THE STORY FROM PENCIL DRAWING TO FINISHED WORK
This pencil drawing is very detailed, so detailed in fact I’m always a little amazed at the finished work myself. I must have had the eyesight of a scribe and the patience of a saint.
I certainly doubt if I could ever produce such a painting today. My level of concentration is nothing like it was but of course, I still challenge myself since my skillset is vastly improved. Would I want to spend months on one single work?
I will find out soon enough when I start my last painting of this type in the summer of this year, 2023.
My final Celtic painting will be a grand finale, hopefully.
When I did this work I was almost broke, had a family to feed, and had a book, ÉRINSAGA, to produce, finance, and publish so the pressure was enormous. There is no good way to speed up this kind of art so it took ages but I was determined this would be my ‘masterpiece’.
Of course, that kind of logic is aspirational rather than realistic but I love to challenge myself and this drawing and painting is the result.
Luckily I decided to start immediately rather than hesitate and immersed myself for weeks in the actual paintwork.
Back then I was smart enough to try to record the progress of the work, as much for myself as anyone else.
Believe it or not, I am never sure how I work or produce art since I am usually in a zone of total concentration bordering on the obsessive and this can be very unpredictable so these slides of the progression of the art help me when I forget my modus operandi and get me moving.
Once I am satisfied with the pencil work I start off the hardest bit, rendering the entire work in pen and ink.
I use old Rapidograph and Rotring pens, then as now, and also an ancient set of superb German Graphos nib pens, all filled with black Indian ink.
The one thing I do know is that real ink lasts forever, unlike marker ink which fades if left in sunlight, though I love the more modern Copic fine line pens as my Marvel Comics artists and inker friends use Copic for sheer speed and effect.
Anyway each to their own. Right now I am colouring some work digitally so an artist never stops learning no matter what age.
Once the pen and ink drawing is finished I usually have it photocopied. No scanners or even laser copies back then. So I have huge wads of rolled line photocopies in the attic.
I cannot find the line copy of this work so I am presuming it does not exist. Why this is so I can only surmise. My best guess would be the obvious one, I had these copies made locally near where I lived and this, more obviously personal work, with some nudity, I was perhaps worried the model might be recognized as she was also a local friend of mine.
Anyway suffice it to say I dived straight into the final work, aware of near-impossible printing deadlines for my new book and I had a double-page spread mapped out for it so I got going.
Once I had the pen and ink drawing sprayed with fixative I used a wash to add an overall purple-bluish tone to the back ground.
I recorded some of these in poor light so excuse the less-than-perfect reproduction but you get the idea.
More images as the background tones built up until I was satisfied there was enough bite in it to start adding colour to the painting .
Once the colour work begins I work non-stop for days slowly bringing in new colours but always keeping them slightly muted.
Then once I have it completely painted I get down to detail in all areas but obviously the figures take priority, especially the female central figure of the Morrigan.
The nudity was simply intended to show the power and presence of this very sexual Irish Celtic goddess and her complete control of the men all around her.
She is no victim, she knows her power over men and she knows how to use it.
I have added in a few closeups at the end so you can see the level of detail.
Am I ever satisfied? The answer is ‘sometimes’.
With this work and a few others, I think I have managed to raise my game.
All told I think in my life as an artist I have created a few decent, lasting, and iconic images. I hope this will be added to that list one day.
The Final Artwork
