[Fred Flick Stone]

I hope this works. If it does, I am back in business and can post once again...



I did this before the movie came out. I raided a website and found this image, I got lucky I guess in finding it. I would have faired better to wait for all the magazines to come out one month later, but I got eager and wanted to paint in acrylics, god knows why. I did a fairly tight pencil rendering, which is really all this is, with an acrylic glaze over the pencils. The pencil portion took about 10 hours, and the painting took about two hours. All in all, I had fun with the piece, as I didn't know what this guy was going to be about in the film, so I wasn't tainted by any story. I just wanted it to be like a character portrait, and not yet set him in a setting. I am glad I didn't for I would have invented something looking far from what was in the movie...

This post is mostly just to see if I can post images again, but I leave it here for you guys to cut to ribbons and use as confetti at the next ticker tape parade in your local venue...j/k satyrical remarks ...

have a good day...

[Kyri]

Man that is really excellent Fred, pencil rendering?....Blimey, it looks painted. Detail is incredible, awesome stuff.
Duhh, I should read things first,would be a good idea.... ;P heh, heh, awsome non the same.

[This message has been edited by Kyri (edited July 19, 2000).]

[Anthony]

Ack...damn that's good.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[psi burn]

hmm..
only 2 little funky things. his robe seems like its really heavy/thick, like a bathroom towel (in terms of texture, etc). you should give him a black smooth silky type cloak, to make him seem more evil. also, his stance looks kinda awkward, what with his feet and all. you should give him a more dignified, lethal stance.

[Transcendence]

wonderful work, as usual. I must critique though...the left arm disturbs me. The right arm's fabric is more realistic than the left's. It looks like it's funky color skin around the elbow area and keeps the same shape almost through the whole arm [fabric wise].

[micke]

Wow!
Really impressive. I have that
picture at home in a magasine and as far as i can see it's very identical.
I've never tried acrylics but i've tried watercolour, oil and Gouache. How is it like to paint with? is it similar to gouache?would really like to try sometime.
It would also be very interesting see this piece being created in stages, but i guess you have'nt scanned in each step. It's very inspiring to see some traditional
paintings, it sure make me wanna try it out
Fred, what original size is it?

Klaivu: The sabers are sticks(later replaced with light by ILM). They cast shadows Guess they just did'nt care to remove them.

-Micke

------------------
-Mikael Noguchi-

http://www.katode.org/noguchi/

[This message has been edited by micke (edited July 19, 2000).]

[Fred Flick Stone]

It worked. I would like to thank Francis for telling me how to crack into my site. Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't adjust the levels on the image, so the colors are a bit contrasty, and the red really pops too much.

Yoszi-this was done on illustration board 300 cold press. It has nice tooth to it, but the board is a bit too thin to really drown the image in water.

Rinaldo-this basically became a drapery study, as thats all I really had to work with. But I got a little obsessive with it. What I use photographs for these days are really just studies, since copying photos is really unenjoyable. This study became a folds study and drapery study, that is the reason for their overpresence. If this was in context to an illustration, the light, shadow and detail would have to conform to the image.

Klaivu, affected-I have had this dispute since day one about the damn sword, my belief is that id there is no mass, there is really no blade, especially a blade as well shaped as this. If it were a pure energy beam, i would assume it would have currents, and gaseous distcharges erupting from the surface from time to time. the inconsistency of raw visual electricity. So, as not to confuse the eye, I thought giving it mass would benefit greatly, and not make the sword look frisketed in.But I believe, like I did, in that shadow would be the total color of the objects light source...

psi-the towel look is definitely what I was going for, as the movie hadn't yet come out, and I didn't know that robe was paper thin. I kinda like it towel heavy, lloks more menacing. And I definitely didn't use black, because I hate painting black robes. If he was outside, true black wouldn't be present all over, just in the deep shadows where no bounce light could influence it. But I just hated black, and really wanted to punch some color in it all over. Call it artistic license, ehatever, my bad, but I don't think it was a bad thing. Specially in print, the colors really look nice...just my opinion though

I can't wait to start posting again. I have a couple tutorials that have been in idle till I could get back up and running. Thank you all for the kind remarks, and observant crits. They are greatly appreciated.

[Fred Flick Stone]

Micke- acrylics can act like watercolor, but only once. Once they dry,they are permanent. You can glaze with them ,as I did here, and build up on the values of the pencil render, or you can go opaque, like oils. But they tend to have a very plastic look to them if caked on like oils can get, like a Van Gogh. I would normally stick with goauche or oils, but alot of the time, due to deadlines, acrylics can be your best friend. They dry quick, and thats it, done...YOu might want to try them, but your other mediums are far better choices, at least in my opinion they are. That last girl you did in watercolor was beautiful. Stick with those techniques when using the acrylics, and you'll be doing beautiful permanent images, without that fear that a drop of water could kill this image. I will post the queen amidala I did also, that was entirely opaque. You'll see the difference. Just don't laugh at her head, it really doesn't look like Natalie Portman. I had an image the size of a wallet picture, and that was all. I like the head I painted because of the tiling I did with the colors, that is why I never wnet back to correct the face. But I will bring it in to work tomorrow to scan and post and you can see the difference...


Transcendense-now that you mention it, the left arm bugs me too. It was the design of the cowel that did that. Its kind of tacked on to the shirt sleeves, my bad for copying it to the teeth. It would have been an area that artistic license would come into use to get better depth of form...thanks...

[spooge demon]

Hey, kool, Fred! I like the boots the best. Their form is explicit with a very few values.

I think the separation of lit and shaded (andin this case reflected light) is getting lost. COuld be the scan. The contrast is very high in areas that should be closer in value.

I would love to see you do the drawing like you did your eye tut drawing, with a strong organization of shapes and silhouettes. I find the acrylic wash technique difficult on shapes. Things get "doughy" and rounded very easily.

Micke, you are such a good drawer, have you checked out Drew Struzan? His media technique is very flexible. He does a line and tonal drawing, knocks it back with acrylic airbrush and then models and works lights back in with prisma pencils and a little paint for the brights. It is a great technique if you like to draw and you work with shapes well, like you do.

[TeAnne]

I am impressed....Well done

------------------
THE HIT LIST

quote:

---

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.
Plato (c. 427-347 B.C.), Greek philosopher.

---

[Farwalker]

Whew, this is a great post!

Inspiring!
Great job.

Yea, Drew Struzan stuff is amazing.
If you don't have his site here it is: www.drewstruzan.com

Keep it up Fred!
---- www.gamingvault.com

[Wildkat]

Fantastic pic Fred!....

you are definitely up and running for posting.....
& we're waiting for more...

great cape..... what's the size of this piece?....

[Muzman]

As micke was saying; Originally light sabers were not meant to have shadows. But back in 1974 the only way to do a decent sword fight on film was to use dummy swords and it's still the best way to get accurate movement, balance, weight etc into the coreography. As a result light sabres cast shadows (because they were sticks) and back in 1974 taking shadows off film would have been a total bitch (still is I guess)
No one is really sure what they are made of; the most popular explanation is that they are a kind of hand held force field generator used because projectile weapons have a nasty habit of missing and decompressing your space ship (and we all know how that can just ruin your day)

Nice job Fred. I haven't got anything to add to what's been said already so...
looks nice

[Fred Flick Stone]

The original is 15 x 19 on a 16 x 20 illustration board...bye again...

P.S. you guys are a really great audience to share work with. I enjoy reading all the comments, so many different angles and perspectives. Thank you again, everyone...

[n8]

ha.....nobody is sure wot theyre made of coz theyre pretend....not real....fake....never existed....theyre made up of special effects...hehehe

[yoszi]

Very nice. What kind of paper did you use for that ? I want to do something with pencil and acrylics but typing paper I usually use is probably not suitable for that.

[Rinaldo]

You are it my friend!

Some of the drapery is not one hundred percent convincing but hey I'm definitly not complaining

Glad to hear that you can once again post.

Now.... would you be so kind as to pop over to my thread and give me a hand with my hand?

Once again your skill amazes me.

(sorry for the bad joke and the ordering around)

[klaivu]

I like it. Not the subject though, I'm getting a bit sick of star wars..
one thing bothers me : should a light sabre cast a shadow ?

edit : duhhh.

[This message has been edited by klaivu (edited July 19, 2000).]

[Affected]

Klaivu: Yes. I remember stumbling onto as tie that dealt with the technical specs of lightsabers in a somewhat obsessive fashion... The short story: a lightsaber is not actually made out of light. If it was, there would be no impact when it is swung against, say, another saber, which, if you look at the movies, is not the case. So it has mass of some kind.

------------------
Affected

Democracy is a lie

http://affected.xs.mw

[AliasMoze]

Ah. It's so good I hate to criticize. But the face is really bright. It seems like it should be shadowed more.

It's kickass nonetheless

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AliasMoze
:) :) :) :)
"That activates my hilarity unit."

[Masaccio]

i feel so crap
i hate u fred

[Cos]

Great pic Fred! I'm not really a star wars
lunatic but I can appreciate. The detail on
the pic is incredible.

The light from the saber kinda looks wonky tho, and the blend around it looks a bit messy. I guess thats acrylics for you. Also, one thing I don't get, why does the shadow he is casting on the floor run over his robe? right in the centre, if you draw a line it goes right across on his clothes too.. I was trying to figure out what that was coming from?

[coolmanhey]

Hey Fred,

I have some paintings that I would like to show to you guys.. but am unable to get them in a comp. I was wondering how do you exactly scan your paintings into the computer. The Painting are not paper size and well how can I say this.. don't exactly fit in the scanner. I will try some digital photography but still the detail will be lost.

Thanks in advance

[micke]

Fred,Thanks for the Acrylic info and the
helpful tips. I'm gonna
try it out after my vacation, and i have got
myself some Aquarell-paper so i'm gonna play around with it some more. Looking forward
seeing your Queen Amidala painting

Spooge:Thanks for your kind words, it really means alot I've seen Drew Struzans work.
It rocks, his work looks so real. Sounds like a very interresting technique. It's kind of new to me to mix different mediums and techniques. I have'nt got much drawing/paint supplies and materials at home at the moment, but i'm planning to buy a lot of it. It's such a long time ago i painted anything.
Thanks again for the tips and suggestions.
Much appreciated.

-Micke


------------------
-Mikael Noguchi-

http://www.katode.org/noguchi/

[This message has been edited by micke (edited July 20, 2000).]

[Fred Flick Stone]

cos, I am taking a stab at this, I am not quite sure what you mean by the shadow, but I think you are talking about the shadow through the robe? A sorta straight line..It is because the robe is semi transparent, and you can see the shadow which is a dominant shape showing through the robe. Then, on the top of the robe, there is another shadow creeing through, but is cut off by a brighter value, which is the sunlight...does look a bit confusing in the scan, the real image though is easier to clarify what you see, as is always the case with real vs. scan...
Coolmanhy-I just straight flatbed scan them. We have a nice 11 x 17 epson scanner here, so it makes it easier not to have to piecemeal the images together...

And again, everyone else thanks for the crits, I gotta get back to work now, or I'd answer them all...

[ozenzo]

holy moly...I go away for a while and you're just busting loose with art work......super good stuff...I'm glad to see you got yourself back into your sight...I think we all are!!
Keep it coming this is very inspiring!!..adn thanks for sharing!! looking forward to to more of your work!!

[Kyri]

Hey I got inspired and did some star wars fan art too!!
Heh, heh, just kiddin....
I did it around the time the film came out, I think I was around 11. Oh those were the days, lol. ;P




[This message has been edited by Kyri (edited July 20, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Kyri (edited July 21, 2000).]

[Cos]

Fred, yeah that is what I meant. I didn't realise the robe was supposed to be transparent.. I dunno it kinda doesn't look like that to me...but maybe it looked like that in the original photo I dunno. Anyway it's still great work