Thursday, 14 November 2013

Illustrating the unknown

Its always challenging illustrating or painting something that clearly doesn't exist.

Recently I finished this graphite drawing of a lizard type character from a fantasy setting. The big challenge for me turned out to be finding a middle line between beast and man, that spot where its still sentient and a cultural carrier but without looking like a human in a costume.

At the moment I´m really enjoying playing around with graphite powder, giving my drawing practice a more painterly feel.



Graypath, graphite on colored paper, 30x50cm.

Friday, 9 August 2013

Cultural signifiers in Fantasy?

Been working a lot with a new portfolio, will make changes to this page in the near future due to a new career move, and I´m really excited to show you some of the stuff I have been putting together.

Have managed to put some personal stuff together to, been using it to see how to push myself in Photoshop to ease in to a digital workflow.

Been reading up on cultures and myth, namely "Myth,Ritual and Religion" by Andrew Lang and "Myth and Mythmakers; Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative" by John Fiske. This got me thinking about how we portray myth and religion in fantasy art. I wanted to explore that and so created this character portrait working with cultural signifiers like material and symbols.

This is Brecca the Archer, 30x21, graphite on toned paper, colours in Photoshop.







Thursday, 29 November 2012

Sorceress

Recently I moved back to Sweden, but managed to finish off some projects that have been on my easel just in time for a photo shoot before I left.
This project started off with a desire to create a compelling background for my characters, something that was mellow enough to push the characters without being too busy, while at the same time contributing to the characters story and still being visually interesting.

I mostly paint men, its easier to look at anatomy in a mirror, with myself posing I can at anytime change poses or correct a hand. So I decided to remedy that.
A reason for not painting and drawing fantasy style women is also cause I dont want to add to a common cliche. I wanted a powerful character with appeal, but without resorting to minimal clothing.

In this case I have used a medium I created specifically for this ideaso i could push around the paint with a rag while already dry (its a tincture of pure gum turpentine, stand oil, distilled damar and some fattening fast drying medium).

I had the intent to follow this character up with some smaller paintings of her minions, but that idea needs to sit for a while to evolve into something that works on its own as well as with this piece.

One thing I did find interesting with this was how I use refrence. Next time I will try to use a live model during my reference stage, used a stockphoto I paid to use and felt very limited by it.

So here you are;
Lady of the Deep, oil on canvas on board.

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Fantasy Illustration

So haven't posted in a while, due to a relocation to from Australia to Sweden.
But back on track with some new goals and some new ideas. While I have been looking for a studio space, I have started experimenting with new ways of creating in a small space that needs to be multi-functional (cue IKEA joke..).

Recently I finished a drawing for the Illustration Friday website that continues with what I was working on in the Osiris painting previously, and I feel more comfortable with the medium this time.
If you have the time, have a look at the other contributions and wander around the site.
http://illustrationfriday.com/

I still have some paintings I finished in Australia on the Photoshop easel, I will show you some samples next week.
Until then, "Shy" for Illustration Friday, graphite on colored paper and digital coloring.

Monday, 3 September 2012

Osiris

A friend of mine who is a writer and I, decided to see if we could do some work together, for fun and for practice. The idea was to send images and text between each other and evolve and get inspired by what the other part had created.
I decided to try some new things, put some time into learning that new photoshop thing they talk about, and get back to water colour again.
This is the first one, learned a lot and am gonna change it up a bit for the next one, work more on some detailing now that I know how it turned out.
Let me know what you think in the comment section.
Osiris- Lost parts, watercolour and Photoshop