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SciFi & Fantasy Art / Gallery 314 of 1003 / Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel) / Picture 7 of 68 / Cave painting practice

"Cave painting practice" by Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel)

SciFi/Fantasy Picture 7 out of 68 by Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel). ←Previous - Next→

SciFi and Fantasy Art Cave painting practice by Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel)

December 2003 - Chalk pastels on yellow paper - 30cm x 42cm

It's already some time now that I've been planning on a cave paintings series - mainly with dragons. I'm still practicing, especially how to get the right look of the rock-'background'. This is one of those practice pictures. I like it though it's not yet what I'm aiming for.

Update: From here I went in two directions by now:
1. More practice on 'cave painting realism' and
2. Towards my own style of cave painting dragons.

Date	Name	Comment
3 Mar 2004	Elf Ranger	Loading... Really nice. Just a future guide for cave paintings: First of all your colors are good, cave paintings are usually not as sharp and defined, sometimes even blurred. I really like it anyway! Keep it up! Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel) replies: "Hmmm.. Isn't the blurryness usually an effect of the photo taken in the dark cave? Or of the water that ran though the painted rock for thousands of years? But you may be right that it looks more realistic then... I'll try that out as well. "
8 Mar 2004	Elf Ranger	Loading... I don't know about the photo theory, but the cave people used to paint with their fingers... Only later did they use thing such as sticks to give sharper lines. (Hence the invention of the pen!) Just a suggestion, I my self haven't tried that style a lot so i don't feel quite qualified to argue. Just little suggestions... Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel) replies: "Yeah sure they did it with their fingers. But if you paint in such huge dimensions as some cave paintings were the line one finger makes is as sharp as a line of a pen on a normal sized paper nowadays, compared to the whole picture I mean. I looked at several cave painting photos from different caves and was surprised how defined and detailed those animals were drawn. I have a new one finishe that's already much better than this one here. When it's dry I'll upload it right away."
9 Mar 2004	Elf Ranger	Loading... Yes, if the cave painting is big... Than my theory falls to the ground. Can't wait to see the new one!
12 Mar 2004	Polenth Blake	Loading... The overall picture concept and rock textures are good. It reminds me of something sedimentary like sandstone. And it's fine for your own version of cave painting, as you could paint that on a rock with tools. But if you want it to look more prehistoric/finger painted you might want to cut down on the realistic shading. Older paintings tend to shade for colour and pattern of the subject, not light and shade. Outlines tend to be proportionally a little thicker, if there are outlines (they aren't essential). Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel) replies: "Ah! Thank you for that tip! I looked at several cave painting photos but I didn't notice that the shading might not reflect light and shadow but object colours... I'll try that right away with my next attempt!"
13 Mar 2004	Johanna Iso-Järvenpää	Loading... The light suits the purpose very good. It looks as if lit by a torch. The dark edges support the image. About your question, I think you should be more careful with the style. The cave people painted well, but they didn't know any perspective. So, try and make it less three dimensional. BTW, the colours (black as coal, red and brown as earth or blood) are well chosen. I like this idea and wait for more of this series. Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel) replies: "That's good, I was going for that lit-by-a-torch-look. Though I'll first have to practice on rock somewhat more I guess before I turn back to the right light-effects. Heh. It's hard to forget the tricks for three dimensionality that you've been training to archieve for many years... I work on it! "

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'Cave painting practice':

• Created by:

Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel)
• Copyright: ©Esther S. Brendel (Maiden name: Esther S. Wetzel). All rights reserved!

• Keywords: Black, Cave, Chalk, Dragon, Dragons, Painting, Pastels, Red, Rock, Stylized, Yellow
• Categories: Dragons, Drakes, Wyverns, etc
• Techniques: Soft (Chalk) Pastels
• Views: 1696
• Resolution: 422x600

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