Thanks! I've found drawing is fun, especially if it is of roman things. To get better I have started recreating some scenes from Jacques Louis David's works
Thanks for the kind words, Graham! No, I usually construct my figures from scratch, but I'll use a wide range of references from armour to body parts (usually goofy selfies!) My kids make excellent Carthaginian soldiers too when I need them.
Like this.
I came across your work ("Roman military clothing") a few years ago when I researched for a Varus battle project, and I love how you handle fabric, and folds!
Jenny Dolfen
My illustrated novel project: [URL="http://darknessovercannae.com/"]Darkness over Cannae[/URL]
Quote:Thanks! I've found drawing is fun, especially if it is of roman things. To get better I have started recreating some scenes from Jacques Louis David's works
Graham, I especially like the fuzziness of the background figures in the first two pictures.
Have you managed this with your brushes? :o
Or is it done by computer?
Graham, I especially like the fuzziness of the background figures in the first two pictures.
Have you managed this with your brushes?
Or is it done by computer?
Actually with those two examples it is almost a mixture of both. The third painting is all painted but the stones were painted separately and positioned by computer. It was a bit of fun to experiment but in other cases I was happier with the original painted version alone.
What do you work with, Graham? Is that gouache? or acrylics?
Gouache on line and wash NOT board. Jenny I liked your layout showing the sources which is pretty much how I work too, with the addition of 1:6 action figures and the latest acquisition a full size mannequin! I am a big fan of James Gurney of Dinotopia fame and you may be interested in his blogspot. There was a recent feature on historical artists and all the various props and costumes they all had and used to use. http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.co.uk/sear...lustration
I came across your work ("Roman military clothing") a few years ago when I researched for a Varus battle project, and I love how you handle fabric, and folds!
Blended by finger rather than a brush! It also adds the fuzziness.
To get better I have started recreating some scenes from Jacques Louis David's works
Charlie you will also be interested in the works of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Edmund Blair Leighton and Jean Leon Gerome. Google and enjoy!
Attached another picture from The Pen and Sword 'Roman Conquest' series.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
James Gurney is great - thanks for the link! I don't check in as often as I should. Loads of beautiful stuff there. I'm a great fan of early twentieth century illustration.
Jenny Dolfen
My illustrated novel project: [URL="http://darknessovercannae.com/"]Darkness over Cannae[/URL]
Jenny, I notice in your "Hannibal at Trasimene" that Hannibal seems to have two working eyes, though one eye seems definitely paler than the other. I confess I don't know if Hannibal was wearing an eyepatch or bandage at Trasimene, as he did at some later times, but it is something to consider.
John, there is no mention of how exactly Hannibal coped with losing his eye (or, indeed, to what extent he lost it). There are different accounts with the different authors (Polybius, Livy, Zonaras, Nepos etc); some say he lost it, that one eye went blind, or he just didn't see that well on one (left and right are both mentioned in the sources). We simply don't know. None of them mentions an eye patch. In keeping with a modern interpretation that it might have been iritis he contracted, I went with the outcome that I found visually the most interesting, and that's a glazed-over iris in one eye.
It was still recent enough for him to have worn a bandage, I suppose (and I have depicted him with one in other cases when I drew pictures from Trasimene). I decided against it for this image, because it would have put the focus squarely on the loss of his eye, when I wanted it on the waiting in the mist.
But here's a bandage for you
[attachment=9048]wp_auge_col.jpg[/attachment]
Jenny Dolfen
My illustrated novel project: [URL="http://darknessovercannae.com/"]Darkness over Cannae[/URL]