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The Highwayman 04

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Project: 4 illustrations for a story, communicating a sense of mood.

Story: The highwayman.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!


Acrylic ink. These were all done in a super rush so I feel they are not my very best work, but the teacher still seemed to like them.

So now the comments I got at crit for this one were that the highwayman looked like a girl. What can I say. Besides the ribbon in the hair, which was the fashion for men at the time, the problem is probably the model I used. I used heavy photo reference of the first "shouting man" I could think of, which was: Paul McGann yelling at the bull from the movie Withnail and I. Paul McGann looks like a chick. I didn't stop to think about this however, and blissfully went on painting his girlie little face. I dunno. Because I know that it's a guy, I don't mind it. I'm interested to see what you guys think.



illustration 1 - Bess
illustration 2 - Tim the Ostler
illustration 3 - Bess bound
illustration 4 - The Highwayman
Image size
720x576px 178.53 KB
© 2007 - 2024 littlecrow
Comments27
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A favorite poem from early childhood and you've interpreted it the way would have liked to. If this is what you can do while you're still in school, I am glad to be a RETIRED artist--I never get a job! All of the illustrations are fine but this one so perfectly captures his rage and despair and the fact you've focused in on his face in closeup instead of depicting the action heightens the intensity of the moment as charged with emotion as some of my beloved Saturday Evening Post illustrators of the golden age of Periodical art.

About the "girly" man, I confess to the same momentary confusion over the ribbon resembling the one Bess was wearing, but the teeth suited a male better. I think your problem might not have been so much your model as little things missing, like a more prominent jawline also a general note regarding anatomy, his face doesn't match his neck: the neck muscles would be taut and straining to pull the jaw down so open--like he was about to have a coronary since his face is so extreme.

One little suggestion if I may, don't lean so heavily on movie stills. Go to Google and request "shouting or screaming men closeups" as images in the search field. not everything that pops up will be useful for your purpose but you'll have a large choice and working ofrm multiple photos, you can see all the anatomy you need to pull a picture together. You've got the whole Internet as a resource (I made do with a scrap morgue that grew into about six legal file cabinets). Don't limit yourself.

I've written at such length because you are good and have even  more potential to be more consistent and you have above all the instincts. I hope I wasn't presumptuous.