JOURNEY BEHIND THE WIND
Cover illustration for Patricia Wrightson
Occasionally, I'll use a model in the course of painting an illustration. In this case I decided to use a photographer who worked about an hour's drive from my studio. Rather than waste the time traveling, I sent him the preliminary drawing I'd done and told him to duplicate the sketch in a photo.
When he received it, he called to ask, 'Why are you bothering?'
Sometimes I say the same thing! But in retrospect I realized that using the model reassured me that the lighting and proportions of the pose were conceived correctly. Sometimes they are not, and I'm glad for the chance to correct the error.
Occasionally I'm right, and the photo is wrong! Distorted perspective and odd quirks of positioning can sometimes lead an artist astray if he or she follows a photo uncritically.
Additional images from JOURNEY BEHIND THE WIND
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I remember seeing this series when it first came out, but of course I was much more into science fiction than fantasy at the time, and not a little bit snobbish about it.
I did pick up books 1 & 2 in this series not long ago because, well yes, the cover art, but also because the premise of using aboriginal Australian folklore as the basis for a story always intrigued me.
I never noticed the poor woman at the base of the (fairy tornado?)