Purification Ritual

“Purification Ritual is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
This was a university project where we had to design card art for a purification ritual. The brief was " A vizier holds out a cupped hand, as their other hand gestures above it, molding and nurturing unseen energy. As sand falls from between the vizier’s fingers, the streams of cascading sand morph into water, spilling into a blackened, polluted pond. The pure azure surface is revealed as the water erodes away the corruption. "
I started with a few thumbnail sketches which I then developed 4 of them and really liked the one from an underwater perspective so I used a photo as a reference to get the angle right as well as textured brushes to try and create caustics and add to the underwater feel of looking up at the figure performing the spell.