Friday, July 22, 2011

Rocky Pemaquid

The past couple of days, I worked on an illustration based on one of my Maine photos. It was a photo that I took at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Bristol, Maine.


I actually don't think that the best part of the image is the lighthouse, I think the rocks are pretty cool. Those were some interesting rocks. Pemaquid Point has this big rocky area that juts out into the Atlantic ocean. It was really jagged and crazy looking. I honestly felt like I was on another planet when I was walking around on it. The rock was really gorgeous, though. It had strips of rust colored rock running through it. The layers were really visible. It wasn't like too many of the rocks you see around the Midwest portion of the country.
 

So I wanted to do an illustration that focused on the rock...and taking a little inspiration from the work of David Scheirer that I was talking about in my last post. I wanted it to have outlines and simple washes. That's another thing. I've been really not liking my washes lately. Either, they're not exciting in any way, or they've got too much going on. Maybe that's just the perfectionist in me talking.

Obviously, I took a few artistic liberties with this. I made the weather a little nicer than it actually was. But hey, that's one of the joys of being an artist. It still looks like what it was. I tried working some brighter colors into it because that is a characteristic of my style. I used a lot of purple and teal in the rock, especially. Painting rock is always fun, but this was a lot of fun. I have to say that the stripy-ness of the rocks is not realistic at all, but that was the point. I wanted to convey a feeling, more than a photographic image. I am happy with the wash I used in the sky as well. My scanner isn't wonderful, so it does wash a few things out (even with me editing them afterwards), so it looks better on the actual piece.

All in all, I am happy with this. I wanted it to be simplistic and colorful. Not sure if I would add anything else to it.

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