Meeting In The Forest Diptych
This is a commissioned diptych (two paintings displayed together to tell a story). The concept is a chance meeting of a Buck and a Doe in the forest during the early dawn. The Doe is in the painting on the left and the Buck is in the painting on the right. There is one big tree trunk in the foreground, shared between the two paintings, half in one picture and half in the other picture. What follows is the description of how the two paintings progressed from start to finish, as shown through work-in-progress photos and videos.
(If you don't see the final image, it means the process is still ongoing and you will have to check back to see the status of the progress.)
The physical color sketch painted with acrylic paint so that I can get a feel for how the texture of the painting will look. During this phase I can make mistakes and solve them so the final painting will be fresher looking.
The color sketch of the other painting in the diptych. This one features the doe. I laid down a red background over the entire painting and then put all the other colors over the background, leaving bits of red to show through.
I have sketched the doe painting in pencil and placed it on the left. Now the client can envision my view of what he explained to me.
The client changed his mind about the pose of the doe. He now wants her to be facing forward but with her head down. So I quickly do a new pencil sketch to show him what it looks like.
Preliminary digital art value study in grayscale.
Preliminary digital art value study converted to color. The study is okay, but I'm still not happy with them.
Since the scene takes place during the early dawn, I had to alter the lighting in my digital sketches. Everything still looks too clean in these sketches, so I have to switch to actual, physical, painted color sketches to capture the textured feel better.