The Skull-Binder

A definite return to my dark side. This was a monster idea I had held originally in an iron aged based 'fantasy world' project I had created a long time ago...but as I drew initial sketches of this piece I realized that it was best suited to a different personal project I was working on, the crusades with demons (basically). Not really a ground breaking or original character I'll admit, but nothing like painting a bad ass brooding demon.

Here are the stages and the process of my working, I don't always work in this way so its by no means a prefect recipe and was often defined a little too much by mood, patience and music playlists.

Stage one: Hand drawn sketch on A4 paper, based on references i readily researched beforehand.
Stage two: Added grey base over drawing to add shade and light as a black and white value painting.
Stage three: lose the drawing, detailed value and paint, flip the image to check and correct the form.
Stage four: complete the value painting, its ok but flat/grey, added colour and experimenting with ideas.
Stage five: flatten the colours, burn/dodge to strengthen shadows/light, adjust sizes, paint background.
Stage six: finalize the piece, quick tidy and armor highlights, mist separator and lighten focus areas.

So that was that, suggestions, comments and critiques most welcome and for now onto the next one.

Irish Mythology: Finn and Sadv

So in December and January I picked up an old book on Irish myths and Legends, so old it was missing its cover and its pages were sandy in colour and musty in smell. I remember reading it ages ago and it set my mind alight with vivid images that gripped my imagination, so I decided to try and illustrate these, so there is more to come from this.

One of the stories was about Finn captain of the Fianna, an elite group of guards that served the High King and defended the shores of Ireland before Christian times. Finn as his name means was fair haired and handsome, he and the rest of Fianna would often go hunting game with their wolf hounds. On one occasion Finn's hounds chased a deer into some old enchanted woods, he  followed and soon found them at an opening, sitting and guarding the deer, as Finn approached the deer transformed into a beautiful woman, her name was Sadv, the Deer Goddess. Sadv had originally been trapped in deer form by a dark magician of the old age but the spell had broken in the presence of her true love, Finn.

After the painting was complete I was compelled to paint what Finn looked like and the expression on his face, partially to add more of a storytelling element and emotional aspect but also because I had the idea of doing a banner or background scene for a Facebook page which would have an accompanying profile image related to the scene.

In later Posts I will share the process of my digital painting progression to show how I ended with these results and to hopefully get tips, suggestions, ideas, feedback and critique by breaking down the stages. Again I will return to Irish Mythology as a theme/source for illustrative paintings, so stay tuned by following.

Blogs don't die, just forgotten.

Lets dust the Cobwebs off this Blog!

I considered the idea of starting a new blog....but instead decided to return to this one which I left like an abandoned car, luckily blogs don't rust or die, well this one won't as I've decided to breathe some life into it once again. After months Painting late into the night or procrastinating on Facebook its time I found an alternative means of  expression and a better way to spend my time into the wee hours of the night.

So in last few months I've been writing, drawing, painting (digital and traditional), and developing other bits of digital media for fun and communication, including a return to 3D, mostly all personal projects, so I will do my best to recap my selfish actives and current bits and research pieces of 2013.

And for new  readers, these are some of my other links:

Portfolio
Twitter
Deviant Art