ScottMackayArt.co.uk

Deathtrap Dungeon Fighting Fantasy Map Completed

I have now completed the next Fighting Fantasy map, book number 6 Deathtrap Dungeon .... A3 prints are available to purchase through all good book shops, ahem I mean Ebay or Etsy ;-)

Again, I really enjoyed drawing and painting this one and redrawing my favourite illustrations ... probably the seated Dwarf is my favourite

As normal I have listed and shown each item available to pick up during the book, and number any rooms you can enter ... certainly helps you to complete the book, without giving too much away, plus the A3 maps look great on the wall :-)

Official Fighting Fantasy website: https://www.fightingfantasy.com

Fighting Fantasy Maps

I was absolutely delighted to sign a licence with Fighting Fantasy (Steve Jackson and Sir Ian Livingstone) to produce maps of their books.

To those not in the know, Fighting Fantasy is a series of Choose your own adventures books where the player plays through the book in a nonlinear fashion. Fighting Fantasy differentiated itself from other Choose your own adventure books by introducing dice and stats. The books usually had 400 "entries" and the player had to make a series of decisions and turn to that particular entry .... i.e. "Do you take the left fork in the road turn to 236, or follow the thief and go right, turn to 85".

The books started in 1982 and are still being produced Today! 59 books have been released selling over 20 million copies in total!

So far I have produced maps for the 1st five books; The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, Starship Traveller and the City of Thieves.

I spent ages replaying the books to work out all the paths through the books and identifying all the items you can pick up along the way.

I also redraw the maps multiple times till I am happy with the final draft version. Then on good quality watercolour paper I did the final drawing and paint it with various watercolour layers on top. Finally I scan in the map before working on it digitally to tidy it up and finish it off

My Maps are available to buy through either my Ebay or Etsy page

Official Fighting Fantasy website: https://www.fightingfantasy.com

Westheart Album Cover

I Was delighted to collaborate with the super talented @westheartmusic on the cover for his album "The Space Between Darkness & Light".

Beautiful ambient mindful music, available to stream now.

Head over to https://www.westheart.co.uk/ to listen to the album.

For the painting we discussed ideas about what feelings he wanted to evoke for the cover. After a few sketches and some chat we agreed on the outline.

The original painting was built with up lots and lots of watercolour layers on A5 paper. I then scanned in the painting and worked on it digitally until we were both happy with it.

The Wizards' Library - Recognition

When I started drawing and painting again in May 2019, I certainly didn't expect to get any recognition. But I've been so happy and surprised to get recognition twice for my Wizard's Library painting

Firstly, I entered the painting in a National competition (TALP Open 2020) a few months ago (not really in any hope and certainly not in expectation) and a few weeks later I found it out that the painting was "Highly Commended" and had been selected to be displayed in their virtual gallery of winners. I was super chuffed :-)

Here's a link to the comp TALP Open 2020

I'm quite active on the biggest online art gallery, Deviantart (48 million accounts!). In Early October my Wizard's Library painting was selected for a Daily Deviation (Deviantart select a few paintings every day for this honour). Again I super chuffed and very proud! :-)

Daily Deviation Award

It certainly makes the weeks I took to paint this worthwhile :-)

Painting Hogwarts - Part 2

Okay, with the sky more of less finished, I moved onto Hogwarts itself and the hillside.
I wanted to place lots of artificial lights and moon light to create a contrast between the dark night. I love the contrast between night time and artificial lights, and paintings with flat light do not interest me.
For the dark night colours I mixed up some blue, black and white. I wanted to add the blue, as pure grey wouldn't have been very interesting. To contrast this I used some warm yellow and a little white to create the artificial light and it's affect on it's surroundings.

To paint the dark areas at this point a used just maybe 3 tones of the blue/black mix ... a bit like the cel shading technique. I then used the dry brush technique to add in the warm yellow once the blue/black was dry (the "dry brush" technique is when you have just a little bit of paint on your brush and you even try to rub some of that off with a tissue). Then draw your brush lightly over and over the area till the paint starts to take to the surface and continue till you get the correct amount ... I do love this technique! But you probably want to use an old brush as it can ruin it eventually.

I then moved onto the water. this was done quite quickly with an initial flat all over very dark grey with some blue, then once this dried, I used the dry brush technique again with a large brush and a much lighter version of the base colour (just added some white). to create the "peaks" of the waves which are obviously lighter in colour. I also added the moonlight hitting the water. To create some depth I made the waves bigger as I got more into the foreground.

You can see it is starting to take shape now :-)

Next, it was a lot of tidying up and adding more artificial light sources (to give loads of lovely contrast). I then used the dry brush technique again to show the light hitting the hill side / buildings. I maybe went to town on this a bit much .. but I think it looks okay?

I added some light reflections on the water too (did I mention I love painting light reflections on water :-) ). To do this just add a horizontal line of yellow etc on the "peak" of the wave .. it's a very easy effect and looks pretty good.

To finish the painting I added all the year 1 pupils from Hogwarts (so Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley etc) taking the boats over to Hogwarts with Hagrid.

Again, I added yet more artificial light in their little torches and more reflections of this on the water. Then painted the boats dark blue/grey ... just slightly lighter than the water. Finally, I added the light contrast on the boat edges and the pupils heads ... and it was finished ... apart from signing it :-)

Hope you like it, any C&C welcome.

If you're interested, I have this painting for sale on Etsy.

http://www.ScottMackayArt.co.uk

Painting Hogwarts - Part 1

I've always loved the scene in the 1st Harry Potter film where Hagrid is taking the year 1 kids over to Hogwarts (the 1st time we see it) in the small boats.

I spotted a painting of it recently online and thought I'd have go at my own version.

It's painted on canvas (40x40cm) using acrylic. The canvas was already primed with gesso (can you actually buy a canvas these days that isn't primed?)

I always do an undercoat first. I used to paint a thin yellow undercoat, and then do a pencil drawing of the subject on top. but, I've recently changed to do a rough painting of the subject in a cheap thin acrylic as the under painting. This saves me spending ages doing a pencil drawing on the canvas (and I can proper fret on the pencil drawing on the canvas - hours saved :-)).

Anyways, I blocked in the rough outline of Hogwarts, with clouds and the moon peaking through, and just blocked in the sea as a dark blue - only spent may be 10-15 mins on this stage.

I then set about doing the sky / clouds and moon. For the sky I mixed up some black, blue and a touch of white in a pot. I used a large flat headed brush and did long strokes across the canvas, after a couple of brush widths I then added a touch of white and blue to the mix to lighten the colour slightly as I move down the canvas. Continue to add a touch more white and blue to the mix to lighten a bit as you move down. Sometimes it can create a banding effect (especially if you have added to much white/blue, so that the difference to the previous colour is too much). If the paint is still wet you can fix this by mixing the edge of the "bands" together a bit more. If the paint has dried then I would suggest using the dry brushing technique to blend in the "bands". To dry brush, apply the paint (matching the colour of one of the bands) to an old brush, and then wipe/brush of 95% of the paint of the brush with a tissue. Then initially, lightly stroke the brush over the edge of the bands, and as there becomes less paint on the brush, you can add more pressure to it. Eventually, the bands should disappear as you shade in the edge of the each band.

For the clouds, I mixed up a similar (but lighter colour), mixing wet in wet, and darkening and lightening the clouds - trying to be quite free and see how the clouds start to come alive. Obviously, the clouds are lighter at the top and nearer the moon, but they will have different layers and some will be more prominent which will create different effects. I use the brush strokes to show the shape and structure of the clouds.

To paint the moon behind the clouds / peeking through - I mixed up a very light blue grey and made a rough circle. Where the clouds were thinner I showed some of the moon light getting through the clouds, and for the thicker clouds - no light gets through.

I probably spent an hour getting the clouds / sky / moon right.

Here's the painting at the end of this stage ...

http://www.ScottMackayArt.co.uk

Varnishing a painting

So, an acrylic painting is waterproof once it's dry ... so I wondered what is the point of varnishing it!

After doing some investigation I found there are a good few reasons for varnishing

It protects it from dust, UV rays, yellowing and damage
It provides an even sheen over the entire painting
But the main reason seems to be the lovely gloss finish and how enhances the colours and makes the painting look more like a traditional oil painting

I must admit I love the effect after varnishing, it really makes the colours come to life!

Note: Make sure you take all your photos of your finished painting before applying a gloss layer. Once the gloss varnish has been applied it's nearly impossible to take a photo of the painting without glare. If you're using a matte layer you're probably okay to take photos after varnishing. I only varnish using gloss varnish - as the enhanced colours/sheen of the painting is the main reason I varnish it in the first place.

Note #2: Make sure you leave the painting to dry for at least 24 hrs before applying the varnish! You don't want the paint and varnish to mix together ... although maybe that would create an interesting effect :-)

Note #3: Test out your varnishing technique on some old canvases first before going anywhere near your current work!

I use Windsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic gloss varnish. To be honest, initially it was just the one I bought in my local art shop- but it works really well for me.

Finally, I personally don't use an isolation layer (although many people do), If you want to remove the varnish at a later stage, then you may want to add an isolation layer first. I see it as an extra (and most cost) stage that I don't need.

You'll need a large brush (only to be used for varnishing), a container for pouring the varnish into, somewhere to lay the painting down completely flat for a few hours, and something to place it on i.e. some old cardboard

Give the varnish a gentle shake before using, and pour a little bit of it into your container (I used far too much the first time I tried to varnish a painting).

Dip your brush into the varnish and do some nice broad strokes across the length of the painting to give it a nice even coat, continue down the length of the painting until it's completely covered. Leave it to dry for a couple of hours.

I usually add a second coat of varnish, but make sure you leave 24 hours before adding the second coat. Again, leave it to dry for a couple of hours and then you're done.

Make sure you thoroughly wash out your brush and container - and just keep them for varnish use only.

http://www.ScottMackayArt.co.uk