Sunday, October 24, 2010

what do you give a guy who can't fly for his birthday?


here's the latest. i found myself wanting more animals in the portfolio, so went this route. feels unfinished to me so i'm happy to get input on what you think it may be missing.
(oil on illustration board)

4 comments:

pete said...

by the way....super secret behind the scenes info:
no burnt umber underpainting in this one. i can tell a difference...all of my future painting will have one. i just wanted to see what would happen and now i know.

Unknown said...

Hey Pete! Lookin good! I really like the characters and the action AND the tilt of the land! Lots of movement in this one! And I'm looking for tangents, and not seeing any! Terrific!

I also like how you have bird just off camera with a wing or so hinting to other birds.

There are a couple of things though...the legs on the ostrich seem a little pulled back. Now I've never seen a real ostrich pulled up and it's rearing up - so maybe this is how it goes - but the leg with the string looks really bent backwards...and would his free leg be up and back like that? Of course, I'm also assuming he's right side up and not upside down...oh wait - that's his wing, not his leg, but his leg is behind his wing, so it looks like his leg comes out of his wing. that's what it is!

Okay - so ignore that last bit. Is there a way to show the leg coming from the body so it doesn't look so much like it's coming out of the wing? To me, it looks like he just has a really feathery foreleg...

Also the one white bird on the right is in profile and that really flattens him out in an otherwise dynamic and round and dimensional illustration.

Terrific stuff though! I love the expressions...and the ostrich might look like he's lying on the ground, but you solved it with the camera angle so it really looks like he's lifted off the ground to me.

I don't think there are any really big problems though - the leg thing and the profile bird head are the only things that bother me, but only because I'm studying the piece...on first look it was just terrific.

pete said...

yeah, it's a very awkward ostrich body position - he's supposed to be upside-down but twisting his head up to see.

i'll see if i can play with that leg a bit.

thanks for the comments, isaac.

Christy/Tiddly Inks Digitals said...

Too funny! :) Love the expression. LOL