Avalon

Avalon

Medium: Watercolors, India Ink

Size: 16x22

Prints ($16.96 & $26.50), Original painting ($1650.00), and closeup detail views available -here-

The Isle of Apples. Mythical island in the mists. The final resting place of King Arthur.

The name of Avalon invokes magic and mystery. 

* * *

I began with some scribbled thumbnails. The structures of the buildings, I wanted to be reminiscent of the ruins that can be found today in Glastonbury. 

 The final shape of the composition at first was a very centered piece.

 But I found that to be a bit dull, and on a whim, pushed things over to one side (in photoshop) a few inches, and shifting the boat a little bit to fit that new alignment. That turned out to be just what was needed.

 The final pencil sketch that was ready for painting:

  The initial colors I had in mind were for a ghostly night scene, with the tree glowing in the darkness. I tried to be lazy and just use photoshop brushes to sketch in the colors. But it really looks nothing like actual watercolors, and so it's hard to get a good feel for how the colors will actually work out when using the paint.

So, reluctantly I went through my much lengthier color roughing process, that involves cutting and pasting large areas of color and texture from my collection of other scanned paintings, and then tweaking color balance and contrasts in photoshop. This gives a MUCH better approximation of what a finished piece could look like, and gives me a basis to decide colors and values. 

Using that above color rough as a guide, I  started painting.

The final results: