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

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

 

(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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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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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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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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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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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