First Flight

First Flight

Wildborn Series.
©Ralph Horsley.

Acrylic, Approx  26.5" x 18.5"

Original artwork for sale: SOLD
Image available for license.

'The first flight is always the hardest.'

I have already shared with you a number of pieces from my Wildborn series, but this was actually the first I started on. For some time I have been wanting to create personal pieces, both to allow for my own expression, and to create some paintings I would own copyright on for license.

Typically I jumped in at the deep end and sketched up a very large piece, which although completed for the start of 2011 I didn't have the opportunity to start painting until late summer. The process all seemed very novel, in effect writing my own brief, editing the resulting sketch and then beginning the painting all without the need to get on the PC to scan and email the progress.

Oestensibly I have considered a lot of my stages to be for the benefit of the commissioning process. I quickly realised the error of this assumption. I now lacked a scan of my sketch to reference, nor had I a working value study.

The painting quickly felt like it went off track, and I lost the vision of what I was trying to create. At this point I put the piece aside, and I didn't know whether it would be revisited.

The painting as it was left unfinished.

However I hadn't lost the desire to create some personal work, and I had learnt a valuable lesson about the benfit of the work  methodology I have developed. November came around, and freshly inspired by Illuxcon, I embarked upon some personal work, but this time I went for smaller pieces that could be completed  in hours, rather than days. Thus the 'Wildborn' series was born.

I have derived  a lot of satisfaction, and positive feedback, from the series, whilst also finding these smaller pieces possible to fit into my work schedule. Of course whilst painting these the neglected Dragons remained a nagging thought; I still saw a lot of merit in the sketch, and din't like to see the work i had alreday done go to waste, but I knew I would have to take a fresh, bold, approach.

I began by completing reworking the sky and background. I upped the ante on the drama, and repositioned the sun to really focus on the parent's head.

The change felt substantial and inspired me on. I worked through all the key elements; background to foreground. Simultaneously I softened the existing high contrasts and overworked lines to bring the piece all together.

After stumbling so heavily first time around the painting did feel like it took flight this time around.

Finally I ended up with a painting I am pleased with, and that taught me a lot about my own process. The latter being especially valuable.

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Spiral of Tharizdun

Scar

Acrylic on Board,

Approx 14" x 17"

Original Artwork For Sale

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

I mentioned previously about my commission to produce packaging for the Dungeons and Dragons Feywild Fortune Cards, well I must have done something right as I was subsequently asked to produce a further piece of art for another set. This time around though I was dealing with Scar, a meaty half-orc with some magic skills as well as a hefty axe.

Once again I needed to keep the focus on the top part of the image, so that the important features wouldn't be lost in the packaging. The Spiral of Tharizdun's fire helped by providing a very useful device with which to bring focus and round out the figure with some strong rim lighting.

This is how the painting appears on the packaging:

This was the initial line sketch:

Deatils of the Fortune Cards set can be found here.

Arise

Arise

Wildborn Series.©Ralph Horsley.

Acrylic, Approx 11" x 15"

Original artwork for sale: $400
Image available for license.

I have been very gratified by the response to my first set of 'Wildborn' paintings, and this has spurred my efforts to try and fit in some more  paintings for the series.

I have always been inspired by Mountains, I guess helped by growing up in  a very hilly part of England - The Lake District, especially the effect light can have on them. This piece proved great fun in exploring that.

Here is a walkthrough of my process.

Facebook page; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ralph-Horsley/270339214891

Book of Vile Darkness

The Book of Vile Darkness was a very popular book for the 3.5 edition of D&D. and quickly acquired a cult following because of  its subject matter, which dealt with the darker side of the gameworld.

You can then imagine how thrilled I was to be asked to work on the new publication for 4th edition D&D, and better still that I was offered two chapters starts; lovely double page spreads that I could really go to town on.

This was especially true of the first, which was the opening chapter in the book, and needed to show the legendary Liche Vecna using the book to unleash the forces of evil upon the world  in all their chaotic bloodthirsty fury.

Evil Unearthed

Approx 21" x 19"

Acrylic on board.

Original SOLD

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

As I wanted to show a vast broiling battlefield I deliberately chose a restricted palette with a sickly colour range, whilst reserving the blue light to pinpoint Vecna.

The composition needed to fit within a strict template which effectively bisected the image into a left-hand third, and right-hand two thirds. This is how the mock-up looked:

The second illustration was equally enjoyable, allowing me to really sock it to one of the good guys - a Gold Dragon in it's own temple - ouch!

Smitten

Approx 21" x 19"

Acrylic on board.

Original SOLD

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

and the mock-up:

Feywild

Viltham

Acrylic on Board,

Approx 14" x 17"

Original Artwork For Sale

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

Illustration work continually produces fresh challenges, sometimes that can appear simply to create a fresh dynamic scene conveying a particular story, but  it is always compounded by further factors; those might be as straightforward as dimension restrictions, format, and typesetting, or they may be even more complicated.

Viltham the Gnome was created as a painting for Dungeons & Dragons Fortune Cards: Fury of the Feywild. He needed to look undeterred by the burning of his forest home around him, and ready to retaliate with his own powerful magic, but also fit within a very specific format  for his role as cover star of the booster cards packaging.

Booster Packaging Template

Above is the template I was provided with. I was directed that his head should bleed over the upper line to allow a cut-out effect, and that the top of the card packs would line-up along the lower dotted line, additionally I should provide the whole figure on a larger image area to allow full flexibility of usage. I always relish these challenges, but they do provide compositional conundrums, which I believe I met, and here is the finished packaging:

Not only did I provide the packaging art, but I was also happy to contribute three cards to the set, a couple of whom appear on the sides of the display box too.

Keldar

Acrylic on Board,

Approx 8" x 11"

Original Artwork For Sale

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

Andronus

Acrylic on Board,

Approx 8" x 11"

Original Artwork For Sale

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

Lyrindel

Acrylic on Board,

Approx 8" x 11"

Original Artwork For Sale

Copyright Wizards of the Coast

Statuesque

Statuesque

Wildborn Series

Acrylic, 15" x 11"

Original for sale. Image available for license.

© Ralph Horsley

This is my fourth painting in the 'Wildborn' series, and completes a set depicting the seasons; Sentinel - spring, Glimpse - summer, Glimmer - Autumn and Statuesque - Winter.

I liked the idea of working with  a limited, desaturated palette that would contrast strongly with the lowering sun. The Dragon deliberately blends in with the snow and ice around, yet is pinpointed between those two bright orbs.

Here are some process shots:

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Wildborn

Glimpse

Wildborn Series

Acrylic, 15" x 11"

Original for sale. Image available for license.

© Ralph Horsley

Glimmer

Wildborn Series

Acrylic, 15" x 11"

Original for sale. Image available for license.

© Ralph Horsley

Sentinel

Wildborn Series.

Acrylic, 15" x 11"

Original for sale. Image available for license.

© Ralph Horsley

It is a long time since I created a painting solely for myself. I am grateful that my schedule has been full, but I have also been hampered by the desire to make an epic work. However on returning from Illuxcon the itch has grown, but the timetable has, thankfully, remained as packed.

Then it occured to me that I should aim for something more achievable, and which would also be a good exercise.  Thus the idea for 'wildborn' arose; smaller landscape paintings showing dragons in a naturalistic setting.

I took my inspiration from landscape photography, trying to create a more naturalistic look, and one that started with loose sketches so that the painting could be freer.

Here is a walkthrough for Glimpse, showing my process.

A loose sketch. it lays out the key elements, but doesn't concern itself with detail.

Old habits die hard. I start working from back to front, blocking in the value range and colour transition.

I move onto the rocks doing the same. I am keen to blur the shadows between rocks and trees. the water is also loosely mapped in - trying to keep a light touch here for now.

The trees are beginning to be refined, and I startt to pay attention to the shadows on the cliff.

Further refinement, now on the rocks.

Begining to add detail and colour accents/variation within the value range.

I pulled out the gels for the water. A transparent glaze for the mistiness and lots of heavy body gel for an almost impasto finish on the foaming water.