“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.” – Yoda

That quote is incredibly apt when it comes to the journey that I have just taken to a galaxy far far way in order to create my latest artwork ‘Jedi Master Yoda on Dagobah’.

I took a very different approach to this piece than I usually do with my paintings; this time I wanted not to work from a single reference image and fall into the usual trap of becoming a slave to the reference and instead worked from a variety of different ones.

It all began with the drawing!

It was a year and half after completing the drawing that I eventually got around to working on the painting, I have spent a lot of time traversing the regions of Middle-earth since drawing this piece and therefore ended up distracted and working on other pieces.

Here’s a photo showing the reference material that I gathered to aid me in my journey of depicting the scene and also serving as an inspiration (such as the Vanderstelt painting) to help me see it through nicely.

As is my usual custom, I transferred the drawing to canvas using tracing paper and charcoal and then going over the faded linework with a charcoal pencil to get more definition.

Working Out a Colour Palette; Playing the Blues! The Outcome – My Final Colour Palette, the Backbone of the Painting!

The first time that I broke out the paints for this piece, I spent a couple of hours playing the blues, mixing different combinations of colour and working out an overall colour scheme that I felt would work well with the piece I had in mind.

I finally settled on a colour palette and called it my ‘Dagobah Mix’, I’m 100% certain that this mix will become a useful colour scheme again in the future for a nocturne landscape or something similar; it’s definitely a palette that I’ll be keeping in my repertoire.

I love to take work in progress shots of whatever I’m working on, the exclusive place to see these as they are taken is over on my Instagram – @JGloverArt – Follow me on there for the exclusives!

My little model Yoda helped me out in some tight spots with the lighting, mostly on his forehead which can be tricky with all those bumps and crevices, he was definitely a good investment.

This trip to a galaxy far far away was extremely enjoyable and whilst I’ve missed Middle-earth in my time away, I’ll definitely be returning and working on some more Star Wars illustrations in the near future.

This artwork is currently available to buy – Click Here

The Farewell Speech!

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Until next time, farewell!

JGlover