After NC Wyeth Awesome horse

After NC Wyeth

Awesome Horse did another episode last Saturday.  It was based on the drawing on the right side of the brain approach to drawing.  There were two studies.  The second was this NC Wyeth that I painted upside down during the episode.  It was an interesting exercise and is a recommended way of learning to draw what you see not what you think you see. 

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.