Owen's Mother Nature Sketch

So I've changed up the composition so it's a lot less static. The trees will be covered in leaves and moss, I just like to define the form now and wait for the paint to make the textures.

Scotts Mother Nature Sketch

Here's mine!

Becca's Mother Nature Sketch

Well I certainly am squeaking this in just under the wire, but here it is! My sketch for the Mother Nature project. The main thing that might not be perfectly clear from the sketch is that it is going to be nighttime, or dusk, so there will be some stars in the sky. Also, tendrils of green will be growing from her left hand, and her right foot. OK, if anyone has ideas, lemme have it!

Owen's IMC

It's hard to review what went down this past week, it flew by in such a blur. We started with a crit on the sketch with Boris Vallejo and Scott Fischer. This stage was the most revised part of the piece. I tilted the entire drawing, to emphasize the diagonals, got rid of the second tower in the background and made the city a bit further into the distance. I did a lot of erasing. Next came the background and sky, realized the clouds were to bright and didn't look convincing, so I darkened those and started on the building. The shadows of the building would not nearly have been so convincing if I had not made a tiny model. After laying in the building for 2 days or so, there weren't many things being said by the faculty, mostly just "looks great" or "keep going". Dan Dos Santos pushed me to lay in the figure soon, because thats something that they could help me with. So once the building was layed in, I started on the skin tones. I kept it fairly loose, just laying in darks and highlights, then blending the colors together. The next day, saturday, as I was laying in the outfit of the wizard, Donato came by and showed me how to make a nice worn, weathered look to the castle. Glazing down a warm tone with a lot of medium, then putting some cadmium orange in the areas wear water would pool. This little detail added a whole new life to my painting. By the sunday morning at about 3:30 am the surface of painting was completely filled in.

This was an absolutely amazing experience. One of the best weeks of my life, and it was spent working day and night.

Scott's IMC Sketch

Here's my preliminary sketch for the IMC! Check back for more updates throughout the week!

IMC Sketch

For the Illustration Master Class, I am doing a futuristic/steampunk take on the Wizard of Oz. It is a depiction of the actual Wizard on a balcony on one of the high towers of the Emerald City. He is looking out and in the reflection of the spyglass he hold will be Dorothy's house moments before it falls on the witch. Can't wait for this class.

Becca's IMC Lady of the Lake Thumbs

These are thumbnails for the Illustration Master Class project. I've chosen the Lady of the Lake assignment (I'm also working on the children's book option...perhaps more on that later). The challenge with this assignment is that there are many different stories and depictions of the Lady of the Lake. I have chosen to go with an older, slightly less romanticized version. Rather than the oft-seen arm rising out of the lake to give Excalibur (the sword) to Arthur, this version depicts the Lady (who also goes by Viviane, Nimue, etc) as a priestess of the island of Avalon, a place somewhere between the world of Man and that of Faerie, where Excalibur is forged. Merlin (a magician and bard) is in love with her, and teaches her all of his magic. So, the Lady, Merlin, and Excalibur, are inextricably linked. My idea is to have the Lady standing in the lake (she doesn't live underwater), holding Excalibur in its sheath, with Merlin watching from the banks of Avalon, somewhat hidden in the trees and melting into the background. I think #5 is my favorite in terms of the Lady's pose - I like the idea of seeing her legs underwater, with fish swimming around, but I'm having trouble with where Merlin would fit into that composition. Ideas??

Becca's Mother Nature Thumbs

POST-MASTER CLASS UPDATE! Ok don't hate me! I have added these new (better) thumbnails (above). You can't blame me for getting inspired by the Illustration Master Class! The first one is Mother Nature and Father Sky, the bottom one is Mother Nature by herself - in both of them, the idea is that she will have tendrils of green flowing from her fingers, and her dress will ripple and meld with the earth/bark/flora. I imagine the background to be a dark forest, and she'll be glowing...

So the old thumbs are pretty much moot, but I'll leave them down there anyways for...posterity...


OK, here are the Mother Nature thumbnails. The first two thumbnails are an attempt at making a statement industrialization/pollution vs nature - with mother nature rising out of the ground and looking with distain and alarm at the factories/farms/etc that have begun to spread over her. The third one, the idea is that she is a mountain, and her face is cut into the stone. The fourth and fifth ones are similar ideas...I like the idea of mother nature being made out of the earth itself. The third one would be pretty self-indulgent, but we all know how I love to draw those animals :) Suggestions! Comments! Criticisms please!

Owen's Green Thumbs

These are my thumbnails for the Mother Nature piece.  Personally I am really jazzed about the third one, I may do a different perspective, but the idea of Mother Nature as this tree goddess bearing fruit for man, I really like.

Mother Nature sketch and Master Class Thumbnails

Here's my sketch for the upcoming Mother Nature assignment. I did a few more thumbnails, but I really like this one so unless you all absolutely hate it...i want to do this one! Anyhow, it's a bit more conceptual J.J. Palencar-esque.

She is in a kind of trance-like pose floating over a field of dead sunflowers. In the background are tornados twisting across the landscape. It is sort of an allegorical image representing how mother nature often destroys life just as quickly as she gives it, thus continuing the necessary cycle. Let me know what you think.

And below are my thumbnails for my Illustration Master Class assignment: It is an epic fantasy cover sample for the book Berserker Lord. It is basically a battle scene between the main character and his companion against a hungry polar bear on an iceberg. I think i'm leaning towards the first and fifth ones, but I'll take any suggestions i can get! Sorry they're a bit loose.