The Forest Troll Part VII: Watercolor

Justin Gerard

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

By Justin Gerard
13″ x 21″ 
Watercolor and Pencil on Heavyweight Bristol
Next: Digital Trickery

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7 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Arnie Fenner on January 17, 2012 at 1:22 pm

    Absolutely lovely, Justin!

  2. Avatar
    Chris Dunn on January 17, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    Stunning.

  3. Avatar
    Art by Ruivo on January 17, 2012 at 9:04 pm

    Awww it's awesome sir!

  4. Avatar
    Daniel on January 17, 2012 at 10:48 pm

    Really beautiful, looking forward to seeing your next step.

  5. Avatar
    LG on January 17, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    Seeing the piece slowly growing is such an amazing experience. Ty!

  6. Avatar
    CoryJay on January 18, 2012 at 6:17 am

    I've really been enjoying following your progress on this piece, which I love, but I'm afraid at this stage I have a problem with your solution to the triangle of death.
    the line of the over-arching branch+the curve of the tree trunk parallels the troll's profile in a way I find distracting, like the tree is too deliberately or obviously getting out of the troll's way. That the space between branch+tree and the troll's profile is similar in size to the troll's head emphasizes this, as though the troll's head were a puzzle piece meant to butt up against the tree's edge.
    This is essentially a 2-d problem, maybe solved by a cast shadow from the branch falling over/near the bridge of the troll's nose, to emphasize the 3-d space over the 2-d state? Or maybe yet another tree trunk to break up that space between the troll and the tree which the troll's head would overlap, again asserting the 3-d space?
    I hope all this doesn't sound arrogant. I'm not posting so much to demonstrate what I understand as to be called on what I don't understand, to be told I'm way off-base if I am, for which I'd be grateful.

  7. Avatar
    Will Kelly on January 20, 2012 at 12:09 am

    Hey Justin!
    Sorry I'm a little late to this class 😉 But I'm really liking the watercolors at this point. Just by a brief examination of the piece so far, I'm assuming that you're putting in washes of color to get your warm and cool colors sort of headed in the direction they need to be, correct? As an artist that is trying to find the key to successful watercoloring, I'm approaching pieces with the idea that I wash in color 1st, then attempt to put in more “local” colors, that are more vibrant etc. Is this how you're attempting this piece? Or will you instead add more local color in the digital process?
    Looking great so far – I think this'll turn out to be one of my favorites!
    -Will