Justin Gerard

The WAR of the WORLDS

Added 2021-01-25 21:03:23 +0000 UTC

Welcome to the first post in a new series for 2021: Classic Fantasy Fiction BATTLES! This series of paintings will focus on large-scale battles and epic mayhem from some of my favorite moments in classic fantasy fiction. Each image will feature dozens of pre-vis sketches, thumbnails, studies and color comps that I will be sharing with you before diving in. And each will be done live on Twitch thanks to your support.

Speaking of which, if you'd like to tune in to the live kick-off of this series, we will be doing a live reading, full reveal, and starting the traditional drawing and watercolor painting for our first one THIS WEDNESDAY, 5PM EST on Twitch. So... what is our first painting to be???

BATTLE NUMBER ONE: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

It seems fitting to start with one of the all-time classics! And today, I have a LOT of pre-vis work to share with you. I have been slowly tinkering away on this project for several months, trying to find the scene that both captures the essence of the war with the martians, but also the tone of the book overall. I want to find an image that could be both a cover, a poster, or a moment from the book.... and of course, features a moment of epic conflict.

So many ideas to choose from! So many great moments! Several of these comps started out as just a tiny thumbnail in the margins of my copy from high school, while others have just been lingering in my imagination for the last few decades. It's been a ton of fun to finally breathe some life into them. It will be a tough choice for which to go with!

We will be doing the full reveal and kicking things off this Wednesday at 5PM! Hope you will join us for some epic mayhem from classic fantasy fiction!

-jg