Monday, May 3, 2010

Of Gold and Morning Light






Here are some images I worked on to concept for a faerie-tale I wrote about two years ago. These images are about as old as the story. I learned a lot from these. I REALLY wanted to work on butcher paper for some reason. It's essentially brown-bag paper. I ran into a lot of problems, mostly with the paper not being able to hold up under the abuse. Each image is about 5"x7", chalk pastel.

5 comments:

  1. This is my favorite work of yours so far Justin. 5 X 7 is a wee size to work in. Perhaps working bigger would help the paper stress. I do not know though, not my medium.

    The third image is so expressive.

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  2. I like these too! You're doing great things with color —great atmosphere in all of these, although I think they get better as you scroll down.

    I do my figure drawings on bogus paper, which is not very different from butcher paper —it's probably worse, in fact. Most of my figure drawings are thrown away anyway, so I use cheap stuff. These little sketches deserve better.

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  3. Yeah, it was a project that I started a couple years ago. I had met this amazing pastel artist who did these TINY paintings and they were soooo tight and clean. I was convinced I could do it. My buddy said I probably shoudn't. But when someone tells me I can't do something or I get it in my head I can do something, it's one track mind land from there on out.

    I was pleased with these. I only did these and a few double page spreads as drawings only. I was planning on sending these to a publisher, along with the manuscript. A tight little package to hopefully get a deal from. I would still like to publish my stories, especially this one.

    Thanks, Christina. This is my favourite way to work. Each image was labouriously planned. I did multiple drawings for each and various colour studies. The one with the butterflies is actually a second attempt. I started painting one drawing I had made and realized it wasn't going to work. Frustrating. So I scrapped it and started all over. The very bottom image is the cover. If I get this published I'll repaint all of them with more reference and in bigger format, maybe 8.5"x11". I work with fantasy a lot, but faerie tales are where it's at. I give myself a lot more freedom of expression. Plus, it's easier to make lots of weird little creatures with crazy features and lots of character. I am really kicking myself for not using any reference with these images. I hate the folds and some of the colour is very bad, especially in the topmost image.

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  4. I enjoy these because of the danger involved. That's what a sketch is, for me - a risk taken that expands your knowledge.

    And DO shush about how you "hate the folds." The work is expressive and rich.

    And there's a reason why no sane person would ever compliment MY folds. "The horror, the horror..." And don't start me on anatomy!

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