The Process of drawing the Queen of Caelum cover by Randy Bugdale.



The Process of drawing the Queen of Caelum cover by Randy Bugdale.

The Queen of Caelum full front cover blue

 

(note from author:  We’re still playing with the cover but for new artists note that Randy’s initials are in the bottom right corner of the cover)

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Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 1

This is an early scan of the left side of the picture. On coloured paper like this, I do a lot of my rough pencil line with a white erasable pencil or a 4H (or both). I start light and generally darken things up when I like how they look. I then start actually blocking in lights and shadows lightly. Where faces are concerned, I always start with the eyes & work outward.

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Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 2

Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 3Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 4

Top Left: Working on skintone  – working in more darks & lights, starting midtones.

Top Right: adding more colours & detail, blending skin tones a bit with clear blender.

Bottom: Starting to add in a bit of throne in order to establish colour values for Danielle’s arm & abdomen that look natural.

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Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 5

Top Left: Working on skintone  – working in more darks & lights, starting midtones.

Top Right: adding more colours & detail, blending skin tones a bit with clear blender.

Bottom: Starting to add in a bit of throne in order to establish colour values for Danielle’s arm & abdomen that look natural.

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Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 8Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 9Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 10Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 11Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 12Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 15

Top Row: I finally remember to add the gold circlet on Danielle. Add-in side-table with pomegranate, apple, candle and crystal decanter to make the space less sterile – the table is a Middle Eastern folding design with a removable silver tray that I thought looked cool and seemed to fit the well-appointed tent idea. Start on Terren’s shirt.
Bottom Row:  Darkening Terren’s shirt and picking out highlights/refining metal. Adding more highlights & shadow to throne/Danielle/side-table etc.

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Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe16Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 17Randy Bugdale's process of drawing Queen of Caelum and Terren Foe 18

In hindsight I probably should have done this on much darker paper,  – the tan paper worked lovely for earth & skin tones, but was problematic for the areas of red & blue – it also was missing contrast with the foreground/Danielle.

I added the suggestion of drapery in the background & lightly blurred it, but it needed  to be a lot darker,… so I scanned the final & digitally masked the background so that I remove/change/darken it altogether if required.

Randy Bugdale

  • To reach Randy contact Dan Watt at mythruin@gmail.com

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