Cave Troll

Click the Read More link to see work in progress steps.

The basic sketch will get most of the detail in there and I block out the colour for the skin. In my latest paintings I have been painting everything using greys because you will find it helps a lot with creating depth - meaning where things are in relation to each other.

I will be repeated myself a hundred times on the blog but as always I start painting the details with a soft round brush flow 5%. I block in the tree and start thinking about what is going on in the background. I usually start drawings having no clue whatsoever as to what I am going to do. I start with a basic idea and then try a few things by making marks on the page.

So I started blocking in a cave of some sort and then thought I wanted something to be coming from the entrance/exit so that they would be in shadow. I didn't want to draw the whole troll or dog but just give a suggestion of it. If you have too much detail in a painting there is no focus. The dog is actually a tiger just messed around with.

I start to colourise the whole painting with a redish colour (simply colourise it using PS tools) to give me a rough idea of what colours I want.

I add textures to the cave to give me some rocks and I add in the details all over.

Sharpening up the painting here and finished off lots of little details such as the flame. I use the sharpen filter on the entire image a few times once I am done for obvious reasons. Sometimes you do not want everything sharp so you have to be selective.

Just to mention this was my first painting to get a moderators award on elfwood.com here which was quite nice. There is so much art out there that it is pretty difficult to get noticed.