Mist Duel
A scene composed during a study of perspective, I wanted to create something dramatic and mysterious. This would be a work that would utilize both my digital painting techniques as well as my illustration techniques. I have a personal tendency towards “show, don’t tell” storytelling, and art is a perfect vessel of that. The idea of a mythological Japanese folktale scene came to mind, something that someone could imagine when told about a wandering warrior or the events leading up to a fight of destiny. I used real world references of Japanese temples, the main thing in mind being the famous Torii gates of Shinto shrines, and began blocking up basic shapes for the scene.
With the scene now something I could visualize, I began to consider the focus of the piece, the “protagonist” of this story. The idea of the tense buildups to a dramatic fight really appealed to me, so I wanted a low perspective looking past the shoulder of the primary subject. The angle I had in mind is something used quite often in, funnily enough, Wild West films. I imagined the scene to be constructed in a way that mimics the standoff between two gunslingers, both subjects in frame and yet one facing away, and the other facing towards you but in the distance.
With the figure drawn out, I turned my attention back towards the background. I began to paint with the idea that this shrine had a light mist or fog over it, adding to the mysteriousness of the scene. I chose to not draw out the sun itself to add a semblance of otherworldliness to the scene, instead opting to have the sky itself act as an all-consuming light source. It’s in this stage that one can also see I began to consider the placement of the opposing figure to our protagonist, with a shadow obscuring a portion of the stone pathway.
This next step was simple, but likely the most time-consuming part of the process of making this project. I added foliage, which both helped with the emptiness of the scene as well as added more detail that accentuates the lighting. It’s at this point I painted in the second figure, having them walk towards not the primary figure but rather the viewer. In a way, I felt this made them seem more ominous.
It was about time I began to show the protagonist some love, and I fully rendered them out. As I looked upon what I thought would be the finished product, I realized something felt odd about the project. The main character was so, well, illustrated, while the rest of the project was painted in. It took some time to figure that out, but I learnt the importance of consistency in stylizing artwork. I added some inking to help with this fact, and eventually it resulted in the final result.
