Quite a departure from my last work, this one’s much more illustrational, sci-fi, and I’m going about it in a more traditional/methodical (as pertains to digital painting) approach. A major difference is that the last piece was all about the painterly impasto techniques, and this one has none of that. It shows promise, but it’s go a ways to go and unexpected twists and turns before I will be satisfied with it. If you missed my prior work, here it is again:
Oh, I guess I’m tending towards the pinks and blues as of late. And greenish eyes. Hadn’t put that together until just now comparing the imagery. The colors on the new one could change drastically at any point, though. That’s the beauty of working digitally. There’s endless room for alterations.
The alien will be much more realistic than my “Passengers on the Dystopia Express”. I’m trying for a technique similar to the one I used for my “Ant Man Goes AWOL”:
Will have to see how it goes. I forgot about those speckles in the lower left. Rather like that detail.
I’ve said this many times, but here it goes again. I think the Abstract Expressionists might have been better painters if they did plein air landscape paintings on weekends. Or, to be much more precise, I would be a better Abstract Expressionist if I did landscape and seascape outdoor oil paintings on the weekend. And that’s because it requires a very careful study of the permutations of natural color combinations. I supposed it’s the same thing as Picasso being a better abstract artist than someone who just starts off trying to be abstract without having the underlying foundation he had. Of course there are millions of approaches and styles, all of which can be successful. My path is just one among many.
From a marketing perspective, different approaches can distract from each other, but from an artistic one, (in my case, anyway) they can build off of, and accentuate each other.
As for the content, I’ll address that in detail later. Let’s just say there’s a lot of room for ambiguity. It may also evolve during the process.
This might take me a week or two or three to pull off. I’m still honing my skills at realism and learning as I go. I’m always experimenting, trying news things, and looking to discover something just beyond my grasp. I realized that about myself rather concretely a day or so ago. There are periods, for example, where I only listen to music I’ve never heard before. There’s that endless search for novelty, and an attempt to have a broader and more comprehensive vision.
Stay tuned.
Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 
These are fantastic! Sci-fi art is definitely not my area of expertise- but I’m enjoying what I see here. Super interesting- and well executed. Don’t wait too long to feel good about your realism skills.
And yes, I relate to “the endless search for novelty”. Especially with music- I’m always being excited by music I’ve never heard before. It makes my world go ’round 🙂 . Experimentation is pretty important to me ( to the point where I feel it’s all I do anymore, haha! But I’m ok with that for the time being).
The colour scheme in the top one kinda sorta puts me in mind of Moebius for some reason. I started really getting into his work over the last few years. Anyhoo, nice to see what you’re up to art-wise. I haven’t dropped in for a while, but will try to catch up on all I’ve missed over the coming days.
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I kind of put this piece on a back-burner. May or may not ever return to it. I completely reworked the drawing part, but didn’t finish it. I’m working on something else in another style at the moment, that is more central to my particular vision. But, glad you like what I did with it so far. I see what you are saying about Moebius, and that’s mostly just because at this stage I put down flat color. It wouldn’t stay that way, even if that is a cool style on its own.
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Yeah, I do love the flat colour on its own. I really admire artists ( like Moebius) who can do that well, because I can’t! I guess I haven’t tried hard enough, though. Must make a point of doing some experiments at some stage, as i really love the effect.
I do love textural detail, though, and I see you go to a lot of effort in that area. Just a lot of attention to detail in general. Reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who doesn’t always necessarily finish everything, though! Sometimes it’s healthy to just go where the inspiration flows. I notice that when I’m just not feeling something I’ve started, it kinda shows in the result. So I often wait until I AM “feeling it” again before continuing. It’s a delicate balance of inspiration and dedication/ self discipline, though, and I can see that you’re better at striking this balance than I am! Whatever it is you may be working on I look forward to seeing, regardless.
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