So, first I designed the scepter in my sketchbook then created the sketch below.
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| ©Wizards of the Coast |
Okay, I lied. There kind of is a person. Or rather their shadow. An implied person. But it's just a shadow, and I left it at that.
Anyway, this another one that I knew what I wanted to do with lighting-wise, so I went ahead, and grabbed a few things that had similar properties and shot them as seen below.
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| A snazzy bowl that my cousin gave us for our wedding turned upside down. |
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| The chrome pip of our vacuum cleaner. |
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| A Christmas tree ornament. |
All of these things reflect their surroundings to about the same extent and I needed a collection of different shaped objects to flesh out exactly what might reflect where. I then applied the information gathered to the staff as accurately as I possibly could.
I also ended up using the cloth pretty heavily. I didn't anticipate it being so wrinkly, but I really dug the contrast it created with the sleek staff.
The result is below.
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| ©Wizards of the Coast |
As with all of these examples, for me, there never really is just a single, all-encompassing bit of photo reference used for any given piece. My personality is such that repainting the things I already have photos of would bore be to death and would likely result in some equally boring paintings. I like doing the mental gymnastics of combining things and making them work to the best of my ability while painting. It's all about making the process fun for myself. Sometimes this works out really, really well. Sometimes it just doesn't. Here, I think it did.
I have to say I've been REALLY enjoying these posts on taking reference. In my experience at school we're always told to take reference but not really taught how to effectively gather and use it other than "paint the photo". It's nice to read some other strategies and I hope to incorporate some of them into my own work. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mike. I must confess that I was very fortunate to have several people who used reference very differently teach me in college. It helped me appreciate how personal each individual's process really can be.
ReplyDeleteMy own process, for better or for worse, has been something that's taken years to figure out and I'm sure will continue to evolve.
I think I'm going to continue for one or two more days and then move on. Hopefully, what I've written has been helpful to some, or at the very least entertaining in its ignorance.
sb
I agree, it's definitely helpful to hear about your creative processes. There's a line in the movie 'Local Color' where an art student says something like 'Yes, I can quote you theory out of text books all day long but do I know what it means? Do I know how to apply it to my work? No.' On the subject, at Illuxcon you had this fantastic piece of a space commander on his bridge looking at a glowing green hologram display. I'd love to learn how you manage to make that illusion work so well. The 'hologram' looked like it was giving off its own light and still looked translucent. I'm having a hard time bringing that kind of detail into my art.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteRegarding that piece, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. For the figure, I had two pieces of photographic reference for that painting. One was of another artist shot in one lighting scenario (to get the general overall lighting scheme), and a second shot of him lit from the extreme left (to give myself the locations of where the green reflective lighting from the holograms would hit). I had a bunch of reference of nebulae, for the space scene in the background, and made up the rest. The holograms were completely out of my head and derived from memories of seeing similar things in movies and video games my entire life.
I'm not sure everything in that piece is 100% successful, but I'm never sure about any of my pieces, really.
sb
Great post. And I have to say, that's my favorite item painting ever done for Magic.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris. I think this piece lost a lot when it was reduced. Still, I'm really happy with it. It makes for a nice image at 100%.
ReplyDeletesb