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Thursday, May 17, 2012

A Tale Of Two Scarecrows


Maybe you've seen this Yellow Brick Road piece on my website. I was working on a post about my process on that illustration, and I happened to run across an early scarecrow sketch that I didn't use. I figured I'd post it and talk about why I didn't use it. Yeah. That oughta use up some space.



So here's the first scarecrow I sketched out. He's cute, right? I was thinking, maybe too cute. Looks like my design was influenced an awful lot by Ray Bolger's character in the MGM movie, which I enjoyed. But the thing about Baum's story is it's not just fun and fantastical. It's a little creepy. So I thought this loveable scarecrow might not be right for the job.



This guy is just right, though. He's cute but he's creepy too. I wouldn't want to run into him in a dark cornfield at night, but there's a sweetness to his smile that I really like. So this is the design I stuck with for the finished piece. 



And here's a quick step-by-step on the scarecrow. After the rough sketch, I cleaned it up in Photoshop and then painted in the color. I'll work on a step-by-step for the whole piece and try to get that up soon. -v



2 comments:

  1. He is a tad on the creepy side. I think it's the vacant stare of his eyes. Kind of a zombie scarecrow, you know?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but he is ostensibly lacking a brain. So the vacant stare works for him. And really, almost anything in tattered clothing, shambling out of a cornfield, looking for brains is going to be terrifying. -v

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