| Wow, this project turned out to be harder than I thought. I set about creating several sketches 'looking over' the goats shoulder toward the troll at the other end of the bridge. I knew I wanted to create a sort of slanted horizon to try and change the angle up a bit, but I struggled getting it 'just right' (oh, wait that's from another story!)
When I thought I had it, I threw myself into painting. The idea was to layer the acrylics, create some texture, then use indian ink to outline the goat, then paint and ink the troll in last.
The whole time I was working on this something didn't feel right. The style had taken on a life of its own and was looking more like one of my old styles from a few years back. I wasn't happy at all.
So I went back to the drawing board, literally. I packed away my paints, and got out the sketch book again. I really have been trying to do more work in my mixed media style. You know, the scratchy stuff, as most people call it. (I'd been getting a lot of positive feedback about this style and was told to do more.)
Adopting a minimalist approach, I really pulled back and focused on the two characters: goat and troll. Did I really need to see troll? Not particularly. To me, I felt that the text emphasized mr. big goat meaning business, so let's create a look for him first.
Old Trollie suddenly shrank and seemed to cower in goats' presence and I liked that. I must admit I was still having trouble trying to strip down these two to their bare minimum. I became extremely frustrated that my pencil wasn't sketching the way I wanted it to! My husband — who is also an artist and can think very minimally (must be a guy thing) — sat with me and tried to help me see what I was doing in a different way.
Eventually, the penny dropped, the lights went on, something clicked. It didn't take too long to arrive at the new goat and troll — hurrah! Once I finalized the two sketches, I went straight into the illustration. Layering textures, playing with colors, and adding the type. I finished on time and happily posted my work for the critique. (See the last image at the foot of this page)
Got lots of great feedback and the following things are what I chose to address out of all the comments made:
1. I need a horizon line to help add perspective. I agree. I never even thought about a horizon this time around, but when I added it, it made total sense to have it there.
2. Maybe try to angle the goat's neck and head a bit more to accentuate him standing over troll. Just a tweak. I'll pull troll in a bit closer, maybe make him a tad smaller, too.
3. Make the text on the bridge stand out a bit more, looks a little lost. I made the text a touch bolder and added a bit of white behind to help. I kept the positiioning, because the point was to have it become part of the bridge and support goat's shag-bottom.
To see the final version, click here.
To offer feedback, click here.
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