"Dead End"

13.5 x 11"

Watercolour on illustration board

(nfs)

Here's another one 'from the vault' so to speak. I painted this back in 2008 and it's one of the few watercolours I've ever done. I mentioned before in the blog that I've always been a big fan of fantasy art, but in recent times I haven't painted all that much in the way of pure fantasy subjects. It was good seeing this one again whilst rummaging through some old artwork the other day, and it has certainly awakened a yearning to get to doing more of this, my bread and butter stuff.

It's always tempting to look at old paintings and think how you would do them differently now. My style, approach, technique (and ability I hope) have evolved over the past few years, and there are plenty of paintings that I'm quite happy to keep closeted away, but this one has stood the test, almost. It's interesting to think how I would do things differently now when looking at older paintings, and if I was painting this again I'd probably want to do it in oils and go for a much darker setting rather than having it flooded with light. That said, the original has the illustrative quality I wanted at the time, and I like how the details of the drawing are preserved by using lighter tones.

It would be good to do some more watercolours this year I think - although I seem to say that about everything! I've got something new on the go just now though so I hope to post that up next.