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LiamRSharp β Testament 12 cover
Published: 2006-12-29 12:54:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 4255; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 105
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Description
This is my cover to the DC/Vertigo title "Testement" #12, by Douglas Rushkoff and myself. It's not strictly fantasy - at least not to many people - in that it deals with a scene of mass and brutal circumcision (seriously!) - straight out of the Old Testament. However it also features Astarte and Kryshna as lovers, and is all about the duality of sex and violence, life and death, love and hate, beauty and horror, the rose and the thorn. Carved in the stone is an image of the god Marduk, who is to terrorise later issues of the book, so it's prescient too. Probably my most loaded symbolic painting to date.This, as many of the Testament covers, was created using the fairly simple, traditional technique of line and wash. I find the most important thing in line and wash is the underlying ink drawing. This can't be "saved" in the colour stage. If it's wrong, no vibrant color palette or painterly technique can redeam it! The masters of this in comics are Kaluta, Quitely and BWS. I'm doing my best to compare with this niche, extremely talented group of pros.
Liam.
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Comments: 8
Can you say who the other 2 characters on the cover are besides Astarte and Kryshna?
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Kinda reminds me of Barry Windsor Smith's romantic style, nice work!
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If mass circumcision can be beautiful, you've nailed it - perhaps 'nailed' is inappropriate here though
youch!
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Quitely? I consider his work quite different on all levels compared to BWS but I'm a fan of this technique.
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I am not familiar with this way of drawing/coloring/outlining
but it looks VERY detailed and really good!
The colours are some times quite abstract but I looks good still.
Which size was the original paper you drew on?
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Thanks! It's a very old technique, basically producing a black and white drawing in Indian ink - I used a brush, but you can use a dip pen, or even the colorfast fine-line markers they make these days, though you get less character with that rigidity of line. The watercolour is painted over the drawing, it being a transparent medium. You have to be pretty sure about your palette before you go in though.
The painting was 26 by 41cms on watercolor paper.
In the past this was considered a hobbyist technique and not what "serious" artists used as a medium, but it reproduces beautifully, and you get a sense of lightness with it that is generally missing in oils, acrylics and a lot of digital art.
Take care,
Liam.
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I think I get what you mean.
I'll keep on checking your gallery for a better understanding of this kind of art.
Kind regards,
LΓ©onie.
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