Friday, August 1, 2014

intermission iii

 Been a busy bee--so I entertain you with this piece from a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Not that long ago actually, lol. But I'm in a bookish mood because I just came from my first day at this amazing thing. So I share with you this bit of fanart from way back in 2011 for a book I immensely enjoyed, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.


"Being dorsal was real flying - the wind in her face,
and sky in all directions..."


Even after all these years, this piece really stayed with me. I edited it quite a bit--with watercolor, of all things! It was originally in oil and acrylic, but it just wasn't catching the brightness and skyiness I wanted Deryn to be surrounded by. I loved her freedom and her solitude. It was equal parts liberating and restricting, and I found that dynamic fascinating!

The inspired Mr. Westerfeld was wonderful enough to feature it on his weekly Fanart Friday blogposts and you can see the original version here. You can also see the Broadway musical poster version of it here (lol!) as well as a few cutesy, chibi versions of the two main characters I did back when I was experimenting with photoshop.

Maybe in the third round I'll try pen and ink. There's something nice about the gesture in the original sketch I really like:



Heck, I even like the back of the sketch, roflol!


 I think that's part of the magic of illustration sometimes. You don't know why something's working, it just feels right. So you just run with it and see where it goes....

Nice memories.



medium: Started acrylic and oil. Then digitally edited to a watercolor background. World is so forgiving with computers in it. Though I guess not so much with the internet in it too....balance?