Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor shows how she turned the disappointment of a dropped commission into a haunting and atmospheric work of art
This was the first sketch I sent to the agency – just quick lines. I like red when I’m starting and if there is a sky involved in the image, I love to design the clouds first.
They didn’t like it; they wanted a central piece with the air balloon in the middle. I decided to do a sketch they couldn’t reject with clean lines and a brighter palette.
They liked it, so I started playing with colours, a basic palette, no detail – just trying to get my eyes used to these combinations.
I saved the project away for about two months. One day I was bored and I didn’t want to start anything new, so I grabbed it again, with a plain colour on the background and different lines.
I started with blue and purple, and from there I almost painted everything on the same layer real fast. I kept the line, but it wasn’t working at that moment so I kept it hidden.
I knew that I wanted people walking to an unknown place and I knew that the main character was late. It was about just getting out the woods and going for freedom, or something like that.
The main character is actually just a shape without shadows or light spots. I have problems using light sources, so what I do is to use light wherever I want! I also added some dust.
I had my lines, but they weren’t working. I started playing around with the Hue dialog and for some reason I set the light to maximum. I did some adjustments with Color Balance to finish.