Sunday, October 9, 2011

Cliffs

As an insomniac I spend a lot of time outdoors in the night and it struck me that I had not attempted to illustrate a nocturnal scene before. Biking along the San Francisco Coastline by moonlight actually looks more like this piece than you might guess. I've pulled a lot of my color choices from those experiences and exaggerated them a bit to end up here. But the moon shining down on a dark azure landscape, the calm sea gleaming like turquoise in the distance, and coiling clouds veiling the harbor...that is not too far removed from reality. 
I sought after a soft, tranquil mood in this piece and I wanted the landscape to speak more than any figures as the subject. But I've learned a lot in terms of color relationships in this piece. The complementary color of the bonfire in the distance is not powerful enough for me, it gets lost in the competitive value din created by the cliff-faces. But knowing that will help me later on in my future work. It feels really good to finally have had some time to finish this piece. I started it much earlier in the year, before Sonia's album cover actually, but between that project and having to bring work home with me, I had to put it on the back burner along with Ozymandias and another few projects. Hopefully this spell of productivity will last a little bit longer than those in the past. Thanks for reading, I hope to post more work soon!





7 comments:

damon said...

nice!

Unknown said...

Love the way you handled the ribbons of the milky way here. Keep these coming dude.

Johnny B Animation said...

I really dig this

Maggie Tran said...

This looks incredible. Great mood lighting and the pillar framing in the foreground is a great touch. Eye for detail, eh? Keep it up!

Shogunru said...

Just curious what program(s) are you using to create this wonderful landscape painting. It looks awesome kinda reminds me of the background art work style from Disney's Hercules in the way that shapes taking a round form have a stylized edged look like the flowers in the bushes in the foreground I am assuming being a bit squared off. Much like the way the animators squared the finger tips of the characters and made the landscapes more geometric and angular. I guess you are using selections and marquis to be able to block in color blends and shading through illustrator maybe?

Anyway just interested in your workflow process, and as well as some good tips how-to's and tutorial resources

Thanks!!!

chilibeanpaste said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chilibeanpaste said...

glad to see a new post. Always an inspiration. Your colors are always so carefully thought out.