Rip Van Winkle

Comp 1

I recently finished an illustration for the Aesop's fable  "The Fox, the Chicken, and the Dog" and enjoyed playing with changing up old imagery that I've decided to start an illustration of another fable. (I'll be sharing the "The Fox, The Chicken, and The Dog" soon.)

Face Rework Detail

These are some of my brainstorming sketches. The one that is getting close to my final composition is the modified first composition.

Compiled first comp with the face detail and a wider composition.

little early thumbnail

Comp Three - This was fun to play with, but to my tastes too
much is going on in the composition.

Catfish

The Fun Begins
It is Friday. So, a bit more catfish is revealed. ;) At first I was thinking of doing a catfish portrait of sorts, and I still might at some point. So, I played with catfish proportions. I made them into what my Dad called "Gobblers", which I have to say was apt. :D

A Direction
But since I was more intrigued by a sense of mystery I did some thumbnails of more ambiguous interactions. I'm posting one of the thumbnails. It is the composition I'm most pleased with.

My Current Plan
The piece will be mixed media, with the large catfish largely collage. The final image will have flat spaces and some atmospheric abstraction.

I hope you enjoy it!

Update: This piece has progressed. You can see that here.

Color Study

This is just a basic color study. Since I already had some thumbnails scanned in for this blog I decided to go over them with color.

I wanted to have cool light, and I was specifically thinking of early morning light. This isn't my final composition, but I think it has the right color mood.

This was done just in Adobe Photoshop with my finger on the finger-pad for my laptop, since my tablet doesn't want to work for me.

So, I am substituting this for my Friday sketch. Next week I should be up to more. ;) I hope this amuses.