Still not quite finished update. Im afraid there was a stoppage at the last hurdle of this piece... I got distracted *cough*Mass Effect 2*cough*
Well anyway, this is something I envisioned when I listened to Europa by Globus. I wanted something fairly epic in scale and heroic like a scene of a rally cry. I am a big fan of using up-shots to enhance the epic feel, like you are mere mortals looking up at these towering figures. I kept enlarging the size of the flag too, a small one felt out of place in the scale I was trying to convey so it kept being sized up. Ive included a second song too! Consider it the after theme for the painting. Its Proud Nation by Immediate Music (the same people as Globus).
Ive also attached a few progress shots to show you. I started with big shapes and then gradually narrowed down into smaller details. Think of it like sculpting, you need to chip away the big shapes before you go into the finer points, you dont jump in and chisel the nose of a figure do you? I also keep the values quite close together, I plan to add the darkest darks and lightest lights towards the end committing early is a bit of a trap as it gives you less control of where the best place to use light and darks. Also overlays and other blending layers alter your values anyway so I try to be loose with the grayscale and think of it as a base for me to build on top of later. The colouring via the blending options are just to block in colour with hints at what the lighting is doing, its just easier for me to think about things one at a time, then I flatten the painting down and paint on top of it normally.
Oh and another thing... If you are an animation student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth check out this new blog Geoff King set up AUCB Animation. It is a good opportunity to get some critique and feedback from the alumni crew. If you are a student I think you should take advantage of this opportunity. Cheers :D
