ARTWORK PROCESS: Barong vs. Rangda Book Illustration Cover

This was turned in as my third project in my Illustration100 class. The professor made us draw one science and one fiction from a cup. I drew Galactic Myth.

I do have to admit, I was largely disappointed at the pull. I had never been too much of a fan of astronomy- only at the basic level. I wished I got something related to life science, but tradesies was not an option.

I decided to take the prompt as an opportunity to utilize a technique I was learning in another class, one where you paint on tissue papers- layer and layers- until it becomes thick. Colors peek through and the texture it produces looks so nice. What if I scanned in a collage and just used that as my base?

First though, I needed a thumbnail. I made 12. No approvals. 12 more. No approvals. I tried different mythos- but I really liked the mythology of the Barong and the Rangda. I think I just wanted to draw two figures fighting. I drew one of a giant tearing a planet and that one got approved. I didn't want to do it, so I pressed on with my thumbnails.

About 45 thumbnails later, I finally got one with the Rangda and the Barong to the color palette stage. Lord have mercy.

My professor and I were stuck between the ending two. The colors vibrated wonderfully on both. Due to the colors of the bottom right being like traditional paintings, I rolled with it.

Overall, I really like how it came out! I think it turned out really good for a test. I adore the collage look it has- how you can't quite tell if it's a regular scanned collage or a digital collage. It was really fun researching mythology from Indonesia- one of my mothercountries lol- and having the honor of drawing something based off them! Hopefully the Barong likes the way I rendered them.