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Goodnight, Annie. Oh... A story? Sure. Now, let's see...
Well, one summer when I was 14, my mother, your grandma, sent me across the river to collect 5 snail eggs from the Liams'. I only came back with 4. I told her I'd dropped an oar on the way back and in the process of fishing it out of the river, had lost an egg downstream. I knew I'd get into trouble for being clumsy. A snail egg is big enough to feed a family for a night, and our meals had been getting smaller since the war started. But I was 14, and determined to get myself a pet whether or not my parents approved. "And besides," I had thought, "if I'm not allowed a cricket because it's 'too dangerous', then they'd have to be okay with me having a snail - they're harmless." I managed to keep him (I called it 'him', although his species don't have a gender) out of sight in the old ergot sugar shed; overgrown and huddled into a thicket at the back of the property - and rarely visited by anyone but me.
In July of that year the government required that all farming equipment not in use be forfeited to the war effort, ostensibly for recasting into weapons and armour. My father didn't want to give up his old farming equipment, so he determined to put in a crop of mushrooms.
Throwing my backpack to the floor one afternoon after the long walk home from school I heard my parents talking in the kitchen - something exciting had happened "We'll be eating meat for weeks!" "And salt? Do we have enough?" "Well, maybe not, but we'll trade some fresh for a few bags of barley and salt the rest."
I plodded lazily into the kitchen and sat at the bench opposite dad, who was covered in dirt and dust from clearing the bush out back, and for some reason had brought his axe inside. I opened my mouth to ask what all the excitement was about and as I did, an ominous pang went up through me that stopped my voice short. I stared at my dad's axe for second and then in an instant I had thrown myself around the bench and out the kitchen door running full speed for the old sugar shed.
That's how my parents found out about Little, as I named him, and luckily, dad hadn't killed him yet, but only because I arrived just as he was discovered. Another 15 minutes and he might have been killed. My parents (somewhat understandably) thought that a snail had miraculously become trapped in the shed and somehow managed to feed and water itself for a few months.
During the next year (before we were both conscripted) Little and I became good friends - best friends, even. He understood me, and I understood him, and there was never any bad feelings like those that often came between my sisters and parents and I. They say snails are ten times smarter than slaters, but I think they're even smarter. They move slow and so people naturally assume that they think slow, but if you spend time with a snail like I did, you get to know that they're very subtle and complex creatures who can show emotion and understand it well in others.
I think the reason that war cost us so much had something to do with the use of snails as a tactical cannon mount. You can't war-harden snails like you can other animals. They just become nervous and sick. Little went through a round of war-hardening despite everything I could do to convince the colonel that he wouldn't be able to take it. However much I hate to think of it, it's in some ways right that he passed during the war. He wouldn't have been the same snail after that.
... Ah... But here I go again talking about the war... I guess it's about time for lights out anyway, little Annie ... Goodnight dear.
Time-lapse video: youtu.be/vJpq0Vr6qu4
Reference: multiple/varied
Time: ~9 hours
Tools: Wacom Bamboo, Photoshop CS6
There's so much still unfinished, but I've got to force myself to be more efficient with my time by at least cutting myself off at 9(!) hours. I've started doing a few 30 minute 'spitpaints' each day for the last couple of days. Hopefully they'll speed me up a bit.
I've always got a bit of a story in mind when I paint, so I thought I'd write this one down.
As usual, I'd love a short sharp brutal critique if you've got a moment (on the painting and/or the writing).
Joe
Well, one summer when I was 14, my mother, your grandma, sent me across the river to collect 5 snail eggs from the Liams'. I only came back with 4. I told her I'd dropped an oar on the way back and in the process of fishing it out of the river, had lost an egg downstream. I knew I'd get into trouble for being clumsy. A snail egg is big enough to feed a family for a night, and our meals had been getting smaller since the war started. But I was 14, and determined to get myself a pet whether or not my parents approved. "And besides," I had thought, "if I'm not allowed a cricket because it's 'too dangerous', then they'd have to be okay with me having a snail - they're harmless." I managed to keep him (I called it 'him', although his species don't have a gender) out of sight in the old ergot sugar shed; overgrown and huddled into a thicket at the back of the property - and rarely visited by anyone but me.
In July of that year the government required that all farming equipment not in use be forfeited to the war effort, ostensibly for recasting into weapons and armour. My father didn't want to give up his old farming equipment, so he determined to put in a crop of mushrooms.
Throwing my backpack to the floor one afternoon after the long walk home from school I heard my parents talking in the kitchen - something exciting had happened "We'll be eating meat for weeks!" "And salt? Do we have enough?" "Well, maybe not, but we'll trade some fresh for a few bags of barley and salt the rest."
I plodded lazily into the kitchen and sat at the bench opposite dad, who was covered in dirt and dust from clearing the bush out back, and for some reason had brought his axe inside. I opened my mouth to ask what all the excitement was about and as I did, an ominous pang went up through me that stopped my voice short. I stared at my dad's axe for second and then in an instant I had thrown myself around the bench and out the kitchen door running full speed for the old sugar shed.
That's how my parents found out about Little, as I named him, and luckily, dad hadn't killed him yet, but only because I arrived just as he was discovered. Another 15 minutes and he might have been killed. My parents (somewhat understandably) thought that a snail had miraculously become trapped in the shed and somehow managed to feed and water itself for a few months.
During the next year (before we were both conscripted) Little and I became good friends - best friends, even. He understood me, and I understood him, and there was never any bad feelings like those that often came between my sisters and parents and I. They say snails are ten times smarter than slaters, but I think they're even smarter. They move slow and so people naturally assume that they think slow, but if you spend time with a snail like I did, you get to know that they're very subtle and complex creatures who can show emotion and understand it well in others.
I think the reason that war cost us so much had something to do with the use of snails as a tactical cannon mount. You can't war-harden snails like you can other animals. They just become nervous and sick. Little went through a round of war-hardening despite everything I could do to convince the colonel that he wouldn't be able to take it. However much I hate to think of it, it's in some ways right that he passed during the war. He wouldn't have been the same snail after that.
... Ah... But here I go again talking about the war... I guess it's about time for lights out anyway, little Annie ... Goodnight dear.
Time-lapse video: youtu.be/vJpq0Vr6qu4
Reference: multiple/varied
Time: ~9 hours
Tools: Wacom Bamboo, Photoshop CS6
There's so much still unfinished, but I've got to force myself to be more efficient with my time by at least cutting myself off at 9(!) hours. I've started doing a few 30 minute 'spitpaints' each day for the last couple of days. Hopefully they'll speed me up a bit.
I've always got a bit of a story in mind when I paint, so I thought I'd write this one down.
As usual, I'd love a short sharp brutal critique if you've got a moment (on the painting and/or the writing).
Joe
Image size
3840x2160px 741.77 KB
© 2014 - 2024 josephrocca
Comments15
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Joe, this is awesome! How can you improve so fast! Wow! For this critique I'm just going to point out some simple things that you can fix really easily! Firstly, I should say, you did the explosion really well, love how you made the dirt actually look like it's moving, I swear if I saw that, I would think it's real! But the ground, may need improvement, I'm guessing it's dirt, but to me it looks like a carpet (no mean to offend), try making it look like each grain of dirt, try making it look dark, I would give you a tutorial but I couldn't find one 
but I found a reference that could help you with making the dirt look detailed (naturesabundance.files.wordpre… try getting that 'stony' type of look to the dirt, it will look way more better! I also like how you made the backgrounds blurred, but the snail and the boy are in the center of view, saying this is the main thing that you have to focus on, which is great, and I actually have trouble doing that sometimes. The cannon on top of the snail may have to be more detailed try making it higher, around 45-50 degrees, because the snail is falling, so to me the cannon may be falling back too. The snails left eye seems to be missing, where did it go! It's okay to but it into shadow, but try leaving some trace of it eg. (media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736… I know it's joker but it's an example of what I mean I want to see a bit of the eye, but slightly fading away into the shadows. Also nice work with the pattern on the snail shell! It's amazing, with the bright spot and everything, it's beautiful, although I think the shell may need to slant more to the left. Something that really needs work is the person running to the right of my screen, he looks like a stick figure (sorry if I'm going to hard on you) don't rush the picture, rushing will make the piece of art look worse and it won't fit with the rest of the picture, try looking at photos or pictures of people running, try doing a layout for the person to make sure how you want him to look like. Let's say he was fighting, you may want to make some tutorials, put the layout on a rough piece of paper then onto the screen. It helps a lot, I actually used this technique this week, I was drawing character from a comic book, but didn't like how he looked, so I brainstormed his rough layout and it helped me a lot, his anatomy looked fine, and he looked exactly like who I wanted to draw. For positive feed back, I like how you made the main focus the boy and the snail, and the explosion, and of course, your drawings of clothes look amazing now, love the folds and stuff!
All in all Joseph, this is a fab piece of art, some changes here and there but you deserve a 9/10 and maybe a 4/5 Keep up the good work, looking forward to more of it!
but I found a reference that could help you with making the dirt look detailed (naturesabundance.files.wordpre… try getting that 'stony' type of look to the dirt, it will look way more better! I also like how you made the backgrounds blurred, but the snail and the boy are in the center of view, saying this is the main thing that you have to focus on, which is great, and I actually have trouble doing that sometimes. The cannon on top of the snail may have to be more detailed try making it higher, around 45-50 degrees, because the snail is falling, so to me the cannon may be falling back too. The snails left eye seems to be missing, where did it go! It's okay to but it into shadow, but try leaving some trace of it eg. (media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736… I know it's joker but it's an example of what I mean I want to see a bit of the eye, but slightly fading away into the shadows. Also nice work with the pattern on the snail shell! It's amazing, with the bright spot and everything, it's beautiful, although I think the shell may need to slant more to the left. Something that really needs work is the person running to the right of my screen, he looks like a stick figure (sorry if I'm going to hard on you) don't rush the picture, rushing will make the piece of art look worse and it won't fit with the rest of the picture, try looking at photos or pictures of people running, try doing a layout for the person to make sure how you want him to look like. Let's say he was fighting, you may want to make some tutorials, put the layout on a rough piece of paper then onto the screen. It helps a lot, I actually used this technique this week, I was drawing character from a comic book, but didn't like how he looked, so I brainstormed his rough layout and it helped me a lot, his anatomy looked fine, and he looked exactly like who I wanted to draw. For positive feed back, I like how you made the main focus the boy and the snail, and the explosion, and of course, your drawings of clothes look amazing now, love the folds and stuff! ){kind=link}
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All in all Joseph, this is a fab piece of art, some changes here and there but you deserve a 9/10 and maybe a 4/5
Keep up the good work, looking forward to more of it!