Kagan Krall Bloodsports 10 final

Kagan Krall Bloodsports 10 final

This was my final submitted image for Bloodsports 10.  Went in a different direction for this image.  First off it is deliberately brighter.  Moved out of the shadows that I worked in for the previous entries.  This was a move to try and push the rendering and drawing - there was no where to hide.  The second thing is that I changed the character from a man as mentioned in the brief to a woman.  This was because I had not had a chance to design many female characters in these challenges. I worked with a number of characters this was a leap for me.   Oh yeah,  threw in a pet for good measure.  I wanted to depict a strong female character but offset that somewhat with the inclusion of the shopping bag .  This was a last minute decision and included it but kept it a deliberately low contrast so it would not be a focus point. 

Kagan Krall thumbs-Bloodsports 10

Tried out a number of compositions - scenarios.  A lot of them were humorous in tone just because of the necessity to display the juxtaposition of barbarian in 1986.  I suppose the more challenging thing would have been to find a different tone but I knew going with one of these would be more fun.  I did eventually go with the Frazetta type composition but subverting it.  Went with a mall environment and an escalator. 

After Frazetta

After Frazetta

Frazetta set a marker for fantasy illustration with this in 1966.  It was for its time special.  Gender politics and depictions in other media have moved so far in the intervening times. This was the subject of a post by Jon Schindehette quite recently.  Definitely go and read.  The central question is 'Where do you stand on the depictions of characters in fantasy?'

 I used this as a jumping off point for the bloodsports challenge.  Keep an eye out for how this influenced what I ended up depicting. 

Interior study 2 -mall

Interior study 2

Mall Amman

I knew the Kagan Krall image was going to require an interior so I did this study.  it is pretty miserable but I did figure out that these kinds of images need to be planned.  For me it would have been easier to work from the background forward.  Anyway I definitely need to do more of these to get some sort of work flow.  

If you want to see an example of mastery check out Isras work .  All done in Photoshop. 

13th Warrior - Photoshop Study

Having committed to Kagen Krall for the Bloodsports I knew I would need some woolly warrior vibe.  This is a still from the 13th warrior.  

13th Warrior film still - Photoshop study

Bloodsports 10

Well I will try and ace the perseverance element of the Bloodsports cos its  Bloodsports 10 and yes I am going to participate.  Of the 3 options I am going to go with  --

KAGAN KRALL- IN THE YEAR 1986!

This option is an exercise in CHARACTER JUXTAPOSITION. Popularized by many movies in the 80s, a character from a set time period is transported to a strange future world not his own. Many movies dealt with this by sending characters to the past, but for this challenge wed like you to bring some kind of barbaric warrior into the world of the late 1980s. everything in his surroundings should feel like 1986, offsetting his rugged and ancient look. you can also take any other approach to this you can come up with that works in the set guidelines. Maybe hes trying to fit in, like the trench-coated dude from highlander, or maybe hes just a shitty version of HE-MAN walking around a video game arcade. You decide!

 KEY ELEMENTS - Barbarian look or feel to the character, 1980s looking environment. clear that he DOES NOT BELONG HERE.

After Bierstadt -Awesome Horse

After Bierstadt

Awesome horse  have started another season of fun and info.  To kick it of there was a speedpainting demo by Noah Bradley.  The master study was of an Albert Bierstadt work.  It was just under 2 hours.  Above is my effort as I painted along. Noah is really fast and got a good level of finish insanely quickly.   



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