Two studies today after Salvator Rosa, the Italian artist from the Baroque period. I went back to the A5 sketchbook for these full figures, as I found the A6 a little cramped for them last time.

Here's a very simple process video showing the three stages.

Pencil drawing to get the forms more or less there, lines with water resistant ink, and then diluted ink washes for value. Both the lines and washes were drawn with a fine brush.

My book cover design and illustration for Skirmishes in the Atrium: A poetry chapbook for the age of strife, by Arthur Powell - t.iss.one/atopthecliffs

A challenging but highly enjoyable project to bring together modern and ancient aesthetics into a symbolic whole.

Purchase the book here:

Britain: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skirmishes-Atrium-poetry-chapbook-strife/dp/B0CT64TKJM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3W0MUT99UEPFA&keywords=Skirmishes+in+the+Atrium&qid=1706981598&sprefix=skirmishes+in+the+atrium%2Caps%2C295&sr=8-1

America: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CT64TKJM?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_46J7MSJ8Z8TZBWHVW9G9_1

Underpainting done, colour next

Studies of various gargoyles and grotesques in the A5 sketchbook, drawn with ink and brush.

Bit of an experiment to draw some master studies on photoshop using custom brushes to make them look like ink drawings.

Study in gouache on a piece of A3 paper after Rubens' Hercules as Heroic Virtue Overcoming Discord. First time painting in gouache for over a year now, very fun, but life is a little too short to take this any further so I will leave it a little rough around the edges and move onto the next one.

Pretty much taken the under drawing as far as it needs to go here and will move on to painting next and will attempt to pay more attention to the intentionality of the strokes than I did in my previous study after Rubens.

Scribbly beginnings

developing

Alternate design

WIP

WIP

"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England"

My first piece of Arthurian art - a syncretic mix of Celtic design, Medieval manuscripts and modern illustration.

Some physiognomy studies of the French rugby players Alain Esteve, Sebastien Chabal and Gerard Cholley...truly almost lost archaic phenotypes, aggressively protruding into modernity.

I created this piece of artwork as a submission for the King Arthur day stream on art, part 3: The modern and contemporary, and was pleased to see it featured at the end of the video. Great stream, great channel, there is a huge amount on King Arthur there, you may be interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im2oLqP82Jg

Master study after Taddeo Zuccari