Master Alchemist. One of my most recent images, originally named “The Antiquarian”, named after its original purpose. I was thinking back at the end of 2019 to do a big painting with multiple characters (more than 1 for me) that had a big amount of points of interest and narrative.
The reason for that is because most of my paintings tend to fall in line with a “Bromy” kinda rhetoric that follows my anime taste. The typical 3/4 pose character that looks just “cool” and doesn’t have much going on than a sense of eye candyish imagery. Quite a comfort zone for me, I tend to fall in love with the neutral attitude and tie in something more subtle than a full scene where you can push the characters themselves in the back of the picture. Which is OK, but after a while it becomes a copy paste of all my images and recently I’ve gotten a bit bored of that.
The image started back in 2019 when I was taking a bunch of stock photos of myself for different ambitious projects I just wanted to try out. Many of them didn’t work out or just didn’t find the strength to persevere. My rule is that if you spend 2 or more months into an image you’re kinda missing the point. Personally I feel that I have a “short fuse” with painting and I burn my excitment way too fast, which is good at the beginning when you’re trying to imbue something with your own energy and vision, but later on it becomes a bit of a drag to keep going without it. So being very diligent with the “fun element” is very much a priority to maintain through out the entire painting process.
These are some of the images I worked with. Very simple. I just put the cellphone on the corner of my table standing up (most difficult part to do without a tripod). And positioned items around and played with lights I already had. I took the initial picture of me looking at the object and I just positioned myself around it as best as I could and then Photoshoped myself out of the images and paste myself into the original ones… sounds more weird than what it entails, but that’s it. Crop and paste.
The image I was trying to do initially was not about a magician or anything related to that. I was just thinking about this antiquarian guy investigating about a magical item that fell on his lap inside of his studio. There could be a bunch of curious onlookers or colleagues taken a gander at it or discussing, but the whole deal revolves around this one object.
As you can see I had a lot of fun and doing stupid “silly goose” faces is part of my unique charm.
You’re welcome.
This is the final image I chose. There were a bunch of poses I was really in loved with but I just like the main character folding over the object and putting so much attention to it. Looks a bit obvious in my opinion but works better in this case. Sometimes you just need to go for what is direct and this was it. With so many objects around we could afford just enough distractions to be entertained with the image without going “straight to the point” and leave.
Second character was very easy to choose. This guy is being cut by the frame and is a great way to just let the canvas expand and not box in anything. A major mistake I used to make in the past is that I just wanted to put everything inside the basket and it all looked stressing and compressed like it was struggling to be part of the picture. I think this is the only one where the guy cuts the upper part. So that’s that.
Third guy was a bit of a tricky choice but I like the break on narrative. The main guy is incredibly curious about what’s in front, the second guy is concerned and kinda upset/afraid researching the object and the third guy… I just like the classic pose of “duuuuuuude…!” as if something extremely delicate is about to be balanced over a pair of toothpicks and we’re all gonna go up in a mushroom cloud.
Fun stuff.
I forgot to say that this image was stored for a while. I started doing all this banana back in 2019 and kept it stored for no reason. Then I took a class in Smart School with Greg Manchess in 2020 and whipped it out. It was a great learning moment, because originally I was a bit intimidated by the amount of work that this image had the potential to have. I could see the myriad of objects and the huge array of colors I could put. So I took it out and let “The Man-Cheese” take a jab at it. He helped tons.
Thanks Greg <3
As you can see above. This is my mood-board for the image. I came up with it in the class. There’s no need to do this. I just like Pinterest a lot and I just felt like complementing and getting extra ideas instead of being so straight to the point and no foreplay. I honestly liked it and helped me tons to get excited about it. I do recommend doing this. and I will try doing this from now on with every image.
And God knows that’s a lie, because I’m a lazy cat.
Next comes a light general tracing of lines that I care about. Something very light and on the surface. you can notice in the back, the edge of the door and the picture frames helped me to get a perspective and for the guys I took a general tracing to the shape and shadow edges. Of course the hands are important so doing every finger helps tons with gesture.
I remember tracing being a point of contention in early social media with artists, but people have talked so much about it that now is kinda “BrOhH, WhY yOu No TrAcEee” and it’s actually kinda dumb to have such a good comp that is so originally made and not take advantage of the main lines. I personally used to be a big baby about it too, and I would hate it when other people just claimed that they invented everything out of their genius coconuts and they didn’t used any pictures. Like if their grandma is going to come with a stick and whip ‘em in the butt claiming shame to their family and their cow... (Mulan reference).
I do still think tracing has its cons. Sometimes you box yourself into a problem. And I consider in this case that my main issue is that I created a comp out of the reference and not the other way around. When I’ve done the opposite (sketch a composition first) I tend to get a more natural way of solving elements and everything is tied in. Even if you measure it with a ruler and you figure out that something is wonky, from afar it looks like it belongs. But when you take it all out of the picture, you really need to be either a good photographer and director, or just take in the most basic elements. Which I did here.
Then I just figured out the rest of the elements. This is the fun part. I just like imagining and playing with what I’ve got. And also I realized here the main mistake I did. I was really hooked up with doing a door frame. Like something with ancient decoration, but then on you’ll see I just didn’t have the brain power to do something beyond it which was kind of a loss for me. Also, the wall closes in right behind the characters and then it opens itself way to the back as if we’re in the middle of these ancient libraries like the ones I picked from the references. This in my opinion almost didn’t work. I managed to sell that effect of the wall ending but it’s still kinda confusing. Apart from that a few tangents show up by the end and that was a bit of a drag but, whatever. You live and you learn.
Also here is were I take the decission of making this a “Harry Poterry” theme. I think is way more funny and interesting that this guy is an old professor and it’s looking a the wand one of his students was messing with, his face is of true interest and I like the theme, that even tho you’re an old veteran you keep getting excited about stuff and always eager to learn and be a student over again, which I also add later on a little detail with the green wrist beads they have, which they all have as part of being students.
The book the second guy is holding in his hand ties in with the situation and then I thought that it would be also really neat that his face is all charred from the wand blowing up. So you see his eyebrows and the beginning hairline charred as well which is funny. Also the guy in the back makes sense now cause he’s going like “Omg Greg you f*ckin noob what have we done we’re gonna get expelled”.
I honestly think that if I kept on doing the initial topic it would have come up as bland and boring. Like so evidently a challenge in skill. “Hey, look at all the items I can do, I’m so good at the painting thing, look look!”. Like… so what. Here’s also Chase Stone. Go home, you’re drunk.
And here I attempted at doing a clean line.
I always have this issue with not doing sketches well. My spirit animal is a fat 2 months old golden retriever and I just inhale food and then I just complain I’m fat and my tummy hurts. And painting is no different. So I decided to be all zen and take my time for once, because I know with this one I cannot be in the middle of the painting figuring out what’s what. Too many objects, it’s kinda complex, this is not my typical 1 character on the wall kind of illustration. So I needed some structure.
I also did a quick mesh perspective with the Carapace tool. It’s very rudimentary but it helped me to figure out a few things that felt off in the background.
Now for the color. I think I did all this in one class with the artline. Coming up with these is not difficult at all. And I never ever ever do this. So it’s a good opportunity to slap myself in the hands and call myself a silly boy in the mirror for not doing it enough. You can already notice which one was my preference.
I decided to do the thumbnails in the middle first, and then with the help of some images I found on the InterWebz I color picked some tones and played with them. Then I created those extra little comps to figure out some things better. When you airbrush everything you kinda miss the point with the colors so I just went kinda Malevich on this one and made it more evident.
I think it helped… maybe it didn’t.
Who cares.
Multiply lines on the top. Color on the bottom. That’s how it always goes. Why. Because it’s super easy. And when painting traditionally I kinda do the same with a surface wash that makes you still see the lines. So you can position general colors and shadows here and there and then painting on top of that is just a pleasure.
I think I separated the characters by layer, but I just end up painting everything in one layer and what I keep on doing is that I copy that layer again on top to keep the history in case I overpainted something too much and I just want to go back. The PSD’s end up being kinda heavy, but if you have a potato for a computer like I did (hehe! not anymooooooore!!! yehhhh) then you can always put the last layer on a new file and name it _finalFINALdefinitiveTHISISTHEONE-finished_02.psd… you know the drill.
Like many other illustrators I HATE painting in layers. Yes. If you’re a company looking to animate something and do parallax please pay your illustrators a bit more for the bother. It is a huge waste of time for those who paint like this. And painting like we do is not a bug, it’s a feature. So just be understanding. Thanks. <3 much love.
Final Image… you can click on this one btw.
And then you paint non stop and that’s the end.
Corrections and some highlights:
I fixed the angle of the wand. Back in the old version the wand collided with the corner of the lamp and that was super awkward because it created this weird wall between the characters and the table. It was just a little bit and now it doesn’t look so disconnected.
The replacement of the weird stick in his hand with a feather and the angle too. I was just trying too hard with the weirdness.
The brushed on the right I also corrected. They look a bit stuck to the old mans shirt and that was kinda wonky looking, so I added more lights and volume and a different value.
Adding more items in the front helped way more. It looked a bit too staged, when you have nothing coming from the foreground and suddenly all the things come into the view. So I put some dope items there and it just looks better.
I also decided to put some curious items. Like the Tree of Life as a card in the book, some bronze owls which is a bit of a recall from my family that collects owls for some reason. And I also took the weird decision to put drugs in it too. Why not. It’s my painting. I put salvia on the front, shrooms, cannabis on the back, some more salvia and the beam on the bookshelf is an ayahuasca looking design and on the right there’s an ayahuasca looking tea as well! Super dope dude. I was gonna put some more stuff but then it looked like I was trying too hard to make the cool kids like me.
I wished I could have solved the door frame better. I have now some better solutions for this image but Greg and the rest of the people told me that was alright and I was overthinking it.
I think I learned a lot. And it really helped me with my recent Magic: The Gathering work to become way more consistent and more orderly and not jack around like a noob. I’ll definitely will do more stuff like this. I had a lot of fun.