Saturday, November 10, 2007

Skybax Model

This painting from the Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara shows Will Denison flying through the mists of Waterfall City on his giant pterosaur Cirrus. I wanted to give the painting a feeling of lightness and airiness, so I stuck to pale tones in the distance, and a warm palette of color overall. It’s another example of the weird principle of reverse atmospheric perspective brought on by edge lighting in a moisture laden environment.


To figure out how the edge lighting would appear on the architecture and the flying figures, I put my maquettes to work in real sunlight. Here’s a little model of Will flying on Cirrus that I've used many times before. The pterosaur model is made from a variety of materials: Sculpey, wood, pipe cleaners, and cardboard. It has poseable wings, which are made from a pair of old stockings that have been painted with latex to give them a membranous surface.


With the model set up in the real sunlight you can see clearly how the top side of the near wing picks up the cool of the sky, while the far wing is warm from the transmitted light shining through it.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I just finished Journey To Chandara! I LOVE it! In my humble opinion(I'm feeling humbled after looking at all the paintings and comparing them to mine) I think it's the best thing you've done. It's such a special book. I won't go on but I wanted to say my two favorite pictures are the Irish Elk on page 75 and the Boon Sloth on page 82. I responded really deeply to Thermala. Maybe it reminds me of a canadian winter, a mixture of comfort and isolation.The depth in the book is amazing. You've allowed room for my imagination with all the hints and suggestions. Seeing these models and sketches only adds to the depth. Thanks for putting so much heart into this book. It really shows.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Eric. It means so much to me to hear such generous words from a fellow artist of your standing. I love your blog, by the way, especially the grass monster, which surely rules my neglected backyard.

I hope you fared OK in Halifax with Noel roaring through. These November days get us all thinking about sitting by the hearth and curling up with a folk tale or two. Good luck with your work, and thanks so much for commenting on the blog!

Anonymous said...

So...how much for that model?

Kidding...

K_tigress said...

That’s really neat. For a long time I was thinking about making some models of my characters from my story ideas which might prove handy for animation n other things. Well actually quite a while ago I made a model of a small space ship based on another personal cartoon/story. It was made out of an old plastic bottle, an old toy laser gun, paper mashie and lots of imagination. It turned out really good with the light n sounds. Well for one day any ways.:)

Unknown said...
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