Fabulous pragmatic lurkers, here is another update to the Fallen God: Winter project. Was having so much fun trying things I decided I could not wait to see it with the snow. While this is far from finished, I am really digging how this will look. Please zoom in and take a look at the eyes. If you would like to support this blog and my artistic efforts please consider becoming a member of my Patreon page listed in the left hand border.
Oh my god. Wonderful readers, what have I done. I have let out the green eyed beast; this is a god that is very jealous of prayers given to other gods. As you can see, I have been tweaking the horns and steam rising off them. I have also begun filling in the fur. While I was doing this, I thought about what the picture would look like with different colored eyes and hit on the idea of using the color highlight in the icy horns. I tried it in the left eye and was sold. I hope you think so too.
Wwwwelcome wwwonderful followerrrrs! Sure is cold up in these parts. I have been working on the horns mostly since I believe they are going to be what really sells this image. Always love making the mist too, but working on the blue sea ice look has been a blast, an artic blast, ha ha, you get it. Ahem, anyway I hope you enjoy the progress I am making.
Well hello my lovelies. There has been a major sea change to the Banished God – Winter project as you can see. Lots of tweaking yet but this is the new direction I decided to take after a happy accident. At one point I was working on the darker lines of the horns, which should have been on the layer with the steam, but it turned out I was working on the main painting layer. One I realized the error it was too far ahead to undo my way out. I decided to erase the horn I messed up. While doing this, I noticed how good the gray I did on the proper layer looked against the black background that was now visible.
Click, I had an Idea, what if, instead of cold white horns, I made them look like the blue and greenish ice you see sometimes in nature. So after a lot of erasing and repainting, here we are. There is much more to do to get the finish I want, but I had to see what I could do with this.
So my beautiful followers, here is the first look at Banished God – Winter. Very early iteration where I am still feeling my way around the new color scheme. I had a face start yesterday with a light blue background for the face that looked terrible with the hair colors I chose. I am having to think much differently about the horns because of the paler color as a background. I was thinking of having bright blue lines like the red ones in fall but don’t believe they will work well. We will see when I get further along. I like the idea of the whitish horns here but can always change my mind.
Marvelous followers, do I have a tale for you. It is tale of college experimentation, aliens, and plaster. Back in the day when I was at college persuing a degree I really did not put my heart into because it wasn’t me, I took an art class. The best class of my college career.
We worked on sculpting each other’s heads in clay then went through the process of casting those heads in plaster. I went home with plaster on my shoes, happy. This was not an advanced course; however, learning the basic method of casting was great.
The coolest aspect of the class was that we had to make an art installation as our final project. Unfortunatly, we had to do this with our own money, which limited me. I did have a grand idea that included the use of an egg from the movie Alien. Hence the title of the post, a play on the phrase “In space they can’t hear you scream.”
Anyway, I began by sculpting an alien looking egg that had the convolutions of a human brain and roots for a base. The top was starting to open like in the movie. My idea was to represent the process of learning being used by the human mind to create the great ideas that have define our civilization.
I then cast the brain egg in pink tinted plaster and painted the root stucture dark brown. In the top I drilled four or five holes. I don’t remember now. The sculpture would be placed on green felt cut to follow the roots. On this felt I placed sticky dots with the alphabet and numbers flowing in streams into the roots.
In the holes at the top I used flexible wooden stick that I placed butterflies I had made on one end. I do not recall how I made them except I think the wings were balsa wood. They were just heavy enough to cause the sticks to droop outwards. On each butterfly I placed some of the great ideas humanity came up with, one had E=MC^2 on it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the rest.
The installation covered about a three foot circle of floor space and was about the same in height. It was far short of how I wanted to express this concept. I envisioned the letters and numbers as sequential lights pulsing into the roots. Maybe flickering lights randomly blinking in the brain. Topped off with glowing butterflies at the ends of fiber optic cables. This was around 1989; however, I did not have the resources or experience to create my true vision.
I still had a lot of fun. You should have seen some of the other works. One person created a ten foot tall metal sculpture symbolically representing the French antagonistic dance you see in old movies. Once in a while I get the itch to try making a better version of the sculpture I made, especially since the original has long since been trash. That is my tale, let me know what you think.
Oh my wonderful followers, tis done. Went through and detailed all the yellow leaves, added the blurry foreground leaves, and adjusted the mist off the eyes. He is signed and ready to reclaim his believers, he hungers for the old sacrifices. Hope you have enjoyed this journey and are ready to embark on his next incarnation in winter. I will be posting him on my deviantart page shortly if would like to purchase a print. It is an 8.5 by 11 inch image that I would usually double for a print. Another option is to contact me here and we can work out a print from the place I use which will be made from a tiff file that does not use compression, better print.
Wonderful people, look where we are now. Definitely closing in on completion of the Banished God: Fall project with the testing of the background with thoughts toward the winter version. I am really happy with this image and excited to see what I can do with the others. Let me know your thoughts.
Well hello there wonderful followers. I just wanted to show you where we are with the Banished God project. As you can see, we are nearing the finish line with lots of color and patterns put into the beast’s fur. Also, I extended the breath coming from the mouth and added a drop off from gravity. Overall I am happy with where this has gone. I will soon add some leaves falling in the background and foreground to symbolize the fall theme.
Hello amazing followers, I have gone and done something rather rash with the Banished God painting. I have been somewhat dissatisfied with the monochrome look of the overall image and thinking of introducing some of the ram’s natural colors to balance the image out. The main reason was that the other aspects I plan to paint later (i.e. – winter, spring, fall) will have more variance in color, making this one look weaker. Well, I decided to experiment tonight and I am thinking this is a good direction. What do you think?
