Moby Dick pt1

I'm going to attempt a WIP series on my blog that will hopefully keep me motivated to see it through to completion. I've been reading Moby Dick recently which has inspired about a 1000 different illustration ideas so I'm going to try a couple of them. My goal will be to post stages of progress which may last months given my schedule:) Starting here are some very rough thumbnails of scenes in my head while reading along. The tail fluke idea comes from the part of the book when they've gotten surrounded by a huge pod of sperm whales in the south Asiatic Sea. A ring of whales has surrounded mothers and calves who swim just below their tiny boat regarding them with (slightly curious) indifference. The visual effect in my mind is a slithering mass of (what must seem like to the whalers) eyes, flukes, and teeth just below the surface.

I also have the ubiquitous White Whale jumping out of the tumultuous sea with Ahab's boat in the foreground which is always fun. As you can see I've thrown in some steep high waves to create a sense of even more peril. The other one I really like is a top down view again of Ahab's boat cutting across MD as his pectoral fin is cutting through the water towards Ahabs boat. Seeing this one through I think will be a challenge and could be a strong yet subtle piece. We'll see:)

My immediate goals are to do some very strong refined drawings using models and props with anything I can make, beg, borrow, or steal. Stay tuned...

Sunday Life Drawing May 2, 2010

Maria Garcia. Learned a lot on this one. I'm not at all happy with my proportions or edge quality however I did come away with some insight on how to approach next time around. There's a few nice things happening on her head. I hope I get the chance to draw her again as I definitely only caught a glimmer of her essence this time around.