Sketchercise #73

Here's a scene from last week's Sketchercise, I titled 'Celestial Anomaly'; & here's my piece from the previous week... Before I had any idea what I was going to paint, as usual I did a quick search through some of my categorised reference folders; but found nothing that sparked my imagination off... I did a quick Google image search for "epic scenes" & came across this image as a thumbnail, a few rows down... At that size, I wasn't sure what it was or where it was from, but from what my brain interpreted of the image, the scene below was what suddenly jumped into my mind... at least an idea of it anyway...

Vers 01...

Vers 02...

I knew I wanted our view-point to almost feel as that of someone (... say a shepherd) stumbling across & secretly being witness to some sort of celestial anomaly taking place in the still of the night, on his way back to his village.

This 2nd version is really just the same image, but without the dark, sinister-looking wispy things; which originally were a slightly off-white colour & represented 'gusts' of wind... Decided not to go with that (which may or may not have been the right choice), & opted for 'tentacles... No, you're right, let's just say they're dark wispy things, same as before... Lastly, I wouldn't necessarily say this is a hostile event... I actually imagine the suspended megaliths & debris are just gently floating there, slowly circling the light-source... What do you think?

Line-work...

-M-

Sketchercise #72

Here's the scene I came up with for last week's Sketchercise #72. "Silent Scouts". And here's the previous one... I call them "silent scouts', but I'm imagining these crafts would give off a single-note 'whistle' sound as they enter hearing range... I think that'd be pretty cool... and eerie.

-M-

Sketchercise #71

Hi folks! Late to make this post, but here's what I worked up for, not last week, but the week before's Sketchercise...

Final piece...

Again, as with my last piece,  I really wanted to get away from structures I was more comfortable rendering, so I chose to have the location be a city-scape of high-rise buildings & some sort of ledge... I'm not gonna lie, within about a half hour of roughing out several compositions, I was already gritting my teeth in frustration (not a fan of drawing city blocks... you try it!). Anyway, after a little while, I managed to nail down something I was happy with & could see working... (Line work done)

Linework...

Mood-wise, I originally went for a twilight lighting setup, but then decided I wasn't getting any or enough impact from it; there was no drama & no suggestion of what kind of city this was... Had a little play around with the contrasts & found the more I increased it, the grittier & moodier the scene got. At that point I could tell, to get across the atmosphere I had in my head, it would definitely have to be a 'night' scene...

Reference board...

Coincidentally, I'd actually been doing a little research on the BG artwork of BTAS (Batman the animated series 1992), as well as having just recently watched The 1990 'Dick Tracy' movie, staring Warren Beatty. Both are clearly set in the same period & I found I was able to draw inspiration from each for the 'look' I was after.

I've been a HUGE fan of BTAS since it first started airing over here in the UK, & still am.
Loved everything about it; the engaging stories, the dynamic character personalities, the character design style, & classy Art Deco architecture/ period... The general lighting & 'moodiness' given to Gotham, which was actually dubbed, "Dark Deco" was definitely something I was drawn to also, stylistically... Visually, there really was no other animated kids show like it at the time.

... I feel myself slowly getting carried away sharing my love of this show, so I think I'll leave it here for now & dedicate an entire post in homage to it & it's creators another time... Look forward to that soon!!

Below is the incredible Harrison Ellenshaw (legendary matte painter) adding the last little touches to this matte for 'Dick Tracy'  [...this is either him or his dad... the other legend!].

-M-

Sketchercise #70

Howdy! Here's Monday's Sketchercise! Thought I'd pull myself away from doing rocky terrains for a change, & work up a location that looks a little more inhabited... So I came up with this; some sort of strange castle-type fortress. The one key thing I had in mind before putting anything down was that I wanted some sort of construction towering over us... After a few rough sketches, I settled on the object being a tower. I wanted it to be the main focus of the scene, with pretty much nothing else near it or close to it's size... So from there, I knew it'd be best to have the sky mostly bare, as the scene would look too busy otherwise, & would disrupt the balance of shapes; not to mention, distract from the focus of the tower... Lighting-wise, I originally started this piece off as a night time scene, but then somehow (adjusting blending modes etc) decided the lighting I already had worked up, worked better for a daytime setup.

Not quite sure what this tower is, but I had decided that it was somehow carved/ constructed out of a giant crystal (hence the surface smoothness towards the top), & was some sort of ancient power source. With the lighting at the peak, I imagined due to the smooth crystal surface, it would reflect other highlighted clouds opposite it (off screen). Finally, as I wanted to convey a strong sense of scale, at the very end, I made a little swipe of a grainy textured brush to represent a flock of birds way up in the sky... that's about it ;)

Here's Sketchercise #70

-M-

Sketchercise #69

Hey all! A little late to post this one up, but here's Monday's Sketchercise. My process on this piece was a little indecisive... It started off as one thing during the early blocking out stage (with the very same shapes, but a completely different perspective), then ended up transitioning into this... I'm sure it's worked out better though...

Here's Sketchercise #69

Theme: "Landscapes"
Session topic: "Epic Scenery"

-M-

Speed paint #10

Here's Tuesday's Sketch-ercise...

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-M-

Speed paint #9

Hi guys, here's Monday's sketch-ercise... Originally thought I was gonna end up with some sort of misty lake-type scene but then my hand did this... There's an awesome vid of American painter/ illustrator George Pratt where he explains, "if I just dive in & let the line- let the drawing tell me where it needs to go, I'm open to more happy accidents... trust your instincts"... I try to take this on board as much as I can these days... George is an amazing talent; he gives great advice & is also a real nice guy- check out some of his online video workshops if you get a chance [definitely worth it].

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-M-

Speed paint #8

Here's a study I managed to squeeze in over the weekend since I missed my session lastweek Thursday. Had no idea what I was hoping to end up with on this one, except the lighting I wanted & that it'd be based above cloud level. Started blocking out random shapes & somehow ended up with this monstrosity of an airship...

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Just for kicks [purely my own I'm sure], there's actually a little story in this; if you look real close you'll see what appears to be a group of dots huddled together on the far left side of the image... those are smaller ships... you'll also notice quite faintly, the lager ship has a front cannon deployed which is smoking... Just at the tip of the airship, notice something falling from the sky.......? No...? Aaahh f'geddit!  Have a great day folks ; )

-M-

Speed paint #7

Hi folks. Here's Wednesday's study... Hopefully make up for Thurs/ today over the weekend. Out celebrating a friends birthday this eve, then tomorrow having a long overdue outdoor photography session with a good pal; may share some pics on here next week [should be fun]. As always, wishing you good people a fun filled weekend too ; )

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-M-

Speed paint #6

This morning's speedpaint session. Spent a little more time on this one as I kept getting distracted... Note to self: "Don't ever again log into Skype whilst working!" [Thanks Bernie!] ; )

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-M-

Speed paint #5

Mornin' folks! Hope you all had a fun weekend & ready to start a fresh new week...? Good stuff! Here's this morning's warm-up study.

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Have a Blessed day!

-M-

Speed paint #4

Hey folks! Was out super early yesterday morning at the airport [sadly no not flying, escorting] so didn't have time to do my morning session. Made up for it this evening though, so feel I've now earned the right to retire for the day... A little about this quick study: Was doing some research on rainforests this week & found some great images. There's so much beauty & mystery in these places, from the vibrancy of colours, the misty canopies of those colossal trees & variety of wildlife [absolutely amazing]... I wanted to try & capture some of this in my morning study, so here it is. Would definitely love to develop more concepts like this in further detail, although the real dream would be to actually go there & do it in the flesh... On that note folks, I bid you a goodnight & pleasant dreams ; )

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-M-

Speed paint #3

Morning all! Here's this morning's sketch-xercise. Have a positive day ; )

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-M-

Speed paint #2

A little morning exercise... Morning!

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-M-

Speed paint #1

A little morning exercise... Morning!

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-M-