.

So I've moved onto the line drawing phase now. Here's an isometric view of it.

Well, new project, new piece of work. Here's what I'm working on.

I came up with the idea of a magical grotto where people kind of willingly enter, give up their old lives, and are transformed into water elementals.

Here's my moodboard:

Here are he rough sketches: