Leaves, leaves, and more leaves. I tried working on the mural this afternoon, but it was a bit hot up on the step ladder - heat rises and it is definitely warmer working on the upper part of the mural. So, I waited until it was evening to continue. The downside of that is dealing with the glare of the lights in certain spots while painting. Oh well...
Anyway, I started detailing the grape leaves. Part of me was dreading it (just a little) - there are so many. I still have many more to go, but I'd say I'm about two-thirds done.
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| This is how it looked before - leaves just loosely "sketched" in |
As many as there are to do, it is nice to see them being defined more.
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With more detail built up
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Lots coming together. It took a couple days to detail the sky. Last time, I had used a combo of Cerulean and white for the clouds (see photo in last post). But, the clouds were too "blue." Afterwards, I went in with a fairly dry brush and added white on it's own to poof the clouds.
Doing the sky in the last couple panels took a while because I had already brought the figures and grape clusters to a greater degree of completion. Since I really don't want to rework them, I needed to be extra careful going around them.
I also opted to not put clouds behind the figures themselves. There's already a lot going on in that panel and it would be too busy overall.
After the sky, I went back over the mountains. It's time for the camera to do it's talking - to make clear any problems (as it always does). Of course, they are not "done." There will be layers of shrubbery, trees, and flowers that are so common to the Santa Maria hillsides. But, those are a top layer and will happen after the lower layers are completed.
Yes, that's right. Today, the barrel table and stray grape were the focus of my attention.
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If you looking close, there's one of those annoying crane flies sitting
on the table near the man's sleeve - the joys of painting in a garage at night. |
There's so much to do in this panel and a lot of it required some changes - I knew that going in. I'm down to the figures and I fully expect to get thoroughly wrapped up in those details for a while. I did adjust the woman's arm this evening (which I noticed was freakishly long).
99 clusters of grapes,
You take one down, pass it around...
Guess I'll be painting more grapes on the wall!
(oh the things you think of when doing repetitious work)
The red and purple grapes are more developed at the moment, but the green grape clusters and the grape leaves have to be addressed still.
I've actually been taking some time to work out more detail at the moment and, honestly, my jury is still out on Dionysus - I go back and forth between liking him and not liking him. I actually had something a bit different envisioned originally - something more sculpture-like and not "fleshy." But this is what came forward in the study and I liked it. I'll have to get more of the panel done and see it as a whole - guess that's why I've been compelled to do a bit more detail beyond just the underpainting. Plus, there's just a lot of little things in this panel and I want to make a good dent in it.
Since we blogged about Rafael in 2007, he’s been busy making some amazing work. I’m blown away by his bold blacks intermixed with tiny flecks of line for shadowing and highlight, and some amazing details that give this wonderfully tense mood to each drawing. This piece is a pin-up from his upcoming comic FURRY WATER and The Sons Of The Insurrection, due out from Dark Horse next year. I’m definitely going to have to look for it. You can see much more over at his blog (be sure to check through the archives– there’s some beautiful superhero pinups, including this one of Batman and Robin.)
Posted by Meg Hunt on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Comics, detail, Illustration, inking, Rafael Grampá
John Gardner is one of the kings of writing about writing. He had a lot to say. He also wrote several very good novels. Two of my favorites are told by monsters, one is Freddy’s Book and the other is Grendal. You’ve got to love a story from a monster’s POV. They are certainly underrepresented in fiction.
“Good writers may ‘tell’ almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings. One may tell the reader that the character went to a private school…or one may tell the reader that the character hates spaghetti; but with rare exceptions the characters’ feelings must be demonstrated: fear, love, excitement, doubt, embarrassment, despair become real only when they take the form of events—action (or gesture), dialogue, or physical reaction to setting. Detail is the lifeblood of fiction” John Gardner.
Thank you Mr. Gardner.
Notice he says “good writers may tell”—you still have to find a way to make your telling interesting.
Notice “rare exceptions” because sometimes you will break even John Gardner’s rules. This may happen more frequently when writing humorous scenes and you describe feelings for a laugh. But these and other exceptions only prove the Rule of John.
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