Instances of Being

Instances of Being #1 - Jeff Powers ©2011

For over a month, I have been tackling the concept of this new series. I have posted a few early sketches from the development in past Saturday Sketchbooks. After the jump you can see the same sketches plus some of the first attempts at painting. I rethought my technique and how I wanted to convey the idea. This is the final result and will be the first in the Instances of Being series. I will post more of the paintings as I finish them.

After sketching out the idea very roughly in a few sketchbooks, I came up with these two sketches that I think were a step in the direction I wanted for the form of the figure and general composition.

Then I began painting. I abandoned this piece early because there just wasn't the dynamic sense of lighting I wanted. I was using new brushes and painting entirely in Photoshop, while I tend to use Corel Painter when mimicking such traditional methods.

While it may get reworked, I left that piece and tried again. Using a completely different and slightly more linear method. I normally use photoshop for very clean graphic work, such as comics. While making brushes and applying new techniques, I created this iteration. But it still wasn't there.

Leaving the series for a week, I finally came back, new technique and brushes in hand. Finally the piece looked like what I wanted it to look like. The lighting was right, and the brushes were looking like my actual oil work. Surprisingly it all fell together in just a few hours. On to the remainder of the series to see where it goes.
-Jeff Powers