Something a bit different

If you've been following for a while, or browsed through some of my older stuff on here, you might have noticed I used to do a lot more of what I call illustration work.  It's good fun to leave reality behind and draw things straight out of your head every now and then and it's something I'd like to get much better at doing.  This pic here was done for an ArtOrder challenge and even though there weren't any prizes involved, I was up against some pretty tough competition.

I know my interpretation of the quote was a little bit literal (and well trod, it seems) but I kind of got the idea stuck in to my head and felt I had to  follow it to completion.  Towards the end, I really started to hate this piece though.  I know that a lot of the circles aren't quite right in perspective, the forearm bugs me a fair bit, the bodies in the middle ground are only partially defined, the texture of the piece is rough and amateurish and the range of colors and tones isn't great at all, but I'm still glad I made an attempt at this and sent it off.  

I used a bunch of new techniques for this one.  A few preliminary sketches, posing for reference via PhotoBooth (lots of fun : ) and switching back and forth between pencil/paper and photoshop via Zanny's A3 scanner/printer.  There's even some alchemy in there, though actually I kind of wish I'd left that layer out in the end...

I still have major difficulties in working digitally.  Making the right mark in the right place just seems really difficult, especially if you are trying to create a non-digital-looking effect.  In that vein, I'm doing some master studies to try and improve my photoshop brush handling as it does seem to be a pretty awesome tool in the hands of the pros.

Colored pencil, chalk and photoshop