The Sketch Of The Castle
I decided to not go with the sketch in my sketch book, but I took certain pieces and the perspective. With the sketch, I used a reference image to see what structure castles take up. All castles have many windows and openings so you can have easy access to every area of the building itself. I felt this was a great concept to take up because I would love to have a complex castle just lurking in the distance: a castle which is a myth, a legend.I think it’s best if you use a reference image then to do it from memory, because the image will not turn out the way you expected. I did this well because I picked out certain areas and formed it all into something else, adding things on top of one another. I don’t think I drawn the building big enough, unfortunately, and it looks quite ‘bubbly’ which wasn’t a style I was going for.
Line Art Of The Castle
Line art is very interesting because it can show a lot, or as little detail as it wants. With the detail, I decided to add windows, damages, and extras to my building that the sketch never shown. This would be a great way to do this because the shading I plan to do will not cover as much detail as I would like. I wanted to give the line art a ‘comic’ style to it, where some lines are sharper then others.
I think the line art looks fantastic with a lot of detail in it, with cracks, thick lines, and thin lines all together. All these qualities of line art really brings the image out entirely, because it’s one of those things where you can always find something new if you look at it a lot. The bad side of the line art, I feel, is the lack of ‘realism’ and perspective that it has, I don’t think I did a very good job of this, and I should revise this in the future.
Line Art Of The Scenery
I revised many reference images for this, but there was one reference image which I found intriguing and just what I was looking for. With this image, I revised the way the tree’s grew and how they lay on the land. Also, I also thought about how I would shade the mountains and the snow all around the building itself. I didn’t actually sketch the background out like I should have done, this possibly would have made the task easier.
Making the line art as simple as possible was possibly the best idea for this task, because of the area’s being so far away from the actual building itself. However, I should have gone over the lines for majority of the trees and the building should have been redone in certain areas to fit with the background.
Colouring The Canvas
The moment of truth, colouring the areas. I did this all in one and not stages because I felt it was better to approach it this way then to do layers and layers of single shaded places. I did the shading first, found myself a light source and built on that, then added the colours on afterwords. However, the snow, mountains and sky were all done separately from the image itself.
I’m happy with the shading, and I took reference from my favourite artists I researched and took on a sort of ‘shading style’ they would do. Also, doing solid shading really gave the image a sort of ‘cartoon’ feel I was looking for. Unfortunately, however, it was too cartoony to get the feeling of mystery. I wanted to add certain qualities to the image to make it stand out to some one who has never seen anything like it before.
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The Finished Image
I tried my very best to make this image how I imagined. Using references and many other things to help me get the best possible results. I don’t think I did as well as the artists I chosen, but I tried my very hardest and practised certain painting skills on the snow and on the mountains, so I believe I have room to improve. I do like how I completed the castle, though, and how it and the tree’s flow well together. As for the snow/ice, you can really tell it’s a steep and harsh area.