"The Wrong Door"
Watercolor, ink, digital.
This painting is a intricately layered cultural criticism ingeniously disguised as a fairy tale about rediscovering our inner falcon spirit. It transcends social constructs, it defies human wisdom and confounds science. It launches the viewer to the outer moons of ...
Wait.. oh no, wait, that was for a different post.
*ahem*
This painting is about wizards and dwarves and dragons.
Most of the time I spend a great deal of effort on drawing and redrawing my figures several dozen times to work out different poses and outfits. (Boots? Armor? Dresses? A fancy hat? Real investigation work.) However, for this one, I went more on instinct because I had the holiday MADNESS.
Does this ever happen to any of you guys? The holidays hit and you're traveling, and eating, and seeing family, and eating, and lighting Christmas trees on fire, and eating; and all the while, you are NOT DOING ANY DRAWING AND YOU'RE SLOWLY GOING INSANE.
So at the end of the holidays I had to do something and this was the first thumbnail on my desk.
I painted this on my new favorite old paper: Arches 140 lb. Hot Press.
The painting is watercolor and liquitex inks (ala Arthur Rackham).
I used much heavier pencil work this time this time than I usually do and I also didn't spray fix my pencils because I am a dangerous man and that is the sort of thing that dangerous men do.
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ALSO:
My Sketchbook is finally finished! (I know it's 2015 now, yes, but 2014 was not a year to have a book printed in. Ask anyone. They all say sketchbooks should be printed in 2015.)
It goes live on our store Thursday morning at 10 AM EST.
Each book is signed and numbered.
We are also releasing the limited, special edition of Sketchbook 2014 at the same time. The Special Edition comes with an original drawing in the front as well as a signed 6 x 9 print available only for this run. IT WILL ROCK.
To see how the previous year's special editions turned out check out these posts:
