ILLUS 220 Finals: the Bear-men walking across the ice towards her

Many of my classmates have said this was their favourite final piece I did for this module. Ironically, it was the simplest and quickest to finish.
     I painted it in acrylics just with shades of grey using only palette knives, on a sheet of hardboard. I finished the piece in a single sitting ~ 2 hours although I could have done it a lot quicker (it was the first time I'd used palette knives). The background was done by scraping back the grey off of the board to show the white gesso primer underneath. The textures are from roughly laying down the paint and continually spraying with water and letting the water droplets create little dots and letting it drip down in places.
     I then took a quick photo and edited it to change some of the values and add colour. I think I may have also overlayed a posterise effect on it or something to enhance the textures in the paint.

I really like this final. I like the rough edgy textures the palette knives afforded me, and the bear-mens' deadpan/confused/gawping expression. It taught me that an illustration doesn't need to be precisely detailed with every aspect of the painting rigidly thought out, as long as it works within the aesthetic of the style of the piece you're going for it doesn't really matter. It can look better to create a mere impression of detail.

sketchbook page commenting on photoshop thumbnail sketches

This was the final rough
of sorts done in Photoshop.

 After doing this rough I decided to change the scene from when they're carrying the girl back with them to when they're walking towards her. It looked to me that the girl was ruining the awesome atmosphere created by the bears, she was hogging too much attention away from the rest of the picture. She didn't seem to be fitting in and I found it too difficult to draw her in the same stylised way I drew the bears.