I've been drawing caricatures for a few years now but it's not until I really thought about why I got into illustration in the first place that I remembered I really wanted to do book covers. I keep having ideas and doing sketches but not really going for it.
This challenge is a great way for me to get my thumb out of my butt and start putting together a new portfolio of cover work and fantasy painting, I've got two fake covers on the go so far and several sketches to work up.
Edit: Just going to leave this little slice of inspiration here.. http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/ <--only the worst sci-fi/fantasy covers
Another doodle I worked up today...I might do some more and make it a series..falcons flight, falcons fight, falcons fail etc ...
Flipped and worked on the helmet some more to make it more falcon-like, not used any ref yet...
rough sketches of the 5 ideas I have so far, the 6th one is going to be the bali challenge. Also put together some old scifi covers for inspiration :D the dinosaur one kills me
finalised one of the designs and made 2 mock ups, my boyfriend pretended to be my Art Director and gave me his opinion and we both agreed that the autumn colours looked better but the blue one was more striking so I'm going to do one that's inbetween...
Update - the drawing on canvas for the first cover I've gone back to the original idea of Triforce, my friend came up with a story...
3 Sisters, their parents die in a civil war and they are forced to go back to their ancestral home to protect it. One is a hunter who lived isolated in the woods, one is a dancer who doesn't take life seriously and one got married to a wealthy man who also died during the war leaving her heartbroken.
Just kiddin...decided to go digital as the painting wasn't working out (canvas I used was too toothy and wasn't good for detail) so this is the final composition with costume designs, values, colours and lighting worked out..now to paint paint paint...
Thanks Ignatz :) though gonna be more like a year project now.
update...worked on Dragonriders, and worked up the other sketch which I think works ok as part of the series. (the blurb is just a, badly written, place holder until I can come up with something better.)
Going to get a friend to pose for reference and then these are ready to paint after I finish Triforce. :)
