I’ve been following The Tavern of the Thirsty Buck on Instagram for awhile now. I’ve found a lot of the photo shoots they take are a great place for inspiration and reference. While I do not do fanart per se, I nevertheless thought it would be fun to take one of their photos as foundation for a simple project.
Originally I want to basically do a quick study without a lot of embellishment, but as I progressed I realized I wanted to change the time of day to early morning with the sun rising off to the left. And because of its namesake, I added a deer (or buck) to the image.
I’m not entirely happy with the inclusion of the buck, though. As I watching Shadow & Bone on Netflix, the stag in that series influenced elements of the buck here. That all said, there is something off about it that I cannot entirely place.
I cannot entirely pinpoint it, but this image is less dynamic than I would like. I need to spend a bit more time analyzing some of my most recent works as I’m noticing a pattern, especially with images that include more of the body just do not have the same punch and execution as close-ups.
Final 
Color, Final 
Gradient Map 
Values 
Reference, Deer 
Reference, Viking
