So How Would You Train Your Dragon?

Finally got to see How to Train You Dragon last night, and frankly it was amazing. I loved the story, the characters, the animation, the style, the music; I loved it all. It is definitely going on the DVD list. The best part though was that it was inspiring. I was currently fighting with some ideas on my Beowulf project, and all the issues I was wondering about, the movie helped me solve. So now I feel re-energized and ready to paint.

Also I am finished with the drawings to my Beowulf pieces and I am deep in the paintings. I do not really have the time to upload them all now but in a week or so expect to see a lot.

Rapture of a Maenad

This is a sketch I did to represent the Hellenistic god Dionysus. This piece depicts a maenad (or female devotee who was in a frenzy) of the god Dionysus as she is enthralled by his presence.

I wanted to show the sexual nature of the maenad via her gesture and her revealing outfit, as well as the sensual manner the wine is pouring on her.

I also wanted to convey the dualistic nature of Dionysus himself. One way I did this was by having him wear a split almost yin-yang like mask. However, the main way I wanted to convey his duality was in a more hermaphroditic way. While he is a man with broad shoulders, I added feminine features to him. You can see that he has not male pecs but female like breasts as well as very voluptuous hips.

This was a fun sketch, I normally don't do this kind of surrealistic imagery but I think I may do it more often.

Figure Painting in the New Age

A few weeks back I did something interesting with the digital painting class I teach. I had a model come in and we did some live digital painting from the model. I figured it was a nice relaxing class to have just before spring break.

The model was great, the students did a great job, and I think they really enjoyed it.

The REAL Beowulf

I know it has been a bit since my last post but I assure you I will have a lot to show you soon. I wanted to upload this to start off. It is from my reference shoot with my model Wil for the Beowulf project.

Since I generally like to show my process on this blog I figured I should show some of my reference shots for once, and I figured since this shoot turned out particularly well I would show something from it.

I am actually quite far on the project as of right now I am working on the third and final finish drawing for the project. Expect to see some finish drawings soon as well as some other posts.