Post #377854 by Robb Hamel on Sat, May 3, 2008 6:43 PM

My current commission is for the MASTER OF THE VIBRACASTER, the mallet-man of the Tikiyaki Orchestra: Digitiki.

Digitiki asked for a painting of Pele the main mistress of lava. He sent me some reference material to show things that inspired him. I work best by making scribbly thumbnail sketches until I feel the idea is ready.

For two weeks, I worked on a SECRET commission that should be seen at the Hukilau while developing the Pele idea in my free time (the only free time I have to sketch is at red lights, lunch breaks, and when I'm the passenger in a car). These are those accumulated scribbles:

None of them impressed me except this scratchy 1 inch drawing:

It didn't look like much, but here's how it looked in my head:

I emailed the above 3x5 inch drawing to him for approval. He's made some good suggestions for improving it, and I'm working on a refined sketch tonight.

Last night, I did this quick sketch to get a feeling for what the inside of Pele's lair might be like:

I also did what I call a color wedge (an old Hollywood term) to test my paint's ability to work well in this painting. An ugly truth of velvet painting is that many colors turn to a muddy or grey on velvet, not brighter and more beautiful against a black background.

My sketches are very primitive because I budget time on a project like this and it doesn't pay to create ART... I just need to get enough of a feeling for what I'm doing that I feel confident in my my ability to create a beautiful final piece.