4/13/11

The Embrace

Well I finished this in record time - took me 3 days straight...now I need a break because me wrist is achy! :P Not sure how or why, I've stopped searching for reasons an image will suddenly pop up in my mind. This piece has a lot to do with acceptance and unconditional love, whether it is someone else or especially with yourself. To me there will always be a light or dark, no one being is 100% good or 100% evil, we are all shades in between. So yeah, image received (I sometimes feel like a satellite receiver) and I set out to draw this emotion I felt.

1st stage, always happens when doing the main characters; I'll get the most criticisms from my mind. It'll be yabbering in the background how 'this is not good enough', 'that line is crooked' or 'come on be more perfect!'. It is always a challenge in the start of every piece to overcome my personal hurdles...internally lol. :P But I think it started as well as I can manage! :)

I didn't manage to get a 2nd stage work in progress but this is the 3rd stage, half filled in the background. I did have one regret, there was no need for the floating bubbles/spores. Because in the end they made the image too busy. Oh well. Another part I thoroughly enjoy of any drawing is to make things up as I go. Those giant 'mushrooms' (I love mushrooms) were added on the fly. I was staring at that blank space and they just filled themselves in :D

The finished piece! This is a photo, haven't got around to scanning it yet but it should be easier than The Sky Whale, this is almost A3 sized. Had some trouble with the shading...might have gone overboard here with the lines teehee, but I think it turned out well! :) Look forward to have this as a print in the near future!

4/12/11

The Sky Whale - Completed!

It's done!!! :D This is the first time I've done such a large piece for a while now, the size is A2. Back in the years I usually stuck to small or tiny formats...cuz I love my details and I'll fill the whole surface with lines if I could! :P But working big actually feels more liberating - there is more space to breathe, play with lights and darks...This definitely won't be the last A2 sized drawing from me! I've already got 2 more ideas lined up to be drawn :D There is a common theme among all of them - the dynamic contrast between something gigantic and something tiny. :)

A scanned and cleaned copy. It is slightly cropped because A2 is a bugger to scan on an A4 scanner! I'll have to figure out a system somehow. There are some inconsistencies where the edges are warped and don't line up together -.- Well, experimentation time! :D

Hope you've enjoyed this as much as I've enjoyed drawing it!

4/9/11

The Sky Whale - con't

So I had another burst of inspiration and redrew parts of the foreground and background. Originally the whale was high-fiving a guy holding on to the top of a tall clock tower. But I took that all out cuz it wasn't working for me. Too static. So the guy now is a paratrooper reaching his hand out to the whale's flipper, and the area below is filled with crashed bombers, rubble and dead creatures.

A dead creature's clawed foot. I loved doing the details on this one! As with all the architectural bits. Sometimes I felt like I'm channeling Mike Mignola (Hellboy) or Frank Miller (Sin City) lol. I do love their black and white art style tho! Of course I'd have to have some Edward Gorey in there too!

Yeeeeah...so there are some style differences. Always happens when I work on something again after leaving it for almost 3 months. But I think it all goes together though, and makes it more interesting and dynamic!

So, more to come. Hope I'll have it in this push to finish this piece :D And you'll be seeing lots more large b/w drawings from me! Just next time I'll be using ink and brush to fill in those patches of black. I've been inhaling a bit much of Sharpie fumes...hmmmm :P

4/6/11

The Muse - Completed!

The Muse in colour! Link to the full image here: winniecheng.net