Luschek Illustration Blog: 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Current State of Things.

There are a few fan articles for Harn which I have illustrated that should be coming out before the first of the year. These articles have a few of my drawings which I am pretty proud of. I will offer you just a peak of one of these illustrations.
Both projects have been a long time in the making. An article on a woodland tree house I think has an illustration I did in 2007 that will finally see the light of day.

Nasty Goblin dude.

The other big project I have been working on is a series of paintings for the Demolay organization. The first of the three is coming along nicely I think. It has been a challenge. I hope to have the painting wrapped up by the first of the year so I can concentrate on the other two. I still have to give the characters in the painting likenesses of specific members of the Demolay organization. I have not received the reference photos yet, so that will have to wait. I am just making the faces up at the moment- using photo reference, looking at classical paintings, and working out of my head best I can.

Join the Fight, 36"x24", oil on linen, © copyright Demolay Int. and Richard Luschek 2011

In painting, I typically set something up and paint from life. Doing a large scale imaginative piece has been a bit out of my comfort zone. I am still struggling with the light in the picture and may end up building small clay maquettes to work out the light and shadow. I typically do pen and illustrations, so the addition of a full color painting with form and breadth is a different animal.
You can check out my last post on the painting when it was just in the color study/charcoal drawing stage. You can see the changes I have made since then.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

New Creepy Studio Prop

I have really been wanting a Mannequin.
I don't mean the 80's movie starring Kim Cattrall, though it was pretty awesome. Honestly I think I liked the sequel a bit more- but I digress.
I have been looking for a poseable manikin for the studio to use for doing portrait work or to set up if I need to do fabric studies. It is tough to get any model to pose for long periods of time, so it is useful to have something to dress in the costume.

The full-sized wood ones sold at art supply warehouses are pretty expensive and can run up close to $1000. I figured I could make my own or find something cheaper that I could make work. Even an old department store mannequin could be used somehow.
There is a local fellow that has a great suite of warehouses full of antiques. He has some great stuff and I am often dropping in to look for still life objects or for stuff I need to fix my 100 year old house. I called him and told him if he didn't already have something to be on the lookout. He just called and said he had found me a creepy dude. It is an old medical mannequin, and was not really in great shape, but the price was right. I spent a day and an evening getting it fixed up. I built a new hip, made a wooden foot and fixing up some of the joints. The other nice perk is that I can practice my CPR technique.

I still need to fill the chest and stomach areas somehow, the light patches on the arms and legs are spots where you can practice giving the doll injections. They were missing in a few places so I sprayed expandable foam then trimmed it smooth.

The fancy new wooden foot I made out of a piece of 2x4

My next order of business it try to make it so I can set a pose. The joints are pretty loose so I can't lock a pose yet.

As it stands he is just a creepy fixture sitting in a chair in our basement. It freaks my wife out every time she goes into the basement.
I will probably be dressing this fellow up like a Knight Templar for a painting I am working on. Look for more photos of my new creepy friend in the future.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Big Nasty Castle

I do enjoy drawing big nasty castles when I get the chance.
I got a great opportunity last year when I drew the Harnic castle Benedes.
This castle was built and run by the Agrikans- a religion that worships the evil, fiery, god of war.
The geography and mapping were quite complex, so I definitely was not going to be able to draw this one out of my head.
As is typically done, I was given the maps and a brief description to work from. Usually each floor is mapped out in a top down view. I also get a map of the land on which it is located. Of course all of this stuff goes into the article as well. The maps are always well done, easy to read and great to work from.

In the olden times (5 years ago) I would build a model out of foam core, balsa wood and cardboard. A pretty time intensive process, though I love building models from scratch. Once it was done, I would take it outside in the sun to get the lighting I wanted. I would shoot a ton of photos and do the drawing from the best view.

Nebulon Keep, article illustrated for Kerry Mould.

You can download the full article here- Lythia.com

Not only did building the models from scratch take a lot of time but they were not easy to change if you needed to fix something. Occasionally things will be rewritten or the may be an area that is just not possible if you follow the map.
Now I use a free online 3-D program called Google Sketchup.
Here is Benedes done in Sketch-up. Kerry Mould, one of the writers, helped model some of the mountain and part of the temple for me. I did the keep and added all the details needed to execute the drawing.

The nice thing is once you make the 3D model you can set the lighting, choose time of day and even pick an time of year. You can rotate all around the model to find the perfect view. Sketch-up is pretty easy to learn and there are a lot of stock models already online in user library called the Sketchup Warehouse. I occasionally grab another model and just adjust it to my needs. One problem is that if you are like me you can go a bit crazy on the model doing all kinds of detail that is just not needed for the illustration. It is a fun program to play with. There are a lot of good tutorials on You Tube to watch as well. In the image above you can see the catapult on the tower. I built that for another project. As you build, you can save parts as components which will be stored in a folder that you can choose from in other models. So, now I just select my catapult model and place it anywhere.

Above is the illustration I did using the digital model as a guide. With alchemical shops and lots of weapons being crafted there, I wanted it to look like a factory. So there is a lot of smoke billowing forth.
I added details to the image that I thought would fit the description of the religious group. The crenelation at the top of the wall is sharp and pointy like flames. In the article there was a description of the warriors having developed medieval alchemical weapons. These grenade-type devices are thrown from the walls at the attacking enemy. I designed an arrow loop that would work with the grenades. Actual arrow loops built into castle walls to allow maximum protection to the archers inside the castle, while allowing a good view of the attackers. You may have seen these arrow slots shaped like a cross with larger openings at the ends- for that full range- and of course it had the added benefit of looking like a crucifix. A powerful religious symbol. Two of the symbols of the Agrikans are the mace and the octagon. I was able to design a pretty simple shape that is both a cool symbol and is functional for dropping grenades. The shape has the look of an upside down mace shape the head of which is also an octagon- very clever huh?

The side diagram on the right was not in the article, but is something I sketched out for myself. I figured there would be some sort of stone carved trough inside where the warrior could set the grenade and just let it roll out on to the attackers below. The head of the mace spits forth these fiery exploding weapons. It could also be used for arrows, but grenades are way cooler.
You can purchase Benedes from Columbia Games here.