|
|
|
|
|
|
-
The Philosophy behind the Art
-
My art philosophy is composed of two fundamental ideas:
#1 Composition- Display the animal or bird in the context of it's natural environment. Allow the environment to help tell a story, evoke a feeling, or just plainly add to the realistic depiction of the subject.
This part of the art process is what makes it fun. It usually involves research, multiple sketches and photographs as well as helping me to get excited and motivated about the drawing. I know it sounds mystical, but believe it or not, sometimes I have dreams where I envision my next artwork before I've even thought about the subject matter. "Surveying the Realm" and "Where Eagles Dare" are two examples of this. While "Surveying the Realm" is also inspired by Disney's "The Lion King", the dream reminded me of the beginning scenes in the movie of Mufasa sitting atop Pride rock.
Also included with the composition part are lighting and depth. I love early morning light as it evokes a refreshing feeling of a new beginning to me. Lighting will also give the subject matter depth as lights and darks will either appear to bring an object closer or recess it into the background. That is why it is so important to do a black and white pencil sketch first in order to make certain that these elements will read when in color.
#2 Realism in Details- Part of this is of course encorporated into the composition, but being able to depict the animal and environment accurately are key for me. I usually like to bring the subject close enough to the viewer so that they feel like they could reach out and touch it. I study the feather or fur patterns and layer my colors. I start with the color that is most common in the subject. Depending on the media I use I either layer light to darks (pastels) or darks to lights (acryllics). I then began to layer my details. I start with the most prominent features first like the eyes then work my way to the nose and mouth or beak. Then finally I fill in the feathers or fur and add highlights.
I prefer to use pastel pencils over colored pencils any day because of the soft affect they give. However, I became unsatisfied with the pastel media a few years ago and decided to switch to acryllic and Gouache. I changed the medium I use for two reasons: the picture size was limited to the largest Canson paper size of 24" x 36" .It was also taking forever to produce the environments I placed the animals in. When I saw what artists like Carl Brenders and Terry Issacs could do with acryllics and gouache, I was inspired. They were even using air brush to lay in some of their backgrounds or give a particular piece a distant feeling.
| | | |
|
|
|
