Ephemeral

Still had a lot to get over, making this one…

I remember trying to nail down the idea of drawing a subject, then occluding details to emulate the aspect of the thing fading away. A trick that I took many year to get right (spoiler, not by doing that!)

I wanted to make the character fade away in smoke while his shadow would unnaturally diffuse into a pile of bird feathers. The scenery was to be that of sand dunes as well.

Biting off more than I could chew that night, I didn’t make a good showing of the techniques that would have led to some execution. I like the idea that was at work there, but the only thing that executed well was the atmospheric perspective-esque effect on the character, disappearing into nothingness. Not enough work was put into much anything else, the for/background is not textured well for expressing a simple environment that isn’t necessarily blending into the sky, and the perspective is not handled well. The Bird Feathers are not the same color as the shadow, which is a problem for making the merging/diffusing into smoky shade look remotely correct.

I was still making heavy use of line with the pen, thinking that I could master deploying it in a fashion the was less cartoon-like, a method that distinctly requires forgoing the use of line like this. The problem isn’t that it’sa prro technique, but that it requires consistent use in all the elements of the composition, and that didn’t happen here, so the image becomes terribly dissonant.

Overall not in love with the end-product here, but I’m somehow fond of it, regardless.

Originally prod. Nov26/2015

• Windsor & Newton India Ink

• Dip Pen (Hunt EX-Fine 512)

• Watercolor brush (Escoda Synth. Round Point 8)