'See Much, Study Much, Suffer Much'

I loved the Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series as a kid. I mean they’ve got knights, wizards, bards riding giant cats, undead warriors, other magical things - what’s not to like?  They’ve always seem a little under the radar, except for the Disney movie (which I’ve never seen).  So I figured what the hey, I’ll do some Prydain pictures . Here’s the first, from the Book of Three, with wise ole Dallben putting some serious learning on Assistant Pig-Keeper Taran.

Here are some close up crops.

And here's some process.  First, some thumbnails.  I knew going in I wanted a big shaft of light coming into the study and a soft dusty atmosphere. From there I played around with some different set ups.  These are just a few of those.

I went with that first thumbnail.  Here I worked out and tightened up the composition.  The arrows on that second one were making sure things were leading the eye to the points of interest (Dallben and Taran) and not out of the picture.  Also, the image started flipped the other way.

Here's the final drawing.  I flipped the drawing back and forth as I was working, but I settled on this direction.  Having the window and light coming from the left helps lead the eye into the picture. Hopefully.

After that a quick value study to get an idea of the lights and darks.

And then some color studies.  More or less went with that last one, though it did change a bit.

And then BAM! Finished picture.  Just kidding. Lots of work and adjustments, but that's the gist of it.  More of these to come!