Matariel, Font of Life - (concept phase) (Patreon)

This is a painting I've been thinking about on and off for years now. Matariel, Angel of Rain is one of my favorite designs from the series, so I've been looking for a good opportunity to paint it again. The end of the Watchers series has given me the perfect opportunity to take a swing at it.

What's interesting to me about this sketch is how complete it already is. Sometimes I end up making significant changes to poses or proportions after I scan in a drawing. This time, all I ended up doing is flipping it. After only a few minutes of painting the values in, the whole composition is totally clear to me. It's a rare treat :) The last time a piece came out this easily was Azazel, The Fallen Star. Both of them draw on a lot of classical inspiration, so maybe that's a sign I should do more in the vein.

Sometimes when you are looking at an early stage of painting isn't actually as spontaneous as it looks. Most of the time, I end up having a number of false starts and tweaks before I find what I'm looking for. That's largely why I don't like recording that part of the process, it's embarrassing to fail at starting the painting over and over again. In this case, the few brush strokes you see are the entirety of the work up until this point. It doesn't take much to define a scene. Only a few marks will do the trick when the ideas are all clear and present.