Aerial Home
Sketch & Color Comp

 

Sketch

Doing this sketch, I imagined we were following the last of the butterflies to John's home.  I deliberately broke the text "It was the most amazing, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen." so that it would be on this page, both letting the viewer imagine it for a moment before turning the page, and also to build the anticipation.

 

Color Comp

This is the third of three comps I did for this painting.  The first one, even though it was what I envisioned, wasn't working as subtlety as I wanted.  With the second comp, I started to take the comp in a simpler direction, but still was displeased with the result.  Working on the third, I restrained the background to just soft blues and greens and then as a final step started adding butterflies.  I had intended to put many, many more, but after adding the sixth, I was struck by how simple it was; it reminded me of a calm Japanese painting.  It was the exact chord I was looking for and I decided to try and do the final painting just like this.  

 

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