Storming the Castle - Sort of

Here’s a shot of my latest painting still in progress, a pure raw rendering with none of the final painting that I do over the rendering. This painting is based on a story that my daughter Lexi is making up. The concept is, and this is always subject to change either by me or Lexi, is that this is the castle of the evil witch. Lexi has just escaped from the castle, running from the highest tower, across a dangerous rope bridge, while being chased by Trolls. She wants the painting to be at the end of the chase, where she has just crossed the bridge, and she wants to be cutting the ropes on the bridge while the Trolls are still running across.

The good news is that the most intricate part is done. Designing the castle was difficult and tedious. But I’m rather pleased, as this raw rendering looks pretty good. The castle looks forbidding enough, I added a blue glow to it. The rock that it sits on is basically a terrain inverted with a smaller rocky terrain on top of it.

The bad news is that I’m struggling with exactly how to display the scene she wants. The rope bridge has to look random and dangerous enough, and I have to be careful of too many patterns, as they eye will catch that quickly. I have to build the terrain that is the other side of the bridge, which will be closest to the camera. Lexi will have to be kneeling down cutting the bridge (with the broom in her hand). I’m worried that her image will not be very big, and hard to see what she is doing. And then there’s the trolls. Well, I don’t want to think about them just yet. Then I need to think about the background, and this is critical as it can't take away from the effect of the castle and cliff it sits on.

This is why my paintings seldom end the way I anticipate they will.