When doing an illustration I tend to do three concepts for the client. I usually have an idea right away, a sort of gut reaction to the assignment, and more often than not that is the one I want to do. When I create the subsequent two roughs I have to make sure they are ideas that I would be just as satisfied to take to finish since the client won't always pick the one you love the most.
In this case Telltale was interested in which one I wanted to do the most. Based on the pitch of the story and some early looks at the artwork they were creating for the game I was leaning toward a kind of eerie feel in the first sketch. Since I had already painted LeChuck for the Monkey Island 2 cover I was more interested in featuring Guybrush for this one. And since I was never quite happy with my Elaine in the first Monkey Island cover I was happy to include her in each of the concepts.
These were done quickly on a Cintiq tablet to get an impression of the composition and potential color palette. My final painting had less of a green cast to it. As I work on a painting sometimes I go off on a different path than I had planned. I still like the green of the sketch but I also like the variety of background colors that grew out of the process of making the painting.
Digital 8X10
--Starchie
9 comments:
mmmhhh i think i prefier the middle one...but three pieces of art
gamusino Javi--
I would have been happy to paint that one too. Maybe if the print does well in sales, Telltale would ask me to do a second one.
HI Steve, big fan of your work. I personally think the third would have been perfect if his zombie hand was stroking his beard.
P.s. BOught your signed print from telltale and looking forward to it!
I like the more swashbuckling approach of the second sketch a lot, but I think the slightly darker feel of the first one fits the story best. I think "you have chosen wisely"!
And I hope Telltale will be wise enough to ask you to paint the second one too. Otherwise you could paint it just for fun!
Cheers!
I love the first cover as it is very Monkey 2-ish in style, but the other two are pretty amusing too.
Whichever Telltale had chosen would have been equally fantastic!
Hello! First of all, greetings from Spain. It's a thrill to be able to talk to such an artist. Anyway, I've got a question that came to my mind after looking at the sketches.
It's obvious that you chose to follow a different style for the drawing of the characters when compared with the covers you did for both MI 1 and Lechuck's Revenge. So my question is, was this comic-book style a personal decision or a request from Telltale guys?
Thanks in advance, hope to see your art again in a Monkey Island game! :)
I like the first one the most, not only because it fits the story best, but because there's more variety in the composition, the other two are straight-forward. The first one feels more interesting and engaging to me.
Love seeing progress work after a final piece. I wonder why so many people want to see the final and not progress? I think progress is the most interesting part!
I don't know exactly why, but I think the concept of the chosen idea has more dynamism than the finised one.
The finished painting is amazing, don't take me wrong, but it feels a little like if you asked Guybrush and Elaine to stay quiet while your pencil was drawing them on the paper.
Instead of that, the concept is incredible alive. For some reason I almost can see how that two people are moving in there. Don't know if I'm explaining myself clear. Probably it's only feeling, but I think this life I'm talking about is there somehow. And not so much in the final painting.
Said this, always impressed by your paintings. Following your new things week after month, ;-).
Bye.
I hope so Steve, I already buy one!!!
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