Friday, May 8, 2009

Its a mad mad mad world


This was an assignment for my masters degree class. We were to make a combat scene with two combatants. I didn't have much enthusiasm until one day browsing images of cool fantasy and scifi concepts I ran across Alice in Wonderland images. Suddenly I thought " Why don't I have The Mad Hatter attacking Alice in a swordfight?" Ok, it sounds crazy (and I threw in the March Hare too), but I have seen way too much Anime and several Jet Li movies like HERO. With that in mind, I came up with this peice. I am fairly happy with it although it is more of a peice to go to paint being that it is so detailed. Were I to keep it in drawing form I would have focused more on dominant and subordinant line quality. I did the whole thing from start to finish in Photoshop too, so I would have done a traditional pencil render of the line to make it a full finished peice in line form. Its pretty high res, so I could still do that, but I'de rather spend the time painting it some day if I get the chance! :) Everything had research reference, but it is all out of my head. I mean come on, where would I get models for this pose?

P.S. I imagine you noticed that color is a really quick throw in, but it does unite the peice a little more. I didn't handle the value separations well either, but I had to see some color. Notice also that the swords are specific to each character...A porcelain teacup sword for the Hatter, rabbit ear shaped short swords for the Hare, and Alice couldn't do without a sword which is actually the Cheshire cat in awesome sword form! :)

P.S.S The instructor mentioned the busy nature of the table as well as the direction of the sheath of the Cheshire sword and Alice's leg. I have a different position in the drawing versus the color. See if you notice where the difference is?

3 comments:

Audrey Fry said...

That is really Awesome!!! Makes me want to do more action scenes! I really like your line work for the piece and I agree, the colors look cool, they're unifying the painting nicely.

Rose said...

I rather enjoyed your rendition of the Mad Tea Party. The table, I felt, had the most detailing. I love it. I felt, however, that somehow the characters themselves were not as crisply portrayed as they could have been, but all in all a rather fun picture!

I have often thought it would be fun to write books. I don't think I have the skill for novels, but I LOVE childrens books. However, as I'm sure you well know, childrens books do far better with great pictures. If I ever get started, I'd love to have you as the illustrator. You have a great variety and range, and I truly love and admire your talent. Although I can do a little sketching, my doodles can hardly be considered art. --Richelle

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