Ha! I bet
that you totally forgot about my blog… I apparently did. A year and a half of
silence would suggest that anyways.
The
illustration below was actually made over one and a half year ago, which could
confirm that I haven’t drawn anything since a looong time. But that’s not true,
I swear. I’ve been just extremely busy with
projects I cannot share with you… yet.
I’ll be
brief (just as a busy person like myself should be).
In the beginning,
I made a few concept sketches. Not real pieces of art, I know. But don’t lose hope:
Outlines drawn in pencil:
Some
details in waterproof ink:
The whole building
and the foreground were masked with masking fluid to protect these areas from
being painted over with very liquid paint (“wet on wet” technique). Mountains were
salted to achieve these textures:
Working on
the sky with watercolor paint mixed with gum arabic. Previously masked areas were
painted slowly and carefully:
Hmmm… looks
almost like the previous step. Maybe I just wasted my time, but I actually added
some extra precise shadows and highlights with ink and dense white watercolor
paint:
Some time ago I decided to focus on making
video classes. I’ve been asked for that quite a few times, but it required
resources and time, so the courses have been postponed constantly. Until now! The course about designing fantasy architecture was prepared (with loooong breaks) for about a year. For some
strange reason, the hardest part appeared
to be self-presentation…
Anyway, now it’s finished, so if you would like to get to know the rules of designing imagined buildings for a need of
games or books, or if you just would like to take a look at the whole mass of
hand-drawn more or less fantasy details and listen about medieval
buildings you can visit my Skillshare page (link to my profile).
In this course, besides plenty of many
details, I presented also a few “case studies” which are detailed illustrations
based on the knowledge handed in the course. I explained there WHY these
illustrations look the way they look and here I’ll explain HOW they were drawn
step by step.
1.A small and super fast concept
sketch with side notes. What a potential, Ladies and Gentleman! Nah, the
aesthetic aspect is not the strongest point here. What does matter is capturing
the right composition and it’s much easier on a small piece of paper and
without worrying about drawing fine, straight lines.
2.The first line was the horizon
line. Then I marked the basic parts of the composition.
The corner of the hut is placed in the 1/3 of the width of the frame. The boat
and the roof lines are pointing to the
main tree.
3.Adding more structure: reed, a fence,
some strange skulls, a large stone with magic symbols (also placed in 1/3 of
the width of the frame). The “Thundermark”
on the stone is a symbol of Perun – the God of warriors and lighting (in other
words a Slavic version of Nordic Thor).
4.After clarifying the most
important elements in the previous step, I feel confident enough to draw with
ink. I traced here the pencil sketch with a little more awareness of
materials(note that wooden beams and the forked pole are more organic than
geometric now).
5.Textures and shadows - part I.
In my humble opinion, the XIXth century craftsmen were absolute masters in
capturing textures and material structures, so after short googling, I got some inspiration.
6.Textures and shadows - part II.
It took me ages… or at least a few hours.
And then I colored it with watercolors! If
you are curious about how it proceeded and eventually the illustration turned out, just click
below 😊
In the next post,
I’ll present another “case study” from my course – a medieval town square.
