The brief for this picture was to create an illustration to interpret the idea of strength.

My idea was to use an ogre, a big powerful monster that is infamous for possessing great strength. I was inspired to use a combination of beautiful, glowing light with brute muscle to emphasize a feeling of strength for this illustration. I did this because I wanted to present him not as a monster but as a heroic figure, to show the different sides of strength – it is not only brute force (exterior) but is also inner.

Graphite and PhotoshopCS3, 29 x 40 cm @ 450 dpi

This illustration was drawn with graphite and digital colouring. I love the smooth perfection of digital colouring with the humanity of the drawn line. Here is my initial linework (which was lightboxed from a rough I printed out):

Strength (linework), graphite on Bristol Paper

Here are the early flats stage of my digital colouring:

From this base, I would add textures, colour, blending modes… basically, where the illustration takes me in order to nail the concept.