Create Web Sites

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Monday, 16 July 2012

Kalimpura

Posted on 21:50 by Unknown
-By Dan dos Santos


A few months ago, you may remember me mentioning that I was working on a large painting, and really trying to loosen up. Well, I finally finished the painting, and though I didn't loosen up quite as much as I had hoped, it was still a really fun experience.



The job in question was 'Kalimpura', the third installment in Jay Lake's 'Green' series. In this volume, the antagonist packs up everything, including her two children, and ventures back to her home country.



The idea of a single mother, with all of this burden quite literally placed upon her, really struck a cord with me. Given that she is an assassin, I immediately had visions of Lone Wolf and Cub. I knew I had to show her as a Warrior Mother, protecting all that was precious to her.





Here are two alternate sketches that weren't chosen. One has a little more action. The other, more mystery. Ultimately, the Art Director chose a sketch that I felt was a good balance of both these themes, and accentuated the importance of the 'journey'.



The themes, and local, of this novel had a notably 'Orientalist' feel to them. Thinking along these lines, I wanted to paint something full figure, outdoors, with a strong sense of spacial atmosphere.





The trouble with painting loose, is that it means I have to paint a lot larger than normal, or I just can't get the necessary amount of detail in the face that my clients expect of me.







Logistically speaking, painting big usually isn't great for deadlines. It simply takes more time to cover that much surface. Plus, there's a lot more STUFF to paint. In this case, it took me about a week and a half longer than I normally would spend on an illustration.



I started with an abnormally loose underdrawing, in the hopes that it would force me to loosen up some. And it did... a little. But ultimately my OCD got the better of my intentions, and I ended up rendering everything way more than I should have.



In the end (and I say that reluctantly, as I feel like I can keep working on it forever), I'm fairly happy with the result. I tried a lot of new things that were out of my comfort zone, and discovered a LOT of weaknesses that I now know I need to work on.



Below is the final product, and how it looks with type treatment alongside the others in the series.





Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • IlluxCon Lecture, part 2
    by Petar Meseldzija Emotion in Art This image is taken from Christopher Burdett’s blog ……. In order to explain properly these three stages ...
  • Paja Jovanović ( Vršac 1859 – Vienna 1957)
    by Petar Meseldžija Paja Jovanović is one of the greatest Serbian painters. Uroš Predić, another great painter, is perhaps the only artist f...
  • Painting Spider-Man
    By Paolo Rivera Mythos: Spider-Man, Page 22 . 2007. Gouache and acrylic on bristol board, 11 × 17″. Just a quick post today (but with lots o...
  • The History of Dragons in Art
    -By William O'Connor 'Flight of the Paladin', by William O'Connor, ©2012 The most iconic image in all of fantasy art is the ...
  • Frank McCarthy
    -by Arnie Fenner While putting together my previous post about movie posters, scratching my head and trying to remember who did what, I a...
  • Paleo-Illustration Into Creature Design, A Natural Partnership
    -By Terryl Whitlatch I am first and foremost, a paleo illustrator specializing in vertebrate, or back-boned, animal anatomy.  When I observe...
  • Bill Nelson Art Book
    A few days ago my friend and fellow creative Bill Nelson sent me an e-mail announcing his latest art book. Some of you may already be aware ...
  • Happy Birthday !!!
    Muddy Colors turns one year old today! Traditionally, first anniversaries are celebrated with 'a gift of paper' . So that's what...
  • Alien Portraiture
    By Terryl Whitlatch Towards the end of my tenure at JAK films (aka the Star Wars—the Phantom Menace Art Department), I started to work on ot...
  • Sketchbook 2012 Shipping Out!
    by Justin Gerard Sketchbook 2012: Ents & Orcs  ships out today!    The first 50 are individually numbered and have a personal drawing in...

Categories

  • Dan dos Santos
  • Justin Gerard
  • Paolo Rivera

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2012 (266)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (36)
    • ▼  July (33)
      • Kim Jong Gi
      • BIG Bucks
      • Eric Fortune Mentorship
      • It Ain’t Easy Being 3D
      • Guest Blogger – Vanja Todoric
      • Inspiration
      • San Diego Comic-Con 2012
      • 10 Things I Remember...About Tracing
      • New Work for DragonCon 2012
      • 'White Trash Zombie' Prints
      • Painting the X-Men
      • Muddy Colors Welcomes, Paolo Rivera!
      • Summertime, Savannah, and some Toile Tails
      • I Think the Internet Broke My Brain
      • WIREZ PLZ
      • Du-da-du-da-du-da-du-da: BATMAN!
      • Physiognomy
      • Kalimpura
      • The Secret
      • I'm Too Dumb to be an Artist
      • The Golden Apple-tree and the Nine Peahens
      • Gallery Opening
      • Auction to benefit Cyril Van der Haegen
      • The Mongolian Wizard Series
      • The Digital Silmarillion: Joining the Dark Side
      • The History of Dragons in Art
      • To “People” a Planet — The Age of the Styrah
      • Interview with Ian mcQue
      • ARC Awards
      • Harbor Bandit
      • Happy 4th!
      • 2012 IlluXcon Scholarship
      • Summer Vacation
    • ►  June (36)
    • ►  May (36)
    • ►  April (26)
    • ►  March (31)
    • ►  February (30)
    • ►  January (34)
  • ►  2011 (234)
    • ►  December (25)
    • ►  November (34)
    • ►  October (36)
    • ►  September (27)
    • ►  August (29)
    • ►  July (35)
    • ►  June (31)
    • ►  May (17)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile