A New Style

Of course this style is not new for everyone, it's just new for me. Looking at paintings, posted by some of my distant colleagues at Disney US, inspired me to buy an art book by Hans Bacher, one of the masters of Disney feature animation. The style, clarity, drama and unbelievable skill in every single of his brilliant works blew me away. It probably takes a lifetime of hard work to get there but looking at the results I thought it's worth starting the journey.
I sometimes spend too much time on images that in the end are just medium impressive. To improve the economy of this painting I cut down on less important details and used textured brushes to simulate suface structures. Hours later I found myself biting my fingernails, big wrinkles on my forehead and red eyes. How tough can it be...
Still... after about three hours of pain I ended the war and went to bed. A sober inspection the day after made me believe that I had actually made a step in the right direction and while being miles away from Hans Bacher's work I could still see the experiment as being slightly successful. What I have learned is that the more clear and minimalistic a painting is made the harder it is to hide behind your technique.

Hans Bachers book is called "Dream Worlds: Production Design For Animation" and can be bought here on Amazon.
If you like to have a closer look at his work before buying it, check out his blog.