Painting the Sun King

Moved!
YES!! I'm done moving. You can't even imagine how relieved I am to be done with that! Thank you for all your encouragements, guys.

Two weeks ago, I made another picture for the art challenge we have going on at Avalanche Software. The topic was royalty. I've decided to use Louis XIV, the Sun King.




I always like when people show a little bit of their creation process. It helps me understand new techniques and other ways of thinking. I wanted to do the same, just to look "pro" like them! :) (pour me la pété quoi! :) )

So here are a few steps of the Sun King.

Enjoy!



1 - I always start with a crappy drawing. Lately, I've been so excited to move on to color that I don't take the time to make a good drawing... Shame on me!! I scan it quickly and go to Painter.




2 - I usually select a pretty neutral color to start with. In this case, I was going for the pretty dark color theme of Louis's time. I use the famous "washa brusha" of Ryan Wood that gives me random variations of my original color. I don't exactly know what it is. It’s just magical! :)
Sam Nielson told me something a few months ago that really helped me move on from my "paint by number" technique (see my graphic novel from the last post) to ... well... a better technique! :) He said: "I'm trying to be a messy painter". That really struck me. It's what I’ve been trying to do since then: be a messy painter. (Thanks Sam!)




3 - I mostly use the 2B pencil (with the "Method" changed from "Build up" to "Cover"), an acrylic brush and the washa brusha. Using 3 different brushes helps me to have more texture variety.




4 - I start working more on the background. I should have built up the whole picture at the same time to keep a constancy of color and shape but I couldn’t help it: the face was pushed pretty far along before I even started worrying about the background. It’s a bad habit to work on one little area at a time. I’m trying to change it.
Louis’s neckerchief was almost as bright as the face. I toned it down to keep the focus on the face.




5 - When I’m done blocking the colors, the rest is easy: details! I put a few textures in Overlay to simplify my work.




6 – Toward the end, I’ve decided to put the hand and the scepter back in the picture. I made them small to emphasize his fatness! :)




The end!

I hope my broken English made any sense to you guys. :)