Damask Dawn at Ocracoke

The landscape and the clouds in the image below have been adapted from two separate photographs:

(Click to enlarge)

The conceit of the picture is that it was taken from the sound west of Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, looking eastwards towards the ferry and the Coast Guard station. It is just before dawn, and Venus has risen ahead of the sun.

The sky is patterned with the Damask tile (right), with clines applied to the brightness and color tones to create a chromatized pattern in which the lighter area is closest to the hidden sun.

The clouds have been masked so that the Damask pattern seems to be behind them.

The final addition to the image before the chromatized reflection is created is the Morning Star, which has been added manually.

The area where the artificial reflections meet the shoreline is finessed by applying a layer of mistiness, as described more fully in the notes for “The Jewels of the Sunset”.

Below is a detail from the image showing the Coast Guard station and the ferryboat: