New painting sketch – The Invitation

I’d like to update about the new Scholastic biography I’m doing, but I’m waiting for the cover to be released on Amazon before I write a proper blog post about it… Just turned in sketches, and while I wait for comments I had a chance to work on the sketch and color comp for  future painting. So here are some progress shots from this particular piece!

First – I wanted to make a book cover with a portrait… this was the first sketch idea. I was thinking of a satyr-like deer boy hiding from hunters.
I felt it was a little too unoriginal so redrew it and made it more of an ambiguous figure… no longer scared, but maybe himself the hunter, inviting someone into his magic forest world Here’s the sketch of his face:
And here’s the current color comp/sketch:
Lookin forward to putting this on watercolor paper and painting it! In terms of portfolio, I guess this is another one for the gaming crowd/market (for when I have a booth at Gen Con!). Next I need to illustrate a multi-figure piece for the young adult/middle grade market. Maybe some kind of adventure story-esque scene, hmmm…