Progress of my painting "The Gate"

in #art7 years ago (edited)

Yesterday I posted the details about my painting "The Gate" which you can see here:
https://steemit.com/art/@gric/the-gate-acrylics-on-board

I made four scans during the progress so I will show you how it has changed over time.

I struggled quite a lot with this piece. When I look back at the 4 stages I must say 2 is still my favorite. At stage 3 I realized that I was about to mess it up and things got complicated. It's always challenging when a painting is getting worse the more you keep working on it, and the best solution usually is to put it away for a while. Even though I do actually like the end result, I was not able to achieve the subtle atmosphere which I think it had in stage 2.

The inspiration for this painting came from an amazing photo of the Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave I found online. I wanted to see this scenery as an artificial structure, reconquered by nature, carved by erosion. The tornado was not planned, it was a spontaneous idea - without it something was missing.


Untitled-1.jpg


Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

The finished painting:


A slideshow of the progress can be seen here: http://gric.at/gallery/bild266_m.htm


Thanks for upvoting and commenting!

Sort:  

I have to disagree! For me, stage 4 is the best one. It has this duality which I like a lot, between the green vegetation and the beige rocky structures; fertile vs barren; life vs death. It's like an ancient city taken over by wild vegetation as nature claims it back!

In stage 2, it's just the single feeling of cold/winter, there is no complexity. In the final one, the whirlwind is distracting and simplifies the color palette.

I knew on your first post about The Gate that it was going to be amazing, and you did not disappoint. Great work, I love this.

Thank you!

The tornado was a nice twist 😂😂

Awesome stuff like always!

Hammerarbeit - geniale Perspektive -
und die "Feinheiten" sind mal wieder Klasse... :-)
Resteemed

The tornado adds tension to the scene, I also like how you included a figure in the last panel to the right. Just subtle things like that I admire in your work.

I really like your art! :-) Have you tried yourself illustrating science fiction books? Your works associates for me with Stanislaw Lem novels.

I did quite a few cover illustrations over the years, mostly for fantasy novels. But it's not really something I'm interested to do today.

I feel the same. If they can use something of mine, then yeah, I am open to sell copyright to a existing piece. But one never knows - if I am inspired by something I read ....... like if some publisher would ask me to illustrate Lovecraft, for example.

its really awesome,upvoted

Thank you!

Wow! So cool! A lot of details! I love it so much!

Epic art and process.

Hah... interesting that you decided to pivot away from the original idea at the end. I like the sky glow on the finished painting... but somehow wish you kept the trees growing out of the structures. Still brilliant work!