Another Alexander

Well, this next Alexander piece was a tough one.

It went through a number of revisions and I had some trouble nailing it down just right. This is one of those times when it is good to have friends and/or people you can get some help or constructive feedback from. In this case, I asked my good friend Kennon James for some advice and he came through in a big way.

Anyway, here are my sketches. The idea for this piece was to show an important event in the life of Alexander, when he broke the Gordian Knot. My original thought was just a scene of Alexander and the ox cart (the knot was tied to the yoke), but the client wanted something more dramatic.

This is where I had the problem - as you can see by the second sketch, I was starting to push it toward more of an up shot, but I was having a little trouble nailing it. The client wanted more of the moment right before he cleaved the knot in two. This is when I talked to Kennon, who worked up a quick, helpful sketch and suggested something more along the lines of my third sketch, which the client finally approved. Thanks Kennon!

I was finally able to start work on the final line art for this piece. I did take a few artistic liberties, such as the sword blade at the top - probably from the angle we're looking, you wouldn't have seen very much of the actual sword blade. But, I thought it would be okay to tweak it a bit and I'm not unhappy with how the image turned out.

We are also in luck on this piece - it went through a number of changes and I actually have some of my in process work I can show. Here is the rough drawing -

The initial idea here was to have the sword burst out of the panel. This was approved and I moved on to my final drawing -

This is where we ran into some problems. The client was concerned about several things here - the first were the knotted ropes hanging down from the knot itself. Due to my placement, they sort of came across as, well, you know what. Hah! It never even crossed my mind that might be an issue. Serious tangent. Secondly, they were concerned, since this was for a textbook for grade-schools, they might be distracted by the armpit hair as well. So that got axed. During all this, I also decided that the background was too open and I wasn't really pleased with how the sword was breaking the panel. I made some edits and sent them back for approval -

The client was happy with the edits so I moved on to final drawing and final color -

For the color, we really wanted the focus to be on the knot, so I probably fudged the lighting a bit as well to really make the focus of the piece the knot. I suppose this whole scene has mystical roots, so maybe it's okay if the knot is glowing!

Unfortunately, I don't have any of the color process stuff, but maybe one of these days I'll post up my coloring process if anybody is interested. Anyway, hope you liked this more in-depth look at the process!

Jer

Next Alexander

Here is another in the series of Alexander pieces I completed at the beginning of 2009.

There is definitely something I find appealing about doing work from history that requires a bit of research and reference. That was one of the things I enjoyed most about my Inuit work - getting to research and learn about all the different people and their clothing, tools, and lifestyles. This is no different - it was for a history textbook, so required that it be as accurate as we could get it.

I'm no historian, so I won't claim that everything is perfect, but if not, it is at least pretty close.

Thumbnail -

Pencils -

Final colored artwork -

This, by the way, was also one of my favorites of the series of images I did. Alexander overlooking his empire! I really love drawing wide, panoramic, environmental scenes.

Jer

Another Alexander Piece

Hello folks!

Here is another piece I completed for Pearson Educational Group at the beginning of 2009. I spent a good part of this past year doing color work, so these are among the few illustrations that I completed all of the art duties on, from concept to finished color. Hope you dig them!

Thumbnail -

Lines -

Finished Illustration -

Thanks!

Jer