sketches 9

For a change of pace started speedpainting screenshots from Avatar.  Not used to working with these kinds of shapes but different is good. These are done in 15 to 60 minutes.   Forgot about all this design work at the start of the movie. In my mind  it got swamped by all the glowy stuff later on. 

Landscape speedpaint study

Landscape speedpaint study

A 2 hour speedpaint study.  From the deviant art speedpaint group. Thanks Wolk for running this.  Stock curtesy of SandsibStock.

Sketches 8

Some more Hurtlocker sketches and posemaniacs. 

Forest speedpaint Study

Forest Speedpaint Study

This was a speedpaint from the DA group.  The stock was courtesy of  ~needanewname
from here.  2 hours to do.  Lost it on the details in the foreground but liked the atmosphere. 

Snowy Pass landscape

Snowy Pass landscape

I did this a while back after doing some studies.  I repainted some of it again.  I was feeling it more this time as the temperatures have dropped.  

Morning light - Speedpaint

Morning light  Speed paint

This was a study from the speed paint group on deviant art.  The Stock from Burtn [link]. 
I am trying to do these with the minimum texture brushes. 

The First Golden Age of Illustration

 I have seen numerous articles referring to the early twentieth century as the Golden Age of Illustration but for me the first true age of illustration lies in the 13th, 14th and 15th century.  Then there seemed to be that necessary combination of skill knowledge and resource to produce great books and the required personal wealth and vanity to support their  production.  

The Luttrell Salter which is in the British museum is an example I have mentioned before. 
Recently another excellent example of this kind of illustration came up for auction in Sothebys.  

It was Louis De Gruuthuse's Copy of the deeds of Sir Gillion De Trazegnies in the Middle East (1464).  The 237 page boasts numerous illustrations but for me the borders of these pages are where the magic is.  Of the pages reproduced were intricately worked foliage.  Among the foliage are depictions of small cannon, peacocks, men with swords and a monkey pretending to be a doctor examining urine in a jar.  It is reasonable to speculate some of these at least were for satire and amusement.  

 The estimate for the auction was 3-5 million dollars.  It would have been a pity for such a book to disappear into a private collection.  Happily the book has been bought by the Getty Museum. It went for 6.2 million dollars.  
The J. Paul Getty Museum has a great resource here looking at renaissance manuscripts.