Amanite drinking absynthe in a cup made of an ammonite
The Amanite is an illustration I've been working on these days, for the Art of Tim Burton's exhibition at the Franz Meyer Museum. It is a mushroom, re-imagined as an elegant old-fashioned lady, drinking some tea in the forest while hearing her favorite radio drama.
Ever wondered how much an illustration changes between its initial conception and the final result? Here's a good example. I've used an anthropomorphic amanita muscaria hallucinogen mushroom as a base for this character.
Once I'm satisfied with the final sketch, it is time to add some color to our amanita. As usual, I scanned the pencil sketch into Photoshop, duplicate the line in a new layer, and then use it as a guide to applying the color in the largest areas.
It is time to work on the character's head. Adding some details and texture. The white spots on amanita's head are really easy to paint since all of them are very irregular, so I just made a lot of handmade shapes distributed around the mushroom's cap.
For this illustration, I intentionally wanted a "natural brush" feeling.For that reason I've used a hard brush, that leaves notorious paint trails all over the body. The more you trace over the same area, becomes darker.
I've used a common leaf picture retouched with a texture paint filter, and then copy paste it to make a frond on the upper side.
At some point, I've noticed the colors were too bright, so I made a few adjustments in tone and saturation. I've also altered the ammonite's hue to differentiate it from amanita's hands.
The final touch is to add a few shadows and lights all over the image. I added a new layer to create the effect of a ray of light illuminating the scene by passing through the leaves. By the way, absinthe does not produce smoke, but somehow I felt it coul