Legends of Anglerre

Legends of Anglerre

Acrylic, approx 19" x 25"

original artwork for sale.

copyright Cubicle 7.

I recently had the great pleasure of working with Jon Hodgson of Cubicle 7 on one of their covers. Jon might familiar to those who have followed the Ninja Mountain podcasts from the early days as he was instrumental in setting up the NM website and podcast.

The work was for the Legends of Anglerre cover, and comprised a nice simple brief that allowed for lots of dynamism, and creative expression; an armoured woman fighter charges across a beach towards us, whilst beset by Goblins.

I followed my usual processes; starting with a line sketch that evolved from a slew of expressive thumbnails.

That was then digitally worked up into a value study. This, along with the line sketch, were submitted, and met with approval.

At this point I would then normally do a quick colour study, but for once I had a very strong mental impression of the colour scheme; strong blues, greens and yellows, offset by the lead protagonist in red.

I began  by painting the background. The central cloud was chosen to frame the silhouette of the head.

Then I worked my way forward, tackling the furthermost Goblins, whilst laying a quick base wash onto their foreground companions.

Colour was then laid onto the central figure. A base wash first, and then full rendering. The base wash gives a nice underpaint to work into, but also allows me to check my colour choices as I go along. This is a lot easier to alter than a fully rendered finish.

I continue this process throughout the figure. Here I have laid in the armour base, also note I have decided to change the colour of the gorget/cloak clasp. The ultramarine was too similar to the background, and I decided to stick with the overall red based palette for the woman.

For once I saved the face for last. I wanted to keep it light to act as a focal point, and decided to resolve a lot of the other values around it first. Secondly this was the single most important element of the piece, and I lavished  a lot of care and attention on it.

The woman is complete and I progress to the Goblins. I now deliberately started using larger brushes, and looser marks to help contrast with the woman, and keep her the central focus.

Just a few touches to go, and the piece is finished, and approved.