Dreamscapes: Myth & Magic

I got my advanced copies in the mail the other day! Excitement! It's always fun to see the final results of all the labor. Even more so when the work was completed a year ago, and then you just have to settle down and tell yourself to forget about it for a few months because the cogs of publishing take quite a while to bring a book to fruition. You learn how to be patient in this business!

As usual, I'll be selling these from Shadowscapes autographed, along with a signed print of the cover image. Official release date is mid July, so just a few more weeks!

Some sneak peaks into the pages. The graphic designers at Impact Books did a lovely job once again. I'm very pleased with what they've done, and the editors are great to work with as well.

Keyword Sketch Cards

Going out in the mail this week:

Wombats are almost too cute for words!

Keyword Sketch Cards

The last few from this first set of orders! I'll be slowly starting to take orders from the waitlist now, but it will only be about 10 at a time. If you're requesting to be added to the waitlist at this time, please be aware that it is currently at about a month lead time. For waitlist request, go through -this form-. You won't be added if you just respond in the comments on this note.

When Dragons Dream

When Dragons Dream

Medium: Watercolor
Size 10x20 inches
-prints and original available here-
-detail closeups-

* * *

While they sleep the seasons turn.
The leaves burst green then burn gold
and fall to crisp upon the ground.
The sun sings of how she yearns
to sleep in the dusky hours
when damp night mists
swallow all sound.

While they sleep men tread upon
the worn pathways along the plated spines,
weaving tales of what has gone,
piping tunes of what has been,
and what will be -
The cadences rise and fall
and drift between the scales and shifting seams;
melodies for sleeping giants' dreams.

* * *

When I showed Dana the sketch for this piece, his comment was, "You paint that tableau a lot." He said it was as if I had seen this place once upon a dream and now it continually tried to push through my subconscious onto the paper. As if I struggled over and over to capture the essence of this vision I had glimpsed.

In a way, isn't that what all artists do? Isn't it always the goal to somehow capture onto paper an elusive spark of an idea? It might be inspired by something very tangible and real as recording the lines of the body of a live model; or as fleetingly obtuse as the conveyance of a concept - a smell, a color, a glint of light, a phrase. Whatever the source, once internalized it takes on the presence of a dream. It becomes its own being within the interpretations and confines of the mind. It is this transmuted version that wants to make its way to the paper, demanding Existence!

By that definition then though I may not have seen this scene in my sleeping dreams, nor visited it in another life, I have created a waking dream. And from that source springs this flow of inspiration that demands to be given a pulse and a breath and a voice.

* * *

At first I thought Dana meant the fantastical Tree; but though I do paint those quite often I realized on reflection that he actually meant more specifically the sleeping dragons coiled along the earth's lifelines with their spines writhing upon the crenellated hillsides. Some previous incarnations of this concept, starting from 1999 with "Otherworld" - which coincidentally has very similar colors to this latest piece of green, gold, and violet:

Keyword Sketch Cards

Been getting a little bit of painting done this week for a small break, but did a few more cards. Down to 20 more, and then I'll start taking orders again from the waiting list.

When Dragons Dream Sketch

Final sketch on the illustration board, ready to paint. I haven't pulled out the brushes in a while, so I'm eager to start on this! You can see it ended up being flipped horizontally from the original ink drawing.

Transferring Sketches for Large Paintings

After some of my recent posts in the past months about how I digitally play around with rough sketches in order to finalize compositions, I've had some people asking how I then transfer the composite sketch onto the painting surface, especially for large images.
For this particular piece I'm actually using one of the ink drawings I did for the upcoming Minor Arcana book. I didn't have to do any digital tweaking of composition, however since I want to paint this at about 10x20 inches (and the original ink sketch is 5x10 inches), I resized it in Photoshop.
After resizing, I printed it out onto a couple sheets of paper (since it won't fit onto one sheet). Most of the time I flip the image horizontally first so that the final drawing will be oriented correctly, but I forgot to do it this time, and unless it's necessary for the image, like a musician being left handed if I forget to flip (I had flautists berate me once with a piece that I forgot to flip!), or needing to be oriented a specific way to fit the graphic design of a book/game/whatever, I don't generally worry about it too much. This is just a personal piece not meant for publication so I don't really care which way it faces.

I placed sheets of tracing paper over these printouts and sketched in pencil. Frequently my initial sketches are extremely rough. Not so much in this example since I started from a finished ink drawing. But with a rough sketch, this phase is very good for me to start refining the details. The translucence of the tracing paper allows me to see enough of the initial drawing, but also gives me some opacity to make changes - like details, or fixing anatomy, or giving character to faces.

For this piece, I focus on simplifying to get rid of all the extra ink lines of shading because I need this to be prepped for painting. So on the one hand I'm getting rid of some of the detail from the initial drawing, and on the other I'm adding things as well because this is now twice as large!

Once I finish, I take the tracing paper and tape the pages pencil side down onto the final 20x10 inch Strathmore lightweight illustration board (series 500).
Using my thumbnail I burnish across all the pencil lines. This transfers the graphite from the tracing paper onto the illustration board, like carbon paper.
And speaking of carbon paper, if this method sounds far too tedious for you, that is an option as well. You can buy graphite carbon paper at most art stores. After printing out your modified sketch, you would just place the carbon paper between your printouts and your final surface, and trace over all your lines. I like the method I'm describing to you here instead though because it gives me a chance to reevaluate my composition with each iteration.
After removing the taped tracing paper you can see the image has been transferred to the illustration board. Some places I didn't press hard enough with my pencil and so it's a bit light.
I go back in and darken and further refine the sketch directly on the illustration board. You can see the piece of paper I keep under my drawing hand as well to avoid smearing the drawing as I work.