When we last left our hero he was struggling but making progress on a Krampus Illustration
https://steemit.com/krampus/@arseniclullaby/arsenic-lullaby-krampus-illustration-progress
So...since then it has gone like so...I tackled inking the broken glass and some odds and ends that really ain't as hard as they look.
and finally worked up the courage to finish Santa as well as adding in extra details and textures to give it some depth and separate things visually.
yup...done...
...
except...hmmm,,,
...
Santa's not right. There's a problem there, his head is off or his left arm is too big...the problem actually is two fold.
1- This is an instance where if you draw the body correctly it actually harms the overall composition. His head for sure is turned a bit to far and off the actual axis of where his neck should be....BUT putting it 100% correct would have him facing too far to his left and harm the flow of the composition too much for my liking.
AND
2-This is one of those instances where "correct" looks incorrect. There is a sh*t-ton of stuff going on here and it's creating a lot of optical illusions of depth and that is confusing the eye and making some things seem too large even though they are not. That left arm is actually a bit to small, but it LOOKS as big if not bigger than the right arm. ALSO, a lot of the important visual aspects of Santa are blocked by Krampus's arm- the center seam of his jacket, his collar, his neck...IF these things were not obstructed it would make fine visual sense...for the most part.
The long and short of it is - it's a little wrong and looks a lot wrong BUT I don't really care because this is mostly just for fun. It's not part of a comic book story and while I really really REALLY love the composition of this illustration and proud AF of it....I can just reuse it. I can take the basic structure of it an replace Krampus with Voodoo Joe or what have you.
So...to hell with it. It probably looks just fine to most people and that's pretty good!
...
...
yup...good enough...is good enough
...
...
(sweating)
...
...
OKAY...here's what we do...light table the fucker and draw over Santa, modifying him to look more accurate.
THEN, we'll white out the original Santa lines one that are off.
Then we'll put that under the old illustration and light table....no...wait...that won't work. We won't be able to see the new lines through the white out. I should have light tabled it and THEN used the white out only where is was vital.
....
so...
HERE is what we're gonna do. We're gonna "old school" this mutha fucka. and I mean "old school"....like kindergarten. We're gonna scribble a lot of pencil lead onto the back
and line it up just right it on top of the old illustration and drawn over it really hard so the pressure leaves red lead marks onto the white out.
...good...
okay now lets finish this sum bitch!
There...that looks much better, completely different.
I SAID IT LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
You know what...I bet the untrained ear wouldn't know if Beethoven's 5th symphony was off by just a few notes, but it's the accumulation of a thousand little things that...
"are you fucking comparing yourself to Beethoven?!"
Yes...I most certainly am...we are both assholes.
Anyways, I'll let you know what, if anything, I end up doing with this illustration later this week.
***The Arsenic Lullaby Online store has Krampus prints, original artwork and the usual Arsenic Lullaby treasures! Coupon code _humbug- good for 25% off entire order!
https://www.arseniclullabies.com/store/index.php?id_category=17&controller=category&id_lang=1
(if you wanna use steem just lemme know - on discord as - ArsenicLullaby#2207 or email douglaspasz-at--arseniclullabies.com )***
https://www.arseniclullabies.com/store/index.php?id_category=17&controller=category&id_lang=1