This is the first fully-(almost) finished piece of the semester, and the first in a long time since I was so busy over the summer. I sketched a ton but never took anything farther than that. So it was kind of nice to devote a lot of time to just one thing, to leave it and come back to it and really work out a lot of details.
The assignment was based on the description of this competition my professor found, of which the theme is buffet. (The brief waxes very poetic about "the world is a table" and "a convivial gathering" and "maybe even finding the great love of life." You can pretty much tell that it was translated from Italian.)
I started thinking about the games my siblings and I used to play in the backyard when we were little, and no matter what it was it usually involved some kind of feast, and therefore we had to gather and prepare food. We could pretty much turn anything from the outdoors into a banquet. So that's the idea that I went with.
I sketched up a rough drawing in Photoshop, did a value study over it, and then did more refined linework over that.
I was trying to focus on the contrasts between light and dark and warm and cool colors, so I played with a couple different ideas of warm yellow light against darker cool shadows.
The one I went with in the end was based off the third thumbnail, with a blue-green base, but I put a lot more warmth into it as I went to make it a little more summery and lively. Overall I think my attention to contrast led to a much more solid piece than I've had in the past. Having the lights and shadows clearly separated in value as well as color made the whole thing read better and look more lifelike. And I'm quite pleased with the shades of green I've achieved in the background.
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