Witchdoctor. Acrylic and ink on canvas. 23.5" x 23.5"

Witchdoctor, originally uploaded by P Brown.

I had a lot of fun working up this piece. The underpainting was actually another painting I had been working on but that had reached a crossroads......this morning I thought I would take a risk and simply repaint over it. The "Jungles" theme was in the back of my head I guess and this piece was the result.

In my character illustration I am fond of B-movie type scenarios - exotic jungles, mysterious trails, adventurers, evil high priests etc.....in movies where these types of tropes are prevalent, the use of chiaroscuro in the style of lighting is always a wonderful, basic value.The contrasting colours and tones reflect my fondness of this, but the raw non-figurative gestures are different from my polished and clean illustration work....the common links are the traces of drawing style in the shapes. And of course the colour palette...