Quick sketch: Cape Bretton, Nova Scotia Fortress

[bcmillustrator]

Wanted to share a quick sketch I did of the Louisborg Fortress at Cape Bretton, Nova Scotia.

Brian

[AndyRage]

Oh nice! The detail on the clothing and face is fantastic.
Did you use a reference image for that painting?

AndyRage.

[bcmillustrator]

I made a sketch of the soldier and scanned it in using Photoshop. I erased all of the white background from the scan (making the background transparent) and saved the image as a Photoshop document. Because I erased the background, ArtRage didn't think I had "white paint" already on the canvas when I imported the Photoshop document.

I then started painting the background based on a photo of the entrance of the fortress. I used a t square and triangles on my digital tablet as if it were a drawing board. Once I had some of the key lines, I started painting.

I very rarely use the tracing paper or draw on top of an image. I am not quite used to sketching on the tablet in ArtRage, so I usually sketch key elements on paper first.

Interesting about the detail comment. I don't really think about detail when painting. I try to break what I am painting down into a mid tone, a highlight and 2 shadow tones. When done correctly, the image tricks the eye and detail "pops out". To achieve this, it is useful to stand back from the painting and look at it from a distance. Fortunately, we don't have to get up out of our seats because ArtRage provides a very useful thumbnail view even though the aspect ratio is distorted most times (a pet peeve of mine).

[lopazas]

i liked it. :) keep doing same things :)

[Rob in Denver]

Thanks for sharing both the image and your working processes with us, I found both very interesting. You have what seems an almost scientific approach to getting the image you want, which is so interesting to me ( I have little of that). Nice job!