Dream Island...

For this artwork to be born I had to merge myself with a very dreamy mood. I was thinking about what ever  beautiful the whole time of painting ( about 1 and a half days) and found that this was a way to go into a very festive mood as well , (New Years tomorow!)  :)

This time I went for a new method, and so it started from designin separate props.  I've design Ivan's house, sails, wind-mills, lanterns, "trees"  before going into the whole concept of the Island.

When I was designing his house I tried to bring concepts of nesting-box, Chinese Lantern and incorporate elements from Ivan's design itself, so that the audience gets the feeling of the house  actually is bird's home. Also all the ideas had to flow into a  hand-crafted construct. I imagined, a kid had built it ( you should notice hand prints on the house).

Sails are another element in the island. Here is the variation I used.

These are "trees" a surreal element which adds to the flavour of Dream island, since it's not as logical element ( like sails, wind-mills  or nesting-box).  The design is almost entirely taken from my previous graphics work Pixie.

There were some "touches" to fynalise the composition or direct attention in my  sketch. And today I found the obvious solution wind-mills. It suits the mood, shape and theme perfectly. Also in later stages of animation it will serve as that aditional little element which brings  Island to life.

So as posted previously everything started from composition resolution

 

With this chosen composition a more detailed sketch was resolved.

By starting from background I  roughed in  main shapes.

Then brought all the elements I had worked out before and placed it according to sketch.

Then textures...

Lighting, shadows, layering,  tweaking, ect.

In the second half of the whole painting process my  main concern was to direct attention corectly. Because theres so much happening here, it's so easy to be overwhelmed by fancy style. House should stand out. Also I don't know if I succseded, but didn't want the Island to feel completely flat, rather as i there is a cosy space just in the center.
I'm still not sure if all this is working, because, quite obviously it doesn't follow the rule, less is more :D And who knows, maybe it should...
Island is a symbol of dreams come true so  I tried to make it rich...