I just finished these illustrations for an upcoming issue of America's Civil War Magazine and the art director was kind enough to let me show them right away-- the issue won't be on newsstands until January 2009. The story comes from a Union soldier's diary and was extremely fun to illustrate.
For those of you interested in the process, the finals were executed with acrylic ink and gouache on Strathmore illustration board.
Below are the pencil sketches...
The quick value studies done with markers...
And some of the initial thumbnails (I made them very small here so the text is unreadable-- I don't want to ruin the story)...
And some of the embarrassing reference photos that I shot and gathered with the help of my wife (and my dog). It was really important to me to research everything thoroughly because I wanted the illustration to feel very authentic and believable. What you see here is just a tiny fraction of the research. And believe it or not, these are the least embarrassing of the reference photos...
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13 comments:
Can't wait to pick up the magazine, Charlie - these look great!
this is truly out of control amazing... and you are becoming the master of snow!
Wowzers Charlie!! These are really killer pieces! Great sense of space in all of them, and simple form! Your work always reminds me that a simple value speaks volumes that some laborious rendering can't.
Beautifully done Charlie. Gorgeous drawing.
Charlie! Awesome job man! I see so much that's right, I don't know where to start. :-)
impressive work man!
Amazing work. Really love your blog man. Some really great sequential work. Hope all is well.
-kyle
wow charlie! love it, reminds of some great stuff from the 60s-80s issues of American Heritage. such a great example of narrative illustration! good job!
oh man these look amazing!!!
Charlie:
Let me add my compliments. It's my article you illustrated. I had no idea the folks at the magazine were going this route, illustration-wise (they had originally envisioned this as a 'map-based' piece). Anyway, I'm thrilled they enlisted you. Great job...
Terry
It looks like I'm a few months late to the blog party: Charlie, these are amazing! The composition in '04captured' and '03climbing' are particularly eye-catching, and dramatic- the latter of which is my personal favorite given its singularity, but 'captured' has me coming back because there's so much more going on from character to character.
It's great to see your work again.
Damn, those are some terrific pieces there. Lots of grit and intensity, and the compositions are stunning. Always fun to see sketches and references too. Thanks for letting us all enjoy these... I hope the magazine hires you again real soon!
Truly amazing, wonderful to see the pose work - glad to know I'm not the only fella climbing on tables and photographing odd poses. I'm pretty sure my wife was worried about me the first time she saw it.
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