MindzleZe Joust Sketch
It is hard to look noble with such a steed. This sketch is heavily influenced by Brian Froud and his designs for the movie "Labyrinth".
I am going to do a painting based on this sketch. I tend to either paint or draw and rarely do the two have much to do with the other. For me the process of painting starts with a speedpaint, where the tones and shapes are blocked in and then through a series of refinements the final image becomes more clear. Where with drawing the exploration of shape is always a little tighter, and there is less exploration of shape and tonality, it is mostly about getting rough ideas down. On a very rare occasion, such as this sketch, the drawing lends itself to a final painting without starting from a blank canvas.
One of the few times in the past I have gone this route is the "Alien Laundry sketch" which became the "Alien Chores painting".
For this new painting I am also trying to learn, a new for me, piece of software, Corel Painter 11. Having used Photoshop for roughly the last 20 years, I am having trouble making the change. I find myself constantly saying "That's not how you do it in Photoshop". However it's natural media brushes, the textures, the way "paint" mixes and the color palette are all features I love. I think it will take me a few paintings to get "comfortable" with. I also doubt that it will be the full solution for me. I imagine my work flow starting in Painter and then moving to Photoshop for finishing. But It is always fun to learn a new tool, and I do very much enjoy Painter, I wish I had picked it up years ago.
If you paint traditionally it is fairly intuitive and brushes work the way the real world version do. However you can mix media in ways not possible otherwise. I still draw and paint traditionally on occasion but the speed, ability to change and infinite possibilities of the digital canvas have drawn me in for good. Painter is strong in the parts of digital painting that Photoshop is weak. If someday they are combined into one super-application I will be very excited. For now I will take the image back and forth between the two.
I am going to try and create a video "podcast" of this painting taking form. This is something I have never tried so it could be quite... messy. I have a new laptop and Wacom Intuos 4 for just this purpose.
