Theoden Thursday

Inked with Faber-Castell pens and colored with Prismacolor markers on 9x12" 300 Series Smooth Bristol art board.

I'm always curious about the methods and processes of how artists work, and I always wonder what is going on during the time that they are working.  For this drawing, I originally had a more conventional portrait sketch of Theoden that I was going to go with, but I changed my plan at the last minute to include Saruman in a more abstract presentation.  The idea is that Saruman and Theoden are of one mind during the time before the spell is broken by Gandalf (just an explanation for those not familiar with the books or films)  I'm a bit disappointed with the final version (the coloring, not the linework), and I think it would have worked better in a digital version, where I could have more successfully blended the two heads.  But . . . live and learn.

For background noise during my working sessions, I usually have a DVD playing.  For the previous LOTR drawing, I was listening to the first few episodes of Deep Space Nine, Season 7 on DVD.  Sometimes, I listen to a film's audio-commentary track.  In the case of this piece, I was listening to the director commentaries on the Four Weddings and a Funeral and Pride & Prejudice DVDs.

I'm going to start talking about process more on this blog.  I feel like I'm getting to the point where I'm confident enough in my work (the successes and the failures) to do so.

-Otis