The Maxima Ressurected Circus

Probably my proudest piece of my entire program. We were given the assignment to just come up with a look for a poster for something called "Maxima Circus". Apart from a limitation that we couldn't use freaks, we were free to do anything. So, Zombie Circus!!
This was one of my more sophisticated pieces. I mounted the RIVES paper on masonite with matte medium, transfered the art over with tracing paper and a burnt umber pencil crayon. I hit one small snag in my technique, which was only the result of my poor planning. Anyway, I coated the board with a few layers of matte medium to seal my linework, without thinking of what it would do to the first layer of the painting. I did the tonal underpainting in 3 color acrylic, using mostly yellow ochre and a mixture of burnt sienna and diox purple. The washes I was using for the underpainting pooled on the layers of acrylic matte medium, which was kind of undesirable, and meant I'd have to do more layering in oil rather than simply glazing, which I was hoping to do. Anyhow, the stage with the oil was a lot of fun. The background was done mostly in two passes, one for values and the other for details. All the characters have about 3 layers on their outfits and between 3 and 4 on their skin. The ringleader had 4. Afterwards, I splattered the hell out of it (nothing beats oil for the neatness of the splatter) and added the text in on Illustrator. I'm so happy with his this turned out.
Also, while we're at it, Happy International Zombie Month 2010!! Can you believe it's here again already? More zombie goodness to come.