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TWIN PEAKS making of
You guys! This Saturday is the Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Show in LA. Artwork inspired by Twin Peaks. An amazing list of artists that i feel honored to be showing with, including David Lynch himself! I cant wait to see what that dude does. He designed the SITE for it.
It has been awhile since i did a little making of sort of thing, so let’s do it for the piece that i have submitted to the show! It is called “Concentrating On The J’s”, taken from one of my favorite scenes in the Twin Peaks series. A pleasant forest scene with Agent Cooper and his friends. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and see how it all went!
1. i started out by watching lots of clips and gathering many images from the internet. i love this stage because i get to experience the show again. I also get pretty addicted to reference in a sort of procrastination way.
2. i doodled little thumbnails of the piece and the characters and elements for the painting. just blue pencil on copy paper.
3. i scanned everything and composed it all in photoshop and added rough value ideas. i like to just use the initial doodles all loose like that so i can keep the energy of those dogs. and loose is better so i don’t feel too committed to the renderings. then i printed them out and taped them all together because my printer only prints little normal sheets of paper. you know what i mean.
4. with a hard 4h or 5h pencil i traced the image lightly onto rough watercolor paper. arches probably. pretty loose still.
5. i like to start painting back to front, starting with the background sky because it gives it the basic color mood and makes me feel like i just accomplished a lot of painting. even if it is just a color wash.
6. i do the wash by covering the space with light color and water so the whole surface is wet, then i can touch the colors to the wet spots and the colors run and spread in sweet ways. i really like when there is texture and color variation like this. especially when there are lots of sloppy watermarks…
7. adding the ground, i paint around some areas like characters and main objects. so the colors can be more vibrant with those. and not all yellowy… in this instance.
8. all of the background washes are in there with the characters left out..
9. the back level of trees come next. i just paint simple stripes for those.
10. i dont stay in the lines as you can see. i’m pretty sloppy at this stage. it’s ok because the lines will make everything tighter later anyway. but my paintings are never super tight as it is. it’s how i do things, you guys.
11. all the background trees are in. sweet job.
12. the closer trees are next. so i paint those darker. darker stripes, everyone.
13. there they are. and then i add the basic branches. i wanted it to sort of look like a wallpaper pattern.
14. now that the background colors are all done, i get to do the character and object colors. an enjoyable part. i paint the little dude in the tree like a little cherry. (i know he’s not in this scene in the show. but there he is in this painting anyway.)
15. here are Agent Cooper and his buddies with their loose colors all in there.
16. Ok. time for the linework. i make sure i have the printout there to remind me how i did the lines the first time. (that’s another project in the background. don’t look at that project.)
17. i mix an alizarin and burnt sienna color for my linework. but it varies depending on the object. the bark gets pretty dark with the lines.
18. i go over lines a number of times if the values are sweet. and give an extra thick outline to the characters silhouettes to pop them.
19. after the lines are in, i go back and punch up the values where it is needed. and that’s it!
…and here is the finished painting like a magical spell!
“Concentrating On The J’s”
THE END
So go see the show! there are some amazing artists with work in this show. Daily Dujour and Hi-Fructose did pieces on it. I will not be able to attend unfortunatley, but i highly recommend you go check it out!
AND if you havent seen the GREAT SHOWDOWNS EXHIBITION… you SHOULD. I’ll be painting the CONTEST WINNER SHOWDOWN soon… i’ll let you know how that goes..
Wonderful work.
I love Twin Peaks.
Great stuff as always. You make it seem so easy.
great work! Twin peaks is such an awesome show, I love how you added in the little creepy guy too!
Out of all the (maybe 6-7) images I've seen from this exhibit, yours is by far my favorite.
wow, this is awesome!
Great to see your process, man! Thanks so much :)
Outstanding work as always, sir!
Really nice piece, love the breakdown as well. Twin Peaks is an amazing series
AMAZING! thanks for sharing! I am a process junkie and love your work, so this was coolsville.
I love the image, great post!
The painting and the breakdown are both funny and awesome. Two great tastes that go great together.
P.S. I accidentally looked at the other project in the background. Sorry!
Thanks for all the process pics Scott. It's great to get a glimpse into how you make these awesome images! You are my hero.
I looked at that project. sorry
I absolutely love this!! TP is my favourite show of all time..
also, you make Lucy look a lil bit like Laura Dern in this :)
Please, please print this after the show so I can buy it.
awesome man, thanks for this. Its really great to see how you work.
just out of interest about what gsm paper do you use for these paintings?
This is really great. Has me wanting to try a similar process just to see if I can! Very inspiring :)
Great, just great!
So fun and interesting to see your process–I love the result! (caught you on drawn.ca)
I love this!! Process and completed work -thanks for sharing it all!
i was looking at that side project. sorry.
this is AWESOME, scott! and i love the addition of that really odd little backwards talking guy in the trees. it makes it!
thanks for sharing your brain! "-)
Amazing!!!!^o^Your work makes me feel emotional
Ah dude! this rules! I love when you do process posts! I saved the last one and was totally inspired to try and be like you: http://spinadoodles.blogspot.com/2011/02/eat-your-art-out-2011.html
Thanks for this mini "workshop".
Awesome!
Twin Peaks fan – Illustration fan – perfect marriage. Great work!
Wow! Love this (and love twin peaks) thanks for sharing the process :)
The process is always interesting to see, and the way you work especially. The colors create such awesome atmosphere.
There is a HS Art teacher somewhere that is furious you didn't stretch the paper on a board…
Amazing!
Any chance you'd be interested in selling prints of this?
Fantastic image – the man in the tree is genius
great stuff. lovely to see the process.
Hi, me and my boyfriend really love this picture. You have great talent.
Is it possible to buy it as a poster?
40 x 50cm?
We live in Denmark.
ave a lovely day talented Scott
Kind regards Josefine Lorentzdotter
How, Josefine here again. Please contact me on Lorentzdotter@gmail.com
A wonderful piece! Is either the original or a print available for this painting?
Hi Scott, I discovered your work only recently and I just love it!
Would be curious to see a Black Swan, Blade runner and many more. I'll just wait I guess :)
All the best.
Philippe
id definitely buy a print of this if you made them available… super dooper cool…
-huge TP fan
Fantaaaaastic!
Great Work! with your permission it comes to my blog ;)
Aaaaaah, I missed the original, so please please please make a print of this! It's my favourite scene from the series, and your painting is -perfect-! Can't believe I didn't email the gallery right away…
So coool bro… thanks for sharing!
Dope.
Thank you for sharing your creative process here. I love seeing the painting come together.
I would absolutely buy a print of this if it became available.
I would love it if this were available as a print to purchase!
I can hear my old art teacher now… "Stop painting the whole canvas!"
It's always fun to see an artists process. Thanks for sharing. Huge fan of your work.
oh man what a brilliant post! Makes me want to go paint something too!
Looked great and I remember that little red man!
I love it!! so inspiring
I woul really, REALLY love a print of this awesome painting! Any news on that?
Loved seeing your process. Thanks for posting! I'm inspired now. BTW, I almost met you when you were in Toronto, but you had a guy-groupie speaking to you and I didn't want to interrupt.
I know putting these step-by-steps together is a lot of extra work, but it is just great to have the chance to see your work in development. Many thanks for these posts.
I really enjoy the article post. Will read on…
I have gone through every word you have written here. It gives me a good point of view in a lot of topics now. I’m positive it can do the same for your audience as well.
A great artist is always before his time or behind it.
Chapeau! You’re a great artist. Terrific your last portraits. I find you in Society of Illustrators book.