Sunday, August 14, 2011

"The Un-Mad Hatter"

Thomas Frejek is one of my favorite photographers on flickr. He has an amazing eye for interesting images and is blessed with all the photographic skills necessary for capturing them.

Some time back I asked him for permission to create an image from one of his photos of the character, "Tarrant Hightop," otherwise known as the "Mad Hatter" from "Alice in Wonderland," that he had posted at the link below. He graciously agreed to my request, and here we go...

This is my unfinished, and finished, rendition of that photo. It is also my largest acrylic to date, at 30" x 40".

I have been told the background should be completed first, but after messing with it and messing with it, the character took over my head and off I went with him.

In completing the painting I decided to add a touch of yellow to the background which turned it a kind of lime green that really pushed that orange hair off the canvas! The eyes had to be blue and though in photos his eyes look a bit "off," in real life they are spot on!

acrylic on canvas panel

Here's the link to Frejek's image.

4 comments:

  1. You have a wonderful start on this! Don't be afraid of the eyes - you've done hundreds of eyes beautifully, and you will do that with this one, too! nancy

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  2. I think the background needs to be simple to draw attention to the detail and colour in this. Great work Jim...I agree with Nancy you can do the eyes no probs!

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  3. I find those eyes intimidating too - the sooner you paint them in the better! You have done a terrific job so far and you have set things ready for a simple 'light against dark, dark against light' background.

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  4. Nice one Jim! =) Fantastic job for such an iconic character

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