Monday, April 25, 2011

Winged Nazgul sketches

One very interesting art challenge is now open. The theme is "Eowyn and the Nazgul", and more about this can be found on the blog Muddy Colors. I'm not a big fan of "Lord of the Rings", but the challenge is very appealing to illustrate. So, I began to make sketches of Nazgul’s creature, first...

Fell Beast / pencil, fine liner with black gel ink
There are many brilliant pictures painted and drawn on this subject, so it is very difficult to compete with that. Jack Kirby, a great comics artist, once said that the artist should be trying to be different, not better ...

Left: Sketch of the position Beast's head / Right: Detail of the final composition
I have decided to get horizontal drawing composition as the final. The technique is watered ink and pen, and then I'll use digital coloring.

Eowyn and the Nazgul in work process
I'm in a big mess now, and I hope it will be enough time to complete the picture by the end of challenge...

Friday, April 1, 2011

Touch of Lowbrow

Pop-surreal creature has many names – Juxtapoz, Lowbrow, Suggestivism… – and great preachers – Todd Schor, Chris Mars, Mark Ryden, Gary Baseman and others… I felt a touch of Lowbrow, so here are a few digital painted surreal scenes:

One-eyed Unicorn and Maiden 
Digital paint / RealBristle Brush / Painter & Photoshop
The first thing that I painted on this picture is the eye of Unicorn... then horn, bone instead of the mouth and at the end a young girl... Later, I explained this picture to myself as follows: Young girl in a bowl collects the blood of One-eyed Unicorn. Blood is precious to her. In this blood are her dreams, her youth and innocence.

Blind Bat-Girl
Digital paint / RealBristle Brush / Painter & Photoshop
Blind Bat-Girl says: Get used to the darkness in your stitched eyes, and let the bat lead you to place where the heart begins to beat.

Frog Swallowers  (The Conjurors)
Digital paint / RealBristle Brush / Painter & Photoshop
Are you one of frog eaters? You are?! Quickly, swallow the frog and 15 minutes of fame are just yours ...