Holocron Found

Project Title:  "Holocron Found"

Subject:  Original Sci-Fi / Fantasy Concept Art (Star Wars)

Style:  Tenebrism (exaggerated Chiaroscuro)

Goals:  To create fantasy and sci-fi concept art, and to work my process for creating, refining and producing concept artwork.

Inspiration:  Cam Kennedy (Artist) Dark Empire (graphic novel) is a huge inspiration for my artwork.  Cam Kennedy has produced many successful comics and graphic novels, but the one I was most inspired by was "Star Wars - Dark Empire" (1991).  Cam not only draws and inks his own work, he uses watercolor to add the color to the comic.  Just love his work and his work inspires me still.  And of course drawing inspiration from the future Episode VII and beyond Star Wars films (yet to be released).  And Google "Holocron" to see why the dark sider is so interested in this glowing cube and its contents.

Hardware:  Mid-2011 iMac 27', OSX, Wacom 9x12 Tablet, and ear phones.

Software:  Painter X3 (Trial)

Brushes:  Watercolors (Wet & Dry), Air Brush, Eraser, and Eraser Brush

Process:  1) drew the holocron in black pencil (actual sketch this time in a sketch book, then took a photograph to transfer to the iMac)  2) painted basic areas of the painting 3) created the background  3) painted the hand and cube (Holocron) without sketching just rendered with paint 4) use multiple Hue layers (red and black) with Color" based layer effects 5) Decided on the Chiaroscuro (most likely entering the realm of Tenebrism).  Once I learned what Chiaroscuro was, I just had to take this painting in that direction immediately.  8)  More watercolor dry brush and dry eraser 9) added layers of Fractal Wash Watercolor and Fractal Eraser (some really cool effects) 10) Then added some layers of detailed air brush for the glow and some of the really dark negative space.  Go Go Holocron!

Chiaroscuro (Wiki definition) - for light-dark in art is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.

Tenebrism (Wiki definition) - from the Italian tenebroso (murky), also called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark and darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image.

This is effectively a cropped and hue change from the 'A Dark Lesson" painting.  I like it in Green, hope you guys do to!