A little survey of various approaches I have taken through the years in developing preliminary drawings and studies for finished, full color projects.
While I do tend to default to a few set processes in the need to insure a certain level of professionalism in the final execution, there has always been a little room to play and experiment with new techniques. Open some new doors and see what walks in!
These are just beautiful Donato, thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing! How much do you refer to these preliminary drawings versus your reference photos when you’re working on your final illustrations?
These preliminaries are a foundational road map for how the final will proceed. Thus it is a dance between information from the references informing color/value/light and these prelims which guide overall feel and composition.
Since I work on top of these preliminaries, they are a very strong base for my final art.
I was just comparing the first drawing in this post to the finished oil painting and I see that the sword on the bottom changed from broken to unbroken. Out of curiosity, was this a compositional choice or did the client change the assignment?
Anyway those drawings are already a piece of art in their own right, beautiful!