Monday, June 29, 2009

Knight and dragon/3

It is worth noting that in some versions of the story (for example the story of St. George), the dragon is just made harmless, not killed by the knight. To be precise: not killed immediately (St. George actually kills the dragon in the end of the story...). Anyway, I've tried to imagine what could happen if the dragon was not slain.
The title could be: knight, princess and dragon... 40 years later.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

One-man-band/3

A watercolor version of the drawing shown here. It's clearly overworked, and lacks a strong focus. I should paint watercolors more often...



and two more drawings on this subject:


Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Knight and dragon/2

While playing a little on this theme, trying to get an almost "baroque" feeling, it came to my mind that the knight and the dragon could be two different sides of the same "entity" - sometimes our worst enemy is inside ourselves, isn't it?


I've tried to develop this idea in a new version:


which I (digitally) painted


as always with me, the drawing is by far more incisive and interesting, I think.
A couple of details:


One-man-band/2

I've played a little with the idea that these guys are completely "covered" by instruments:


I also like the idea that they share their lives with a (small?) dog:


here is a study made in watercolor. I've left my brushes in their box for too long, and it shows...

Friday, June 12, 2009

Knight and dragon/1

Everyone knows stories about a knight (or a saint) fighting against a dragon, usually with a princess to be saved. The story has been illustrated millions of times, yet someone (like me) still want to give his own versions. This is typical: any myth is alive as long as people keep on telling and varying its story.
My first attempts, like the one below, where quite plain - looks like we have to purge ourselves of some trivial images before we can produce anything (hopefully) a bit more interesting



after that, I let my thoughts wander a little - here are a couple of drawings:



some more next time...

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Harvard Depository

This month James Gurney's Art by Committee is about a business card:

HARVARD DEPOSITORY

Trudy L. XXX
Operations Manager
...
A Depository for books and records
owned by Harvard University and operatied By XXX YYY


the "assignment is to illustrate the owner of the card and his or her profession based just on the card itself".


I'm not very expert with those new "odd" jobs, so I have simply imagined an old lady working in a book and record depository, a kind of bookworm ideally living among her beloved writers and artists. I hope I haven't completely missed the point.
I realized quite late that "Trudy" is female, so I simply put a kind of wig on the head of the old guy, and changed the dress a little...

Below is a version with some background, the question is always the same: more focus or more detail? (but good artists get both, actually...)