The possibilities are not endless...

Here is the color studies I completed for my most recent painting, 'The Devil is in the Details'. These color studies were completed digitally.  

While the possibilities are vast, they are not endless. If you're trying to say something specific, it's your job to remove everything that doesn't support your message and keep what does. You need to be a good editor. Every color has an emotional state that must match the emotion you want your audience to feel. (Disney movies have mastered this.)

In this case it was regarding color: I had to find the most suitable fit. Deciding what the colors should be is akin to deciding what the colors can not be (Re: top left corner - what was I thinking?). Nothing quite said heat like warm colors yellow and orange. This image was kind of tricky because the painting is split in two with separate color schemes that still had to work together without being too obvious (Re: top right corner: 'Ooooooh - blue and orange, how'd ya come up with that one?'). 

I looked at cosmic and nebula photos (wanting the bottom half of the image to have a very tranquil state to contrast the fire in the top half) and saw there was a lot of blue-green. I incorporated that so it wouldn't be so direct yet still work well with the top half. (Compare top right with bottom right, the study chosen to based the final painting off of, shown below.) 

Cereal Siege - color studies

I've started work on the 'Thoughts & Progress' booklets for the 2 new paintings ('Cereal Siege' and 'Sunny Side Corrupt'). What stage of the process would you most like to see? What questions about the paintings would you like answered? Please let me know and I'll make sure they're included. (You can see booklet examples here: http://jonodoironstudio.storenvy.com/collections/117461-books )

 

Above: professional Illustrator, Charles Vinh, whom I learned from during the making of 'Cereal Siege', added on a stage in my process called 'color studies' (or, color thumbnails). Small studies to come up with a color scheme  for the image that will then be expanded upon in a larger format. Bottom left is the final line drawing and next to it is the final tonal.

Cereal Seige: revised color and tones

Learning lots from illustrator, Charles Vinh, (http://charlesvinh.daportfolio.com/) in the Illustrative Painting course I'm taking at Syn Studio. Here's the revised rough color, tonal study and under painting of 'Cereal Siege' still in the works.

'Care Bear' painting

Just passed a very busy January (in a good way). Shortly into the new year, I started work on a new painting involving a care bear. Some of the process below:

Reference sculpture I created and the final drawing.

Tonal and rough color study.

First block-in.