Lost and Found
12/21/08 10:12 PM
Back in '98, I got a bug to do a Skywalker family
portrait. I hadn't painted Star Wars before – I
just practiced with this piece:
It was "down and dirty" really quick and really small. Plus I wasn't happy with how I rendered Leia's face. So I worked harder on a larger one – carefully picking out the best reference photos and thinking a lot more on composition. Well, I worked so hard on this piece that I actually painted it twice. The first one really had me frustrated: the glazing was not what I wanted and left a lot of mottling on Leia's face and I didn't like the deep shadow in Luke's face. I must admit, that I was so unhappy with it that I tore it up. But recently, as I was looking through my old art, I came across the pieces to this "second draft." So I scanned them and pieced it all back together just to see what I discarded. Turns out I was missing a piece – so that is why the bottom corner is missing. I found it very interesting to revisit this painting, even if by chance. I'm glad I restarted. I much prefer the final version to this one. So, here is the reassembled Skywalker family portrait – the "second draft" on the top. The final version is on the bottom. I think that if there was one thing I wished I would have kept, it would be the background texture in the first one.
It was "down and dirty" really quick and really small. Plus I wasn't happy with how I rendered Leia's face. So I worked harder on a larger one – carefully picking out the best reference photos and thinking a lot more on composition. Well, I worked so hard on this piece that I actually painted it twice. The first one really had me frustrated: the glazing was not what I wanted and left a lot of mottling on Leia's face and I didn't like the deep shadow in Luke's face. I must admit, that I was so unhappy with it that I tore it up. But recently, as I was looking through my old art, I came across the pieces to this "second draft." So I scanned them and pieced it all back together just to see what I discarded. Turns out I was missing a piece – so that is why the bottom corner is missing. I found it very interesting to revisit this painting, even if by chance. I'm glad I restarted. I much prefer the final version to this one. So, here is the reassembled Skywalker family portrait – the "second draft" on the top. The final version is on the bottom. I think that if there was one thing I wished I would have kept, it would be the background texture in the first one.