Eagle RBB Art Post 2 : An Unexpected Omen
So here is my final set of art created for the eagle_rbb ! sineala has written a rather lovely story for the original artwork here: An Unexpected Omen.
I tried every so hard on this painting when I first made it, and I got motetus to beta it (which improved it) but I kept fiddling with it and got to the stage where I really didn't like it very much but couldn't work out how to fix it.
The original: Meeting at the Stone Circle
I looked at it again after reading Sineala's story, and thought: AARGH! Esca's legs and eyes are wrong and his waist is peculiar, and Cottia's eyes are the wrong colour and Cub looks strange, specially his ears. And it's later in the evening in the story. So I overpainted it a bit (although the lighting still isn't quite in keeping with the story) :
Esca's eyes still aren't quite right. I am much happier painting landscapes than faces, but this seems to lead me to creating images where the faces are exactly of the size where one hair's breadth of slightly-too-dark grey makes the whole face look Very Wrong.
This particular stone circle, by the way, is based on The Hurlers, near Minions on Bodmin moor, but in the story The Hurlers are playing another stone circle somewhere in the South Downs. I feel the Hurlers would probably enjoy a bit of activity and getting about the place, what with them having been sportsmen in their youth.
Then I had another go at Esca, for this line:
" His russet hair whipped back in the wind as the fading sun shone palely on his face; his wide-set eyes caught and reflected the last of the light."
I'm quite pleased with this one though I'm not sure the lighting is quite right.
"Cottia ran towards them, Cub bounding forward at her side"
I like this Cub better, though Cottia's face looks odd. I think it improves a bit if you look at it more closely. No idea why.
"the hare still sat on the left side, the auspicious side"
I am pleased with this, both for the lighting, and because it has no stupid faces in it for me to screw up. Apart from the hare, and I am happy with hare-faces.
All of these were painted with acrylics, apart from the last one which uses yellow pastel for the torch, because it's easier to create smudgy flame-lines with pastels.