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Description
This is just the mask, so this isn't even the brush I'm going to use for the lineart. Kyle Ultimate Pencil Hard is just the one I use typically for slapping down the preliminary structure bc it's a doggedly simple line type; it forces you to not render with the structure.

Again, this is just another update for a close, personal friend.

Notes: I'm not sure if I'm in love with this direction. On one hand, I have a penchant for the "genre" of the tree's lines, which feel more sinuous, like exposed muscle, than fibrous; like it was planted by the King in Yellow and watered with Matthew McConaughey' blood.* Three fourths of the way into this mask, I started hearing 'Cthulu' from Iced Earth www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hzmQ2…

Making the legacy tree gnarled and spooky is one approach, I'm just not certain it's the right choice. I wanted, originally, a fibrous texture to the tree, something akin to a beech trees', but, and this tracks in retrospect, the original reference's rhythm informed the line quality; as did my earnest desire not to make the lines too clean, too smooth. I also kept thinking 'The roots aren't the wriggly bits at the base, they're the whole tree!'; and that made me imagine the tree's chaotic synthesis over time, a mass of roots blindly grasping and clasping together, meshing their parts to form a monolith of chlorophyllin sinew capable of clawing from the dirt and reaching for the open air.' That makes the tree sound like a zombie, granted, but it's a glimpse of my headspace at the time. I constantly kept looping back to this fast-forward image of roots grabbing each other and twisting themselves thicker and thicker until they could climb upwards. That's the more neutral description of the process; and it occurs to me visualizing the process is essential. Thinking about what the roots represent, how they function, informs the feelings which transfer to my hands, and, parenthetically, my lines.

I'm going to try this with a different brush, the wet one I typically use for hair (Kyle's Ultimate Thick 'n' Heavy) and see if I can find some fetching median between spooky and whimsical. Something that presents the chaotic power of the trees nature, but not the violence; more Miyazaki less Sam Raimi.

*www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8o8l…

Description
This is just the mask, so this isn't even the brush I'm going to use for the lineart. Kyle Ultimate Pencil Hard is just the one I use typically for slapping down the preliminary structure bc it's a doggedly simple line type; it forces you to not render with the structure.

Again, this is just another update for a close, personal friend.

Notes: I'm not sure if I'm in love with this direction. On one hand, I have a penchant for the "genre" of the tree's lines, which feel more sinuous, like exposed muscle, than fibrous; like it was planted by the King in Yellow and watered with Matthew McConaughey' blood.* Three fourths of the way into this mask, I started hearing 'Cthulu' from Iced Earth www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hzmQ2…

Making the legacy tree gnarled and spooky is one approach, I'm just not certain it's the right choice. I wanted, originally, a fibrous texture to the tree, something akin to a beech trees', but, and this tracks in retrospect, the original reference's rhythm informed the line quality; as did my earnest desire not to make the lines too clean, too smooth. I also kept thinking 'The roots aren't the wriggly bits at the base, they're the whole tree!'; and that made me imagine the tree's chaotic synthesis over time, a mass of roots blindly grasping and clasping together, meshing their parts to form a monolith of chlorophyllin sinew capable of clawing from the dirt and reaching for the open air.' That makes the tree sound like a zombie, granted, but it's a glimpse of my headspace at the time. I constantly kept looping back to this fast-forward image of roots grabbing each other and twisting themselves thicker and thicker until they could climb upwards. That's the more neutral description of the process; and it occurs to me visualizing the process is essential. Thinking about what the roots represent, how they function, informs the feelings which transfer to my hands, and, parenthetically, my lines.

I'm going to try this with a different brush, the wet one I typically use for hair (Kyle's Ultimate Thick 'n' Heavy) and see if I can find some fetching median between spooky and whimsical. Something that presents the chaotic power of the trees nature, but not the violence; more Miyazaki less Sam Raimi.

*www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8o8l…