I needed this picture to tell a story and fit with the other three elementals but what story and how would it fit with the others?
This piece had a lot of iterations to explore ideas. At one point I had the water elemental as more of a Naiad at a waterfall or stream. The story fluctuated from languid, to serene, to joyous. They didn’t quite seem to partner with the three existing images which seemed more energetic. Was I hearing the tinkling laughter of a stream, or the crash of waves? Was I feeling a gentle spray of water blown off a little waterfall in the middle of a quiet forest, or the pressure of ocean depths. Eventually I landed on the current story. And would it be vertical or horizontal? I decided horizontal since I only had one of those (Air) and two vertical pieces (Fire and Earth).
I’m excited to have the original drawing with me at IlluXCon this Friday and Saturday, as well as limited edition prints of all four elementals. The drawing is done with graphite pencil, a tiny bit of Creatacolor NERO Extrasoft for some of the very dark accents, and I think I used white Conté for the accent highlights. It’s on Canson Vidalon Vellum. I drew the lines on one side, scanned the lines in for the digital painting, and then added values to the other side of the vellum.
See you soon, Pennsylvania!