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TereseNielsen — Final Prophecy
Published: 2007-06-27 21:18:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 12877; Favourites: 195; Downloads: 0
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More Star Wars. This is another New Jedi Order cover image done about 3 years ago. This is another example of a cover that had to be created before the book was written. I had a synopsis and "some" character details but it was not really all worked out yet.All painted with acrylic, oil and colored pencil the technique that I tend to use most of the time nowadays.
Enjoy!
*** I have archival PRINTS in stock of many of my works. Please feel free to send a note if there is a particular one that interests you.
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Comments: 35
one of my fav books. mainly cuz it's mostly centeredon tahiri. and i loves me some tahiri.
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I remember this cover! It's cool to see more of your work.
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Nen Yim, Nom Anor / The Prophet, and Tahiri Veila / Riina Kwaad, as I recall? I thought these characters should have been established earlier on in the series, but all the same, I think you did very well given the limited character information. I like this one too, coloured pencils or not.
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amg i actually have this book XD
liked that cover from day one, its really cool
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Very cool. Was it a good read?
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I enjoyed that books... now I find totally by surprise its author
this is awesome!
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Hi!
You've been featured at "99 detailed artwork" in [link] . Thank you!
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It is so nice to see someone way up in the art stratosphere be happy to use coloured pencils! Thank you
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Aren't they the greatest? I'd be hard pressed to render a whole piece with them but by gosh when you want a nice hard line and don't want to deal with mixing a color and working with a saggy brush stroke they're hard to beat!
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*beams*
may I ask you some questions? would you mind? because I tend to work in pencil, and its wonderful to see someone "professional" who praises them!
Do publishers / people like WotC have issues with work containing pencils? I've heard some much negative noise about them being used at a professional level. I love using pencils, I can perfectly happily use watercolour, but pencils are my thing. And I hate the idea that people tell me I *have* to move away from them to get work as a commercial artist.
Do you use your pencils over acrylics? I just love the colours you get. I'd love to get the blues and purples you get in pieces like Excavation (and the colours that John Avon is an absolute master of). Are those blues airbrush? Sorry, please excuse the inquisitiveness! I dont' often get a chance to ask these questions!
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Sorry it took so long to respond.
Regarding using colored pencils at a professional level. That's kind of a tough one to give a good answer to. I think in general they can only be used sparingly. Most professionals don't render start to finish with them. There are a few illustrators that come to mind that combine them with other mediums very effectively. Most everyone knows Drew Struzan the GOD of movie posters. He's a master at the use of all mediums and uses colored pencils in much of his work. C.F. Payne I think also uses colored pencil for some areas of his pieces. The book illustrators Leo and Diane Dillion (I hope I have that right) also have a gorgeous combo. The trick is (I think) using them on top of watercolor or acrylic. If you use colored pencil on a white board and you have those annoying little white holes coming through where the pencil didn't cover or didn't go down into the groves of the illustration board it generally just doesn't look good. I always do a general color wash with acrylic first so I don't have that issue disturbing me.
The blues and purples are sometimes enhanced with glazes of transparent acrylic through an airbrush. You can achieve some rich vibrant color shifts with a few wisps of air. It's easy and has a great look. Then you can go back on top of that and carve out some edges with colored pencils, usually just a little bit lighter shade than the airbrushed colors. They pop out on top nicely if they're a little lighter in value.
So, again, I think colored pencil can be used in professional pieces just fine but generally it's not the primary medium.
Hope that helps just a little.
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Thank you SO much for your wonderful answer! And it makes *sense*! Thank you. I've had so many people just dismiss coloured pencils out of hand, which has never seemed sensible to me - they are so beautiful, and are so lovely to use. But yes, those holes. Coloured pencil pictures never look *quite* professional enough, unless you sweat blood and tears to go over and over and over again, covering all the little imperfections.
But on top of paint ... why the heck hadn't I clicked onto that? It's so obvious when you think about it. I know John Howe does all his grass with pencil over watercolour. I think I'd always just assumed that pencil didnt work properly over most paints. Oh dear. Sometimes I shock even myself with my lack of common sense.
Thank you again, I think you've just given me a real eye-opener for how I can kick myself up a gear and do something properly professional instead of professional-but-not-brilliantly-so.
And its interesting how blues and purples can get so much brighter with airbrushing. One of the John Avon pics I have has the most incredible blue - purple gradient that I've gazed and gazed at for many hours over the last few years. I always hoped that it was his airbrushing talent that gave that result, because I've never managed to get anything similar!
Thank you again for taking the time to write such a lovely answer!
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Yea! You sound inspired and excited. Perfect. Isn't make art the greatest?!!
In all my mucking around with various mediums I've found so many happy accidents in trying things that I didn't know could or should be done that I attempt to never asume there's a right way to do it.
Have fun!
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Wheeeee!
I'm realising the same, that art media are there for you to twist to your own convenience, not to be simply used as prescribed in books. But still, being able to share hard-fought for knowledge is a great thing, so thank you!
And, going off on a random tangent, I tried to take a picture of my cat today. She moved, but you can perfectly see your Excavation on the wall behind:
[link]
Excavation then a print of Whirly Salamander (I can never remember its proper name, I've always called it Whirly Salamander cos that was my first thought when first seeing it *blush*). Then John Avon pics cunningly hidden by the bannisters ...
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It's always such an honor that someone wants to hang my work on their wall. Thank you for showing me!
The salamander piece is called Scalding Salamander.
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oh yes *blush!* I shall try and remember from now on
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jlward had told mi about ur page and how u used both cp's and acrylics, i'm simply amazed of wat u can do with the combination.
i'm a novice wen it comes to painting
but i guess i'm a little advanced wen it some to pencils...but WOW...
this is just...gawd, i can't even say
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Thank you. I enjoy using all the mediums. There are a few tricks I've learned through the years that help the mediums work together. Sometimes the surface gets to slick and the pencils won't stick. If that happens I spray clear gesso or matte medium through the airbrush and it gives me a "toothy" surface to work the pencils over again. There are many funky layers in my paintings... but none of them have fallen apart yet. : )
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lol, well that's good (that they haven't fell apart, cuz i know how that feels
wow, ur relly creative with the meduims u got thenO_o (in awe)
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I do know how it feels. There are still certain mediums I'm not sure how to work with yet. But accidents are oftentimes good. You end up with something that you never expected and can then repeat the process in a future work.
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ah, yes.
i still have yet to try colored pencils and acrylic ...but, i'm still trying to figure out how they'd do, in mi line of work
i'll jsut need to try to see
yeh, u can repeat, if u remember wat u did
don't u hate it wen u do a great piece of work and totally forget wat u did to achieve that?? that's happened to mi too many an occasion
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I love it 
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Nice detail in the zombie guy! He does look absolutely hideous (in a good way). 
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Thanks. The painting/coloring part the favorite part of the process for me.
You know I don't remember what the girl in the centers name is. I never did get to read this one so It didn't stick in my mind.
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Geez, how do u paint that way?
Just another amazing! ^^
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You just try and fit every medium there is on your desk all at once and then stir them all into one painting and that's what you end up with. : )
Thank you.
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Like always, this is another beautiful painting. Thank you for sharing it. I would really be interested in seeing what a single painting looks like as you work your way through the various stages of it's creation. What it looks like after you have finished the pencils, the washes, the opaque acrylic portion, and what it looks like right before you start laying in details with the pencils.
Thanks again for updating your gallery.
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I used to have a few demos up on my website that showed this process for a couple different paintings. I hope to take the time to do that again because I too, love to see what stages and techniques other artists use to develop a piece. Thank you for your interest.
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Hey Terese,
Thanks for replying. I hope you're able to work those process shots into your schedule sometime. It would be great to see. I'd also appreciate it if you could take a moment to explain how you decide that it's time for the picture to move onto the next step in the process. Are there always certain things that you save for specific stages or is it more of an intuitive feel kind of thing where you just go with what feels right at the time. I'm trying to learn if there are principles involved in when you switch from rendering in paint to using some form of pencil or ink.
Thanks again for your time,
John
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Hi John,
Without taking a super long time to describe the process. The first step is almost always washing in basic color that relates to the piece all over the white board/paper. Sort of a watercolor wash approach using acrylics. Then, most often I'll work on the background a bit more so it's about 70% done. I then prefer to go in and start detailing the figure generally starting with the face. I like to know the essence/personality of the character is there or emerging before I spend gobs of time everywhere else. At that point I move back and forth between acrylic, oil, colored pencil and airbrush utilizing each medium to accomplish what it does best. I like colored pencils to carve out shapes and crisp edges. I use oil when I want a nice smooth easy blend. Acrylic can do it but oil is the king. I use airbrush to mist in dark glazes or create light wispy-er areas. The piece just continues in this layering way until the deadline is here or I actually feel like it's done... usually the first. I hope this helps! Thank you.
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