Monday, September 08, 2008

Red Sonja and Dean Cornwell

Okay, so my earlier post had to be nuked due to technical difficulties. I'll get it all sorted and repost it in the future. Hellboy will not be denied!

In the meantime, here's a Red Sonja speedpaint (done for fun) and a copy of a detail from a Dean Cornwell painting.

(click images to enlarge)





My hope when doing things like the Cornwell copy is that by studying in detail the techniques of other artists, I'll look at my own efforts with a more open mind to different approaches. It's too easy to get comfortable doing what has worked before over and over again.

10 comments:

rory said...

Wow! This is fantastic stuff! I don't know how you even get the time while doing the Cap book, but really like seeing this art.

Alan said...

Lovely Cornwell copy - love the textures of that slightly impasto effect; and the deep brown tones.

Plus, it sent me to check out some Cornwell work on the web, which was a splendid detour. Cheers

IADW said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
IADW said...

I love how you can do a "Speedpaint" and still have such amazing finished visuals :D

That Cornwell painting is so strong. Who needs background when body language can say so much?

Steve Epting said...

Rory - Thanks. I get the feeling that most people who visit here are not very interested in art that's not comic book related, but I'll still keep posting it anyway!

Alan - I agree. Those juicy impasto brush strokes are so expressive and it's hard to duplicate that in photoshop. That's another reason I wanted to give it a try.

Dan -Thanks. You can see the entire Cornwell painting here.

Kev Levell said...

Both these pieces are great.

It's always refreshing to see someone pushing the boundaries - good work on the Cornwell.

Unknown said...

Hey Steve

I too really love the texture in the Cornwell copy, it almost looks like it was done no canvas from the way you've approached that piece.

Also, may I ask, when you refer to a "speedpaint", how long does a piece like that take you to complete?

Keep up the great work. I'm also now interesed in that Hellboy post that got nuked.

Steve Epting said...

Kevin - Thanks, I appreciate the comments

Raphael - Speedpaint is a term that's in pretty common use among the Concept Art community. It generally refers to paintings that are done in 2 - 3 hours as opposed to a more finished painting that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I'd say I worked on Red Sonja about 2 1/2 hours. It was spread out over several days though, so it's just a guess. The Cornwell copy was probably about an hour and a half. By comparison - the cover to Cap #41 was probably around 12 - 14 hours total, including the drawing time (I don't do any drawing for these speedpaints, I just roughly sketch in the shapes in Photoshop and start painting from there).

Unknown said...

ahh. Thanks for the explanation. As you can see, I'm more of an admirer of the style than an artist. I find that the Cornwell done in an hour and 1/2 to be pretty fast considering the detail that looks like is in the piece! Especially compared to the amount of time that you said went into the cover to Cap #41.

Thanks for your reply. It's great to hear a little insight that goes into the process of your artwork. Keep up the great work! I look forward to meeting you sometime again in the future.

IADW said...

Nice - thanks for posting that link! Thats a great painting. I take to much black into painting when I do mine - so used to sketching with sharpies!