IMC 2011 Wrap Up

I'm putting the last bit of polish on this one. I'm still a bit unhappy with certain details, but if this were a real-world piece, I would have to eventually stop working on it. I did the finish over a scan of the painting using Photoshop. I experimented a bit with the a couple of custom bristle brushes. It's been a long time since I've painted digitally, so I'm a bit rusty.

I think this might look good as a small poster. I found a good deal on 12" x 17" cover stock prints with a local printer that I'll have to jump on by Friday of this week.

Many thanks to Ian McCaig, Greg Manchess, Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Scott Allie, Dan Dos Santos, Jeff Mack, Scott Fisher, Donato Giancola, and Rebecca Guay for their feedback and encouragement.

It looks like I'm on track for a Friday completion date. The priest's garb and staff kinda got away from me, but I wanted to take a chance on adding some complexity to those areas. I may go back in and simplify those parts. I'm almost done with the hands and face of the foreground figure. So much of this piece reminds me of Greg Manchess' mention of how getting the shapes right can be more valuable to a piece than the details.

I'm also trying very hard to resist the temptation to having a glowing object giving off blue smoke coming from the priest's left hand, like a beacon. Looking back over the previous stages, there were times when I probably should have stopped, like when the shadow sides of the figures were more abstract.

In spite of it all, having a somewhat solid structure on which to explore these little details and nuances has really made a difference on this piece. I was very lucky to have Ian McCaig, Rebecca Guay, Julie Bell, and Greg Manchess critique my first sketches.

I'm going to work a bit on my IMC 2010 piece, and then spend some time on homework. Lots to do tonight. And it's a warm night. My stay-wet palette, is finally starting to show sights of drying, but not a lot. I just realized that I'm painting in near-white pants without an apron. Might be a good time to change.

More progress…

I was up early this morning and decided to takeon the dragon's shell and the sky. The blankness of the sky had been bugging me, and I decided to go all out on areas suggesting patches of blue sky peeking through the purple haze. There's a kind of turquoise blue that I've seen in oils and acrylics that until now I've never been able to mix. This time I got pretty close. I worked with a mix of pthalo blue, titanium white, and cadmium lemon yellow. The darker areas have a bit of ultramarine blue. Some of my favorite dragon paintings have amazing, colorful skies. I also tried some warm yellows and oranges on the peaks of some of the ridges on the dragon's underside.

The rocks closest to the figures may need to be reworked a bit. They look like globs of dried poo.
I have a set of basic Golden Open Studio colors that I may experiment with on the remaining details on the skin of the acolytes.