Burn The Ships - cover painting progress

08/28/10
The painting progresses

Turn down the lights, turn on the moon, light the fires...
Next we begin to add the various woodland creatures.

Thanks to JJ, who stopped by with his digital camera, and snapped this picture of the cover painting as it looked on Wednesday 08/18/10-
(Unfortunately, my camera bit the dust. *sniff*)

Burn The Ships WIP 8/18/10
Acrylic on watercolor paper, 18x24"
I'm painting with acrylics just like a watercolor, but it allows me to build up more layers. Eventually, I will most likely put some opaque paint on the final layers, and then some final glazes. Fun!
Originally, I had envisioned a much more 'monochrome' nighttime scene, layers of midnight blue vanishing into the distance. But this has become quite colorful! I will add more glazes to unify the colors, and to bring the values down to a nighttime scene. this will also make the moon and the fire stand out more.
This will be a front/back spread for the CD cover/booklet, which will crop quite a bit off the top and the bottom, so the piece is being executed as two pieces in one:
1. A cover illustration for the CD, 12" x 24", which will be about 5x10" final size.
2. An 18 x 24" stand alone painting.
While the cover art l will be strong on its own, I think the extra scenery in the full painting will be interesting.
This is turning into a real labor of love. In addition, I am paying homage to some of my early influences: Roger Dean, Frank Frazetta, and Don Andrews.
I'm having fun with the FF/DA 'melty jungle,' and loving the fire effect on the ship!Now to add more wild creatures in the forest!!!

P.S. I wish I could have gotten pictures of the initial drawing stage. I drew out the rebated squares and laid out the armatures for the image areas, and used this to construct the design of the piece. I had to make sure to allow for the title and cover text. Once I got the major elements placed, the image began to speak, and I began to listen. It has been very interesting, through a very technical beginning process, to reach a very organic and fluid interaction with the painting in the middle stages.