Composition studies.

An antagonist study for an idea I have for one of the paintings for Prince Valiant.

Not much work done this week. Had to work both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, but I still managed to do some studies for the Prince Valiant part of the Thesis.

I didn't have much time this week to work on the Prince Valiant design, but at least I managed to design the look I want for him in my illustrations. So I did go with a Roman armor inspired design. The reason I went with this is because the Roman Empire did stretch out to Britannia (from the year AD 43 to 409). Prince Valiant is loosely placed in the AD 8th century, so my idea is that before developing the armor and technologies of the Medieval Ages, Britons first "revived" the tools and weapons left behind by the Romans. 

For the "Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Shangri-La", I built a small citadel with Sculpty. This will allow me to light it the right way and copy the value, light and dark shapes in the illustration. I know it looks horrible, but a sculptor I am not, ha, ha.

 I was halfway down this illustration when I noticed that the layout wasn't going to work for me, so I decided to change it to the portrait composition below. I think it works better this way. This of course will be the "Indiana Jones and the Dragons of Popotal" Illustration final composition.

Some tonal studies for the "Indiana Jones and the Dragons of Popotal" illustration that I'll be making for the first part of my Thesis Portfolio.

A number of studies I've done, trying to find a look for Prince Valiant. At this point, I'm very busy with school work and my day job as well to sit down and do some research into what kind of costume I want to do develop for this character. But my intention is to create a look that is a cross between a Roman soldier and a medieval knight in armor. Since this character is set  in the 8th century AC (around the time the Roman Empire collapsed) , it would be logical to assume that his armor will have a strong roman influence.

My Thesis involves 15 illustrations. Instead of staying true to one theme, I decided to base it on 5 different characters. This way I get to do 3 illustrations of each character, and I don't get bored in the process. The second theme is Harold Foster's Prince Valiant, one of my favorite characters of all time. The sketch above was done with pen and ink, and it is meant as a doorway for me to re-imagine the character. I'm not done with Indy in any way or shape, but time is of the essence, so I have to work on more than one project at the same time.

 More Indy sketches, trying to define my version of the character.

These are concept sketches for the city of Shangri-La. I imagine it to be a tropical oasis of sorts surrounded by the Himalayas. The color one I did with watercolors and re-touched it with Photoshop. After sketching it I've come to the realization that I'll need to build some sort of model (probably with sculpty) so that I can take a proper picture of it under the right light conditions. This way I'll be able to paint a more realistic illustration.
The concept for the city itself, I got from a digital painting I saw online in a Google search. I borrowed from the original artist's idea, although it is not an exact replica. I would like to credit the original artist, but unfortunately there was no id with the image.

If anyone knows the name of the person who did this, please let me know so I can give proper credit to him.

Thumbs for "Indiana Jones and the Minotaur of Crete", the third illustration in my Thesis. I think I'm gonna go with the last one, composition wise.

Trying to find the right pose for the illustration.

I guess it is a good thing that I'm sorta-kinda a pack rat. My house if filled with all sorts of trinkets and art pieces. This is a bronze statue I bought at a medieval fair last year. 

Thumbs for the second Indy illustration ; "Indiana Jones and the lost city of Shangri-La". I went with a movie poster theme for this one. Again, nothing serious or finished here. Just plain line sketches seeking a composition, light source, etc.

More "I'm too damn poor to hire models" self pictures in a pseudo Indy costume (a polo shirt, a leather cowboy-ish jacket and a fedora I found at Cabela's.

Indiana Jones and the Dragons of Popotal - composition thumbs

Compositional thumbnails done from September 15th - October 30th, 2013.

Very simple thumbs; no works of art here. Just enough to give me a sense of space within the picture, as well as composition, focal point and light source.

These pictures were taken on Nov 1st, 2013. I'm a starving artist, so I had to use myself as a model.

Model Parasoulopus dinosaur I'll be using for the final painting.

At this point I'm considering eliminating the "dinosaur jockey" I displayed in some of the thumbs.