ACM #2 Final Framed Piece

ACM #2 Final Render

ACM #2 Digital Process

ACM #2 Watercolor

ACM #2 Watercolor Process

ACM #2 Reference Photos

I love using photos from hikes. Photography is great in that it can take you back to a point and help you remember not only the moment itself, but everything else about what was around you when you took the photo.



This is Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountains. It's a beautiful place, though it is somehow always overcast and drizzling when I go. It reminds me of the forests I hiked in as a boy in Western Pennsylvania. I have many fond memories there. I waged an ongoing war with river trolls, stalked ancient druids and was hunted by giant, black-eyed foxes.

Years later I found that same old forest using the terrain feature on Google Maps. It was strange seeing it from above, from this odd and unfamiliar angle. But I was delighted to find that I could still make out all the old haunts of my childhood. The same trails, the same clear ponds covered in algae, the same clearings in the forest. And though some of the remote edges of my old realm were somewhat overcome by a spreading plague of parking lots, it was, for the most part, all still there.



This one is from Giant Sequoia National Forest, in California. This forest sat on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was as if the giant trees had in ancient times, been planted all across North America, and at some point pulled up their roots and strode west, only to be stopped here forever by the Pacific.

ACM #2 Digital Sketch

ACM #2

"O thou false knight and traitor unto knighthood, who did learn thee to distress ladies
and gentlewomen?"
When the knight saw Sir Launcelot thus rebuking
him he answered not, but drew his sword...

For both of these pieces I wanted to achieve a much more classic feel to the overall atmosphere. The difficulty for illustration, as it relates to stories, is its lack of narrative sequence--it requires compression. In my mind, I tend to see these stories in somewhat epic, idealized terms. This scene, if it were to be in a movie, would not need the dramatic lighting or golden atmosphere, because in a movie, the general effect is felt over the course of the whole experience, so that in the end, the combination of the story, the dialogue and the cinematics will convey epic-ness or romance in a way that no single image from the film may be able to convey. Likewise, in music, the passage of time allows for rise and fall of the music to build and build so that its overall story is not felt in any single note, but rather in the emotion that it conveys. An illustration on a story however, is an attempt to encapsulate the whole of the story into a single, frozen moment in time. There is no sequence of time, except as the artist is able to lead the viewer by means of composition or by including separated, sequential imagery.
For me, this is always an interesting problem. I rarely know everything about a piece at the beginning. In many ways the illustration plays out a story for me, and by the end, so many different scenes and opportunities are revealed, that I find it difficult to chose which to use and which to discard. As much as possible, I find myself wanting to layer several of them into the same image, so that each time you look at the image, new things are revealed. My favorite illustrations have always been this kind--with much to get lost in, even if it deals with only a single moment.

ACM #1 Framed

ACM #1 Final Render

"I will that thou wit and know that I am Launcelot du Lake, and very knight of the Table Round. And now I defy thee, and do thy best."

ACM #1 Watercolor

Digital Painting offers both versatility and efficiency. The digital tablet allows projects to be finished in a fraction of the time of traditional media. There is no drying. There is no mixing. There is essentially no media preparation, and client corrections are easy to handle. It is one of the best ways to stay competitive in the market. However, the imagery can tend to look plastic, worried, and disposable.
Traditional materials feel more organic. They feel more human. They are, like humans, finite, inefficient and have a tendency to go crazy on you. There is a warmness to them that humans can connect with easier than something digital and synthetic that lives in a world I's and O's.

But more than the organic, authentic 'feel' of traditional painting, there is also the difference in the processes. With traditional painting the shortcomings of the media force the artist to compensate with a more careful, craftsman-like approach.
For instance, in digital painting, you do not have to wait for anything to dry. You simply plow ahead at whatever speed you can move the cursor. Whereas in watercolor, you must wait for layers to dry. You must plan for layers to recede in intensity and depth once they are dry. This demands more contemplation in the piece. You are essentially forced by the medium to contemplate your future brushstrokes, while you wait for the current application to dry.
I have been torn between digital and traditional media for many years. There are effects that I can achieve digitally in moments that I could only otherwise achieve traditionally by spending months on (and having to mix my own colors with egg yolks and toxic chemicals). Yet I love the look of old weathered oil paintings more than anything in the 2d art world.

That being said, I have embarked on a new method. My plan is to paint these pieces in watercolor. I take them as far as I can towards a finished piece in the amount of time I have. Then I transfer them to the computer, and polish them using CS3 and Corel Painter (after which I print them on canvas and then varnish them). I hope this allows me to use the strengths of both traditional and digital media.

ACM #1 Digital Sketch

ACM #1

"Ah," said Turquine, "Launcelot, thou art unto me most welcome that ever was knight, for we shall
never depart till the one of us be dead."


I have always wanted to illustrate scenes from the story of King Arthur. It is a rather ominous undertaking since so many greater artists have already done fantastic work with it. N.C Wyeth and Pyle come immediately to mind. Yet Arthur's story, like most great mythological classics, can't help but inspire. Despite the possible unflattering comparisons to the giants of illustration, I found that I couldn't wait to begin this project.

I listened through Le Morte D'Arthur to find the scenes that would fit best with the demands of the commission. I had many ideas for some of the great battle scenes in the story. But I was told battle scenes would possibly not quite convey the right message for a room where they would be meeting clients.

I found myself listening and rewinding to a few passages on the adventures of Lancelot a great deal. For the first piece in the commission I decided to try one of my favorite scenes from the adventures of the Knights of the Round table. Here is an excerpt from Mallory's excellent version:

"It is well said," said Sir Launcelot, "but sithen it is so that I may have thy friendship,what knight is he that thou so hatest above all other?"
"Faithfully," said Sir Turquine, "his name is Sir Launcelot du Lake, for he slew my brother, Sir Carados, at the dolorous tower, that was one of the best knights alive; and therefore him I except of all knights, for may I once meet with him, the one of us shall make an end of other, I make mine avow. And for Sir Launcelot's sake I have slain an hundred good knights, and as many I have maimed all utterly that they might never after help themselves, and many have died in prison, and yet have I three score and four, and all shall be delivered so thou wilt tell me thy name,so be it that thou be not Sir Launcelot."

"Now, see I well," said Sir Launcelot, "that such a man I might be, I might have peace, and such a man I might be, that there should be war mortal betwixt us. And now, sir knight, at thy request I will that thou wit and know that I am Launcelot du Lake, and very knight of the Table Round. And now I defy thee, and do thy best."
"Ah," said Turquine, "Launcelot,thou art unto me most welcome that ever was knight, for we shall never depart till the one of us be dead."
Then they hurtled together as two wild bulls rushing and lashing with their shields and swords, that sometime they fell both over their noses. Thus they fought still two hours and more, and never would have rest, and Sir Turquine gave Sir Launcelot many wounds that all the ground thereas they fought was all bespeckled with blood.