Jónsi Project Production Diary, Part 3

On to my second painting for the Jónsi project!

Warning: some very unsatisfactory images ahead. I didn't have a computer in these early stages, so I had to use my point-and-shoot camera instead of a scanner, which just...well, see for yourself.

Yuk.

Anyway, the illustration. This one's meant to go with the track 'Go Do'. I thought of the Russian fairy tale of Prince Ivan riding on the back of the mother wolf to escape from Koschei the Deathless. I thought of ideas becoming birds, spawning from our minds and flying away to do our bidding...'go, do'.

I did a lot of research for this one. I searched for images of specific birds flying (Thank you, Google!): swallow, nightjar, starling, widgeon, peregrine, kestrel, swan. I copied a few flight poses, and got the general shape of it after a while. I really enjoyed creating the variations of miscellaneous flying birds!

Here is the inked version. All the paintings are the same size--9x12--and I was afraid I would lose the detail if I kept it in pencil. I used a Staedler .005 to ink.

I specifically had the Arctic wolf and the timber wolf in mind when I was drawing this.

Hmm, the Prince looks familiar...

I knew a swan should lead the flock, but she would have overwhelmed the composition. So I nudged her up into a far corner with only a bit of her wing and her black legs showing. She's the only one with legs.

Next post will be in colour!