King Sweetums the Barbarian (FINAL!)

Here it is, in all it's uncensored-vector glory!  Glad to finally have it done, or let's say I'm telling myself "It's done!"  Sweetums the Barbarian-King and 3 of his Deja Thoris-type topless slave girls.

You can check around my blog for the creation of the original, traditional version of this piece, the sketches and some of the vector WIP.  I tried to show some of my progress.

Now I hear that Ahnold is going to do another Conan movie, "King Conan"!  Bring it on, old man!!

King Sweetums 3

The sky has been giving me trouble in this piece.  Actually, the background in general has...should have planned the whole thing out before I started drawing--again.
I tried to take inspiration for the clouds from one of Frazetta's classic Conan paintings.  It's hard to pull it off in vector, it needs to be consistent with the rest of the piece but has to try to convey the drama of the inspiration.  What I've got here is better than what I started with, but it may get re-drawn again.
At a friend's suggestion I went back and re-drew all the pikes, spears and axes at the back of the throne to be individual.  I'd asked for his critique and he said they all looked the same, and that jumped out at him.

Sweetums the Barbarian 2

I'm continuing to work on this piece, it's taking a long time but there's no deadline on a personal piece so no worries.  Just trying to keep the detail consistent throughout, trying to decide how much detail it really needs...when you can work on the computer you can zoom in so far that you can draw details that won't even show up, and most people won't see.
So how much shine needs to be in the girls' jewelry?  How much stuffing needs to be coming out of Kermit's head?  How much texture do I put on Gonzo's skull?  These are the pressing questions this piece brings up!

Vector "King Sweetums"

A few months ago I had a painting in an art show, the theme of which was "The Muppets", and I attempted to draw the monster Sweetums as a Frazetta-Conan-type barbarian, complete with topless slave girls.  Well, I did it using ink, watercolor, and colored pencils, but it didn't turn out as nice as I'd hoped.  I thought it would be a nice break to go back to traditional analog media, but it wasn't.  It just reminded me how out of practice I am, and how unforgiving those techniques can be!

So I'm taking the drawing, for my own experience and enjoyment, and re-creating it in Illustrator, my daily medium.  I am starting to be convinced that while I can pine away for "traditional" painting, I just don't do it anymore!  I am learning to like what I get from vectors, the clean lines and everything is editable, and of course the undo keystroke alone is worth going digital.

So this time around...I'm a lot faster in vector, and there's also no show deadline this time, so I can really develop some detail, the real trick here will be finding the right balance, and not over-doing one section and then having to remove elements or bring everything else up to the same level.  Right now I'm just blocking things in and trying not to isolate colors but have things be consistent throughout by holding to a tight palette of (mostly) of warm tones.  I actually like the flat, graphic nature of vector art, so I'm not too concerned with a lot of gradients, blends, feathering, stuff like that.  (I guess I'm a dinosaur in the Illustrator world who learned to like what it could do before transparency was an option! and I'm okay with that.)

So I'd like to post a few articles on my progress with this piece.  The original watercolor, and it's development, is here if you care to compare: "King Sweetums"

Muppets Movie Art Show

I was recently invited to participate in an art show based on the Muppets, to coincide with the new movie.  I was only too happy to submit a piece.  I had actually thought of this particular subject before so I was excited to have a reason to take a shot at it--the Muppet Sweetums, as a Frazetta-style barbarian-king!  Of course, it was a great opportunity to draw some topless barbarian babes adorning his throne, so I went for it!  Here are some shots of the painting-in-progress.  Pencil sketches, ink drawing, and watercolors.

This was the original drawing, the layout is the classic "Frazetta triangle" composition.

I had to do a little more work on the slave girls....once I got into the final drawing stages I realized the quick sketch had some awkward, undefined anatomy going on.  I ended up with two nice poses for the girl in the foreground, and I chose the one laying on her back instead of the kneeling one.  I liked 'em both, though!

Ink drawing.

 

Underpainting.

Starting to add colors--concentrating on the "hot" center of the image. Here's where I made the major mistake in my drawing--most don't seem to even notice, but to me--it's unforgivable!

Adding dimension to the slave girls.

Continuing to fill in colors and values.

The final, framed image.

Overall, I would give this piece an "OK" rating, but I'm my own toughest critic.  I'm sure it will show well and I'm happy enough with it but the perfectionist in me thinks I overworked it a bit, should have put the brush down an hour earlier than I did.  I had some Frazetta images on my reference board, staring me down, intimidating me while I worked, making me very conscious of my non-Fraz-ness.  Also, I'm so used to working in vector on a computer with limited undos that it's hard to just dive in and try to crank out a painting with unforgiving watercolor.  I'm a bit rusty on my real-world, "analog" skills!

The show is at this Hilliard comic shop:  Pack Rat Comics  There is a meet-and-greet reception this weekend, Dec 3rd, I think it starts around 7.