Tristan Elwell (UPDATE 5/11: NEW SITE)

[salaryman]

Great work sir.

He looks like a damn bounder.

I'd imagine the dragon would concur.

Thanks for sharing.

Cal

[Jason Manley]

well done sir

[jfwalls]

I love the look on his face. Very nice, but there's something about that boot. That guy reminds me of Major Grubert from some of Moebius' comics.

[-Max Bertolini-]

Very nice Tristan... I love the expression of the face. Yes, the boot's heel is odd, but who really cares.

Where did you find the clothes? Did you use photo ref and painted it over the original suit of the model?

[dogfood]

Damn, Tristan, this is just stupendous. I'm especially in love with the contrast between the late-19th century dress and the fantasy beastie (and obviously both are done just well).

One thing, though, and you can tell me what's going on: there seems to be a hot spot where the curve of nose smoke intersects the shining wing claw (made hotter with the sword pointing right at it).

[GNL]

Great work Elwell!

[glikster]

su-perb.... eyecandy for me... and I alway love seeing what the other professionals have to say, Dutton's crit drives home your post on edges....

[Kian]

Great work Elwell. The character kicks ass.

[strych9ine]

Gawgeous... I'm particularly with the composition of the piece, it seems almost perfectly framed to me. You lead the eye so well along this beauty. Looking good Tristan.

[Lord Dubu]

Love the shriner looking guy. Is that Turtledove? I'm completely unfamiliar with the character... looks like its time for me to Wiki.

[Arctis]

Congratulation for this very expressive pose & portrait : it strikes the eyes !
I really like the irreverent mood of the painting (it suits you fine )

The only remark I'd make is that the dragon would need to interact more with the environnment ; right now it's totally green, particularly the head, so it gives me the impression that it's less realistic than the character.

Pierre.

[Spacetoy]

Thats Rubbish that!!!

Not really - got your attention though - Its a very clean and well composed image(lovely).. but for me the green on the dragon is a little on the bright (day glowy) side... The king also looks rather clean and tidy as if hes just took the credit and glory for someone elses arduous battle?

[nonie]

The dragon and the guy don't blend well to me. The dragon is so saturated and even in color, and the anatomy of the wings is a little questionable - where the dragon looks like a pretty decent fantasy image, the guy looks like a gorgeous, detailed, realistic portrait. The angle of the foot seems at odds with the surface of the dragon's head, and though the light's not very strong there's not much reflected light - the green of the dragon should at least show up reflected in the guy's sword. I'm nitpicking, this is a great painting. The detail of the scales is beautiful! And I love the buttons on his jacket so much. Great work!

[vigostar]

Lovely work there Tristan.... The main figure is done masterfully..

[Rich Pellegrino]

Very nice piece. Your dragon has such a cool look to it. I agree that it may be a little too saturated in comparison to the rest of the piece. But this is stellar work (yes, I said stellar). How do you reference dragons? Do you look at all sorts of reptiles and Chinese hand scrolls and then combine them into something new. Dragons have always been a weakness for me. This has become my new favorite piece from you. Thanks!

[Pixeldragoon]

Can't say I'm a big fan of the colors, but overall it's great quality man. Just what I'd expect from you =P

Nice.

[Infinit]

great execution

[Pattern Recognition]

I like this most than your previous cover, the pose of the king is awesome, the details are all in the right places and it reads so well!

One crit is that the dragon's green is well.. far too consistent all over. I always imagine they have subtle shades of other colors like lizards in RL.

[4rt-r41d]

Wonderfull!

[Elwell]

To everyone with compliments, thank you very much.
To everyone who critiqued, I agree with all of you. Some things you pointed out were concious decisions, some were things I let slide that I shouldn't have, some were just a case of running out of time. While I'm very pleased with this piece, it's still nowhere near where I hoped it would be when I started.
Now for some specific replies...

That's one hell of a character portrait Tristan, really nice man, what kind of reference did you use for that, did you just have a model or yourself pose and then reference the clothing for the time period?

I was fortunate for this one in that I was able to get a model and costume that pretty much exactly matched what was in my initial sketch. The model was great, and gave me the exact feeling I was going for.

Great painting. Although he didn't seem to have a very hard time slaying that dragon. He even managed to keep the dragon's blood off himself.

Actually, it was a lucky crossbow shot, right through the roof of the mouth!

Great work again Elwell. That Dragon got owned by.... Stalin!?!?

This totally cracked me up.

One thing, though, and you can tell me what's going on: there seems to be a hot spot where the curve of nose smoke intersects the shining wing claw (made hotter with the sword pointing right at it).

The smoke was actually a late addtion, requested by the client. It was a good idea, but if I had planned for it from the beginning I probably would have arranged things slightly differently.

Very nice piece. Your dragon has such a cool look to it. I agree that it may be a little too saturated in comparison to the rest of the piece. But this is stellar work (yes, I said stellar). How do you reference dragons? Do you look at all sorts of reptiles and Chinese hand scrolls and then combine them into something new.

Yeah, let me talk about the palette a little bit. The color of the King's uniform and the dragon were both given in the book, and getting them to work together was tricky. I guess the jury's out whether I pulled it off or not . If it had been 100% up to me, the dragon would have probably been done in dark reds and browns. In the original the darkest darks do actually go to a sort of deep maroon, but it's too subtle to come through in reproduction.
As for how to do reference dragons, yeah, that's pretty much it. Look at lizards, snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, bats, pterosaurs, lions, etc, etc, plus existing dragon pictures, mix it all up, and see what comes out.

Here is my initial, super cartoony sketch, along with another unused concept (fantasy publishing rule #17: dragons sell books).

[Kvick]

Pretty cool piece of work, everything was really well done only thing I think was that the blood should have been thicker or darker it looks kinda sprayed over the ground.
I think its better you used the first sketch too, dragons ftw

[asoir]

Love it all. The expression is fucking perfect!

[dogfood]

I'm pretty certain I'd be doing backflips and crowd surfing if my deadly serious sketches turned out anything like your super-cartoony ones.

[bdfoster]

Wow Tristan. I love it!! I can't say anything that hasn't been touched on in other posts, and I'm not into sloppy seconds.

Hope this is the start of some more frequent posts from you...

[glynn james]

From a simple sketch the guy (or king?) looks amazing!

Most impressive

[se7en_]

Cool pose and great technique.

[GriNGo]

I think it looks kinda desaturated, but I still love it. Maybe just turn the saturation notch up a little?

later,
GRiNGoLoCo

[jfwalls]

Those sketches are just way too cartoony. It's like looking at a Peanuts cartoon!

Actually, I think the second one would've made a more interesting cover. But I guess you gotta do what they say.

[Elwell]

Howdy folks, some news:
First of all, I've consolidated some threads for neatness' sake.
Secondly, I've got two pieces in the book section of the Society of Illustrators Annual Show that opens tomorrow. One is Firehorse, the first piece in this thread, the second is the cover I did for Crispin: the Edge of the World by Avi:


Here's an actual size closeup of the figures (they're about 1" across). Yes, I am insane.


So, if you're in NYC and want to check out the originals, they'll be hanging at the SI for about the next month or so. More info here

Finally, here's a cover for a YA novel about a girl who hits puberty and has snakes sprout out of her head. Turns out she's half gorgon. Talk about adolescent drama! Oil over acrylic on Strathmore illustration board, 8 1/4" x 12".

[EmiR]

hi,
i love it. the girl is very well and the snakes give the picture looks like a 3d-picture.
PS: i know, no one grow snakes out of the head, but its look very realistic. hehe