Mythology: Persephone

Happy Thanksgiving! Long time, no update. Which I am trying to get better about: I've been looking into finding some good screen capture software so that I can start recording my process again and publishing it to Youtube. The biggest trouble that I seem to be having now is that everything I try keeps crashing, and I haven't got the technical know-how to troubleshoot it.

I've been looking into purchasing a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud. My Design Suite CS5 is starting to feel pretty old since I've grown accustomed to using CC at work, and in particular, I'd like to get a hold of After Effects so that in the future I can play with animating my paintings. If I do wind up getting CC, then you can expect to see more video updates from me in the future. Not only does CC include its own screen recording program, but I'll be eager to show the fruits of my labor with animation as well.

For now, though, here's what I'm working on. Being a project oriented person, I couldn't resist trying to organize a group art project with the artists at work similar to the Moon Goddess Project (which you can find if you venture far enough back on this blog). The theme we chose to go with was Mythology. Originally we meant to focus exclusively on the Greek pantheon, but there was interest in Norse as well, so we might see a smattering of other cultures included in the project. For my first piece I've taken on Hades and Persephone. I've already done a couple of quick studies-- one portrait, one full-figure-- and at the bottom you'll find the in-progress sketch for the final piece.

To the left you can see the portrait study, which was painted in Photoshop CS5 on a Wacom Cintiq 22HD. (Oh, by the way-- I got a Cintiq. It's awesome.)

Below is the figure study, which was drawn in mechanical pencil and then inked with grey Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. (Any Inktober enthusiasts out there?)

And, of course, the sketch in-progress. It's still very rough at this point, but I'm working on composition more than anything else. Once I'm done decking everything out with florals, I'll work on getting Hades in there-- a Grim Reaper figure who will ideally be subtly integrated into the background. After that will come lineart in Illustrator and a lot of painting. This is a project that will take me several months to finish, I'm sure.