Lorenzo's Guardian - Pt.II

So the very first thing that I imagine you are wondering as you open this particular blog entry and double check that posted date is: "Did it really take Ben eleven years to paint this painting?". The simple answer is "No, it did not". It took just over one year, largely because of the day job and life itself making their own plans.

So why then are we just seeing a follow up to the last blog eleven years after it's initial posting? The answer is much the same: The day job and life itself making their own plans. The longer answer is that during these intervening years I was working diligently to not only shepherd an art team through production of, but also help to maintain the game of Hearthstone over at Blizzard Entertainment. This was followed by my leaving to join some good friends in the creation of our own studio and the production and shipping of our first game. So these seem like good reasons right?

That said, as I have completely rebuilt the website these last couple weeks, and I do (in spite of what the gap in blogging dates says) continue to like to write and log my thoughts on various things, it felt like I should close the loop on this particular painting before continuing to (one hopes) post more frequently going forward.

So without further ado...

When last I shared the progress on this particular painting the drawing with all of it's complete values and details was mounted to my traditional reinforced masonite surface and waiting patiently on the easel for further attention. In this case however, in an effort to keep the client involved at every step and to better help me to form a more complete vision for the final painting, I indulged in an oft skipped color study.

Color studies are an excellent habit to get into, and one that I often skip right over and work out in the paint itself. Digital work tends to have at least an element built into the process by way of layers. Layers are an awesome way to be able to backtrack, try new things or experiment with abandon, and probably why I do not spend the time on color studies as a habit as most of my professional work these days is done digitally.

So ultimately I sort of split the difference in this case and actually did a color study, but did it digitally for speed's sake. Below is the result and what I sent to Victor to get his thoughts before moving into oil paint.

With this color study in hand I threw myself into the oil paint without a second thought. Now in all honesty, when it comes to "in-progress shots" I tend to be pretty bad about taking the time to capture them. I try, but often get a pretty good ways into a piece before I remember to stop and take pictures. Again, digital has the edge here in that the quick screen shot takes a second and you are off and running again. If you forget to take a screen shot, well once again the layers allow you to step back though a painting and follow along with the journey the piece has taken from the beginning.

In the case of this piece I wanted to try and give Victor as many behind the scenes shots so he could see his painting come to life. What follows is a selection of those to give you the same.

There are no progress shots of the background or environment as it proved to be the most time consuming and frustrating part. I would ultimately repaint large parts of the sky or the pillars of rock several times before arriving at the right amount of atmosphere and diffuse level of detail necessary to provide visual interest, establish quality of ambient light and not draw away from the star of the piece, namely the dragon and the guitar. The result of all this was that I didn't think to grab a camera and record my frustration in the moment.

Once on to the dragon however there were a lot of fun moments to capture, beginning with the wings seen here.

It was fun to capture not only the surface material and texture to the wings, but also maintain the pattern to them while never loosing the translucent feeling necessary to give it that thinner membranous quality. Differentiating the treatment of the wings from the skin of the dragon or even the rocks of the surrounding area would be important to assure that the multitude of materials present in the end piece would not "feel" the same. Adding thickness to the tears and holes in the wings gives a bit of age and wear to our hero, hinting that perhaps this is not his first fight in defense of his precious guitar.

The wings on the left of the painting would be treated differently as they do not have the light filtering through them and as a result do not have the same glow. Instead more detail was spent on the surface pattern and the quality of the shadows which not only have darker darks, but are also cooler in temperature. giving the pattern on the wings a hint of blue would lend a bit or iridescence to them, reminiscent of a butterfly.

Moving into the head, one wants to play up the details here as it is one of the key elements that the viewer should want to spend time with. Getting to play with the subtle transitions in the horns, the intricate scales and the worm-like pink tongue were not only in service of this, but fun too!

Assuring that those same details seen in the neck, shoulders and wings would be of equal importance. Bringing the values closer together in these elements and offsetting the head, hand and arms with a rim light as well as more contrast help to layer everything appropriately and allow so many stacked pieces to read against one another.

Ultimately this intricate dance throughout the piece, the matching of values to the initial drawing/color study, the going off script from both when the painting itself demanded it, the weighing of feedback from others when offered and implementing it as appropriate all landed at the piece that you see in the Illustration Gallery of this website today. In all it is one of the larger paintings I have tackled, and Victor was thrilled with the result. I learned much in the process, and in the end what more can you ask for?

In closing is a shot of my eleven year younger self deeply embroiled in battle with the oils. There is nary a gray hair to be seen on that head, and no sight of the reading glasses now firmly a part of any such artistic endeavor. Be kind. He knows not what the next eleven years hold for him...

all images: Ben Thompson