|
click on the image to open a larger version
Choosing which of these pencil lines to ink and which to leave in their graphite state is dependent on the overall mood I'm looking for. Since, early on, I'd decided that this image was going to be drenched in moonlight with a strong diagonal moonbeam flooding down onto the Faerie Queen herself, I inked most of the piece with a sepia tone rather than a harsh solid black line. The light brown of the sepia ink makes it easier to dissolve certain forms back into the moonlight-and-shadow mood that I was seeking. You may notice that all the fairy wings are rendered in a pale blue ink line. This makes it much easier to visually suggest the translucent look of all those gossamer wings. After years and years of painting with a transparent medium (FW inks) I've found that you can leave out many of the 'hard' pen outlines and replace them with pure color for a better effect. Of course, only experience and patience will tell you which of those lines to leave in and which to take out.
|
|
click on the image to open a larger version
Painting the first washes of color onto a piece can be an exceptionally scary process. I kept putting off applying those initial layers of color and worked on other projects for a week or two. At last I finally decided to jump right in and start painting. I mixed up a pale blue-gray color and washed it over most of the image except for those areas that were to be directly around the glowing lanterns and the interior of the Queen's moonbeam. A mono-toned wash of color like that will help to unify all the disparate pieces of your image. Also, if applied properly, it will give you a good sense of where your light source (or sources) is/are going to come into play throughout your image.
|
|
click on the image to open a larger version
At this stage I'm just trying to solidify the form of the tree since it is so central (both literally and figuratively) to the success of the finished image. Most importantly I have to establish the depth between the tree and the various other pictorial planes in the picture. Like I said earlier, with so many characters, both large and small, occupying the same composition you have to be very careful to choose which to spotlight and which to render in such a way as to make them part of a pattern of "secondary discovery" for the viewer. The diagonal moonbeams help to do this by throwing the multitude of faerie creatures cavorting through the limbs of the tree into color silhouette. All those beasties are still there but don't distract the viewer's attention from the central character of the Queen herself. The secondary light sources from the multiple lantern-carrying elves that fly throughout the piece help to establish a visual rhythm into other areas of the piece and are subtle enough to not distract the viewer from that moonbeam and its lovely inhabitant. This kind of piece, filled as it is with so many characters, is fun to produce as you can layer in lots of "hidden" stories amongst the multitude. With a patient eye you might happen upon the Japanese anime character Totoro (a favorite all-time film of mine!) as well as the dragon Balsaad from the ROSE series I did for Cartoon Books. I'll leave the rest of these hidden stories up to my discerning viewers to discover for themselves.
|
