Here we are at the final. Instead of scanning the picture in I took a photograph of it with a good camera. However it still took some work in Photoshop to get the image to look as it does to the naked eye. After that I refined some edges and played with the color just abit. All in all I'm super pumped about working traditionally for this series. Check out the second photo in the post to see a sneak peak of who's coming next!
Frodo of the Nine Fingers Part 2
Watercolor Freak Out happens immediately when I start painting. My once pristine drawing becomes a wet and wild mess of colors. Shapes are flooding over their lines, stuff is mixing, no one's behaving themselves down there, I start to question why in the world I'm working traditionally.
What do I do now? I just look up one of those dumb Keep Calm and Carry On flags online and remember not to panic. I proceed calmly with more opaque layers of Holbein's Acryla Grouache. I then get into light prismacolor pencil action, subtly shading and lining where I need to.
In all honesty working traditionally can be a really relaxing endeavor. It allows, or rather you have to allow, time to think and evaluate your piece as it slowly takes form. I think of digital work like an action movie and traditional work more like a drama. Working digitally is expedient and puts tools at your fingers so fast that you simply can't say no to the "special effects." Working traditionally is can be more of a thoughtful narrative driven approach.
I think an answer to good picture making isn't so much concerned with the medium used but instead with the time allotted to make that picture good, make it say something and mean something. Next time: The Finish.
Frodo of the Nine Fingers Part 1
I would love this blog to be more "serial" like so I'm splitting this painting walk through into a few posts even though many of you may have seen the final product on instagram. Hopefully by doing this you all will see more current work and process from me.
To explain this piece and (hopefully) this Lord of the Rings series I'll give a brief intro starting with a question. Have you guys seen those old animated Lotr films? Weren't they awesome and slightly ridiculous at the same time? I love them. And as I think back on them I miss the obvious fantasy they portrayed. The Peter Jackson films were of course monumental in my middle school life and I appreciate the realism he brought to the stories. I hope however to go in a different direction, a direction that doesn't laugh at the ridiculous dog face orcs in those old animated classics, a direction in which fantasy can be fantasy and child like imagination can have it's say.
Why the Lord of the Rings? Every other illustrator has had a crack at them, what do I bring to the game? I don't know, but I don't care either, they're amazing books and I've got alot of love for them, so here it goes.
Thumbnail sketch and color study. After I finished this color study I really thought, "eh, should I even do a traditional work of art? It takes so much time and I have to get all my paints out and whine, whine, whine." Thankfully everyone on instagram was like "do it already!" So here goes:
Tight colored pencil drawing. Next post: Watercolor Freak Out and How to Address It.