Dated 08/11/2012

One of philosophy's most well-known questions: If a fox takes his shoes off in the forest and there is nobody around to sniff his feet, do they make a smell?

There's at least one person who already knows the answer.

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I'd been planning to do a solo Robin Hood picture ever since my first attempt drawing him with Alan-A-Dale earlier in the year - a picture in which I never felt I'd gotten Robin quite right. I actually started this back in August, but it was one of many projects to be delayed for the sake of carrying out the big 2012 upgrade to my website (more details here, for anyone not yet aware of the relaunch).

For whatever reason, I had an absolute nightmare trying to get Robin to look right in this pose. I didn't want him too hunched over, so I had to draw him pulling his foot up into position, but this caused all sorts of difficulties trying to get his arms and hands right, and I never really came to a solution that I was completely satisfied with. I also had a hell of a time getting his head to fit on his shoulders properly. It was always either too big or looked out of joint, and in the end, I basically settled for 'too big' just so that I could move on. Ultimately, my brain ended up reminding me that Robin is a cartoony character, and I can get away with drawing him in a loose, cartoony style.

Something that will probably seem utterly absurd at first glance: I actually couldn't be bothered with the background on this picture. Seriously! I had been working on the picture with a plain green background and was sorely tempted to leave it that way, but I knew deep down that it would work much better if I could go all the way and create a proper 'Sherwood Forest' setting. The trouble is, I'd never done a proper woodland background before and I cocked it up the first time - everything was too low down and it had a weird cold, stark, autumnal look. So I basically had to scrap it and start again, even though by that point, I'd already spent four late-night US-election-radio-update-accompanied hours doing three layers of intricately detailed trees.

*facepalm*

Funnily enough though, that effort was not in vain - I'd gotten as far as painting in the big tree trunk behind Robin and was looking for something to fill the vast amount of space with on the left, when I had the thought of copying some of the old trees from my failed attempt and stretching them out, the distance blur enabling me to get away with such clumsy last-minute resizing. And when I started applying some dark shadows around to give the suggestion of more trees out of frame, the whole thing just suddenly came together with an incredibly natural look - probably some of the best lighting I've ever done.

Not bad for a rescued cockup that I couldn't be arsed with.



Hoping to have more pictures coming up in the next few days, folks, so watch this space!


RRRex