Project Plan Revised

After discussion about my project plan from last week I have decided to make several changes. I was very hopeful I would be able to get 6 maybe even 7 paintings done but I had scheduled myself into mid end of December, not realizing our last day of classes is actually December 6th. So I have cut down my number of paintings to 5. I also originally had 5 characters (plus a dog) but think that may be too much so I have now only 4 characters.

I also decided I am going to try and work on all the pieces in stages together instead of finishing one after the other. This meant I needed to figure out new deadlines to make sure that I am on track time wise.

These are my deadlines for all 5 pieces.

Sketches - Done by 10/2

Color - Done by 10/16

Shading - Done by 10/30

Details - Done by 11/13

This deadline will give me an extra two weeks at the end for wiggle room, adjustments, and additional fine tuning.

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So this week I had started sketching. Originally I was coming up with some sketches for a merchant cart that was on fire and all of the characters were drawn to it and trying to put it out. I realized that the idea of this fire being the fire/smoke the two characters saw in the first painting I did it would be very unrealistic that they would get there time, judging by how far away it is. So instead I have that they saw people were camping out there and have found them.

This was my first sketch I had. (at this time I was still thinking of having 5 characters, the dog, and merchant cart. I was however unhappy with this sketch as the perspective really doesn't work with you seeing a straight on side view of the 3 characters in the front. Also I was going to have this dark branchy / leafy boarder going around the edge.

Detail picture of merchant cart.

I am sad I won't be using this for now but I really think it would be too much to include in every drawing.

Again, I was unhappy with this idea and how the layout and perspective was working so I spent time trying to figure out a good layout. After several reiterations I have decided to go with the layout of the (really basic) sketch below.

For my research this week I tried to find artists who work in a similar way to how I am trying to work. I really haven't been able to find examples. I saw some who would plan things out and do all the sketches for each painting in the series. But then they would go through and paint each one individually. So I am a little worried about this unconventional way of producing these series of paintings. I also read a lot of articles about how to make the paintings you have look and really feel like they are all part of one series. There were many tips and things to watch for but the main ones are focusing on the level of detail, style, and tones/colors that you use and making sure that they all remain the same throughout each piece.