IOW #21 - Old Man and the Sea

[Aksel Ludvigsen]

Illustration of the Week #21: Old Man and the Sea

This is a one week topic. This weeks topic was suggested by Kafka Dreams. Wooo!

Topic
This weeks topic is Old Man and the Sea. This week your task is to depict an old man and his relationship with the sea.
As usual, bonus points for original ideas. We like those!
Other than that the topic is as open as... well, the sea.
Which is pretty darn open. Go for it.



Deadline
The deadline is Sunday 8th of April, 23:59 GMT

[blazinwolf]

Cool topic! I may join in.. if i can find the time between my other project.

[Cyberman]

At first I thought it said Old Man of the Sea like the tale from 101 Arabian Nights. Old man and the sea. I might do one, it sounds chill...

[blazinwolf]

started my idea... i really need to get some reference for the guy, as it's confusing me.. I kind of wanted him standing instead of sitting.. hm.

[jamtob2]

This may not be "as open as the sea" after all, given the circumstance that you recruit Hemmingway's classic, and this being Illustration of the Week which emplies - in this case anyway - to stick with what is provided to the illustrator(s). A classic work of fiction.
All I am saying is a quick read (or alternate watch of the movie) may be a good recommendation, to bring to mind what it is all about.

[derekdedgell]

I got the impression that the topic is not limited to illustrating the novel, or relating to it in some manner. Is this not the case? I was kick around a few ideas for this but they don't have much of anything to do with the novel, that OK?

[Kafka Dreams]

The actual topic I suggested was to illustrate the first lines of The Old Man and the Sea:
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

If the feeling is that is too confining, then maybe make it illustrate some part of The Old Man and The Sea.

I was just trying to move away from the very open topics that have dominated IOW lately and make it a little more specific.

[Cyberman]

Yeah the brief doesn't mention the novel at all, it says the topic is as open to interpretation as "the sea". A old man and his relationship to the sea, Soo like that could be some undergrounds sea, or some sea of space ship parts and he lives in some space port fishing for space slugs to eat...

[blazinwolf]

lol I took it as the book. I just realized the topic can be taken differently. oh well.



update.

[jamtob2]

I do see the point in declaring this topic "as open (to interpratation) as the sea", yet, as mentioned before, this is an illustration and as such (and the existence of mentioned novel) all I am saying is that in a usual context of illustrating anything, may this be a manual for a device or machine or any work of fiction, as in novel, myth ect, you are bound to stick to what is given to you. You cannot simply add a character or the like into your artwork simply because this tickles your fancy, when it is not in the original.
So, as for this brief, to work what should be provided is some guidance, text, script or plot to actually go by much rather than throwing a single line of text at people.

[kwshutt]

Blazinwolf--literal or not, that's some really nice work. The shark looks awesome! The blood and teeth are really well rendered.

Hey, first WIP...it's a really rough one. For the old man and the sea, I thought of an old man who seeks his lost lover who drowned in the sea many years ago. He is so haunted by her memory that she has become one with the sea, both serving as a symbol of loss, longing, and despair for the old man. He is perpetually drawn to the sea, searching, and perhaps hoping to become one with it as well.

[Kafka Dreams]

Blazinwolf- good rendering but the old man seems rather relaxed for someone stabbing a shark. Some more dynamism in the pose and expression would add a lot to your illo.



Here's my take. The old man getting ready to depart in the morning on his daily fishing trip.



Still need to render the water more, fix up the foam and shadow of the man,

Any comments would be appreciated.

[kwshutt]

Second WIP. Slooooow moving.

[Kafka Dreams]

kwshutt: I get what you're going for, but be careful cause right now it doesn't really look like the man is mourning for a lost love but rather dealing with some sort of mermaid. Are you going to show her as some sort of ghost? Maybe if he wasn't reaching for her?... i don't know. But you need someway to denote that she is a memory and not there right now. And his hands are HUGE!

[Kafka Dreams]

Here is my nearing completion piece.

Any comments or critiques would be greatly appreciated.

[dierat]

Here is my nearing completion piece.

Any comments or critiques would be greatly appreciated.

Personally, I think your image is coming off a bit soft and muddy, like you rendered it out with a really low opacity brush and in the process you lost a lot of saturation in your colors and contrast in your forms. Because the figure is so small, you're relying almost exclusively on contrast to bring him to the viewer's attention, so you might want to consider making the darkening water more gradual and lightening up the area around him so he stands out a bit more.

Just my 2 cents ofc.

[Cyberman]

Kafka Dreams, I really really like it. I actually like the soft edges style it reminds me of Carriere, Who is one of my faves. I personally am not feeling the vignette which makes me want to create balance. That being said it doesn't really matter probably considering Joseph turner didn't even follow composition rules. Just his own taste. Not saying that's what you want to do, just saying it doesn't matter what I think .



Here is what I have so far...I actually would like something more original so not sure if I do this as final or not.

[grenogs]

Ok so i know this is an open brief, and we're not being asked to illustrate a scene from the actual book of the same name, but since i really do need to update my portfolio, i thought well why not follow the obvious choice. Anyway just a basic colour roughing at moment, so plenty of details still to work out.

[schaba4]

Hello,
I am a new on this forum, but enjoy a lot looking at your wonderful drawings ! here is my contribution to this contest

Arnaud

[grenogs]

A quick update on this, decided to experiment on this one, very rough still, but i quite like the direction its heading so far, already thinking what other images i could create using this style.

[Varguy]

Here's mine. More or less done I think.

[blazinwolf]

still working, thanks for the input to the ones that replied. i went and shot a reference of the pose.

[Trespasser]

I chose a classical sunrise scene for the topic...

[blazinwolf]

It's over, but I continued on my piece, if anyone cares.