9.02.2009

The Devil Went Down to Georgia!

The Devil Went down to Georgia, 20"x16", dip pen and wash (sumi ink) on 300lb WC paper




I completed most of this piece at the Illustration Academy this summer. The assignment was given by Chris Payne, and the assignment was 'a conversation'. So, through much processing and ideation song, 'The Devil goes Down to Georgia' by Charlie Daniels came to mind. I was inspired by boss battles I wanted to give it a David and Goliath feel.
The piece is 20"x16" which felt a little daunting, tackling pretty much the entire thing with a dip pen. The washes were added in the end. I wasn't planning on adding ink washes; I wanted to get tone with line, but I felt it appropriate and I think that it helped add a sense of atmosphere in the image.

A goal I had was to pencil in as little as possible. Mostly just to keep the almost endless hatching and drawing fun for me. Because there was no way I was penciling in that beard and tracing it in ink. I got away with only marking in the face, most of the violin and part of the hand. The rest was exploration. It was a blast and Im pretty happy with the result.

Another goal was that I wasn't going to white out my mistakes, and there were ALOT of mistakes. Instead I planned on just scratched them out with a razor. You can see in the detail shot below, I scratched out little Johnny twice. That was scary. He needs to be redone, but he'll do for now.
beeeaaaarrrd. I have one too.
I just realized I forgot the strings on the Devil's violin... I'll be working on that! In the mean time let me know what you think! Thanks!

19 comments:

Theodore Taylor said...

... Crazy.

Jordie Bellaire said...

This is incredible! Everything is about that expression! Gosh! We should totally do a collab sometime together, I love you!

Charlie G. said...

This looks awesome!! This piece turned out so frickin' cool!

Don Coker said...

Very nice, Will!

KATIA WISH said...

Wow, it really developed into a strong piece. It's good you kept working on it.

ernesto said...

dude.. awesome piece.
i love all the different textures you created and how you pushed and pulled different parts of the picture.
i look at this piece and the first thing that grabs me is the beard.. very well done.

Carly said...

I LOVE IT! What a unique idea for the conversation piece!

Sam said...

love the intricacy of the lines. I am very impressed.

Leslie Herman said...

definitely one of the most beautiful and breath-taking of your drawings!

Louise Smythe said...

this

is

AWESOME


also, i didn;t know about the whole razor vs white-out thing... that's pretty cool!

Annika said...

amazing! really creative idea for the assignment, love the devil & atmosphere!

gumkid said...

oh WEOWOW NICE

Unknown said...

this is nice man. love the lines and detail.

Del Rey said...

uuuh this came out soo nice man! sweeet inks

robyn hyzy said...

Wow! This piece turned out awesome!

Really glad you didn't spill a bottle of ink on it...

TheDudeAbides said...

Love it!

Abigail Larson said...

It looks like a good decision to add the ink washes - it adds a lot of luminosity to the foreground - well done!

Will said...

thanks guys! Jordie- lets do it!
Robyn- haha, me too, good one.

Mattias Adolfsson said...

Very cool